Cousins Dueling Pianos!
The Band!
The Band!
The Band!
WHAT ARE DUELING PIANOS?
Literal dueling pianos can be verified as early as the late 1890s, when ragtime piano players would actually "duel" in an effort to see who could play better and faster. In 1933, when B.H. O'Brien and Charlie Cantrell opened Pat O'Brien's Bar in New Orleans, they included a room where two piano players would entertain the crowd on copper-topped baby grand pianos. Players would take turns singing songs requested by the audience, written on cocktail napkins.
In 1986, a piano bar called Dallas Alley (aka "Alley Cats") opened in Dallas, Texas as an attempt to copy the piano bar style of New Orleans. Players at this club started redefining the style of dueling pianos by playing more contemporary rock and roll music, coupled with humorous bits that involved lyric substitutions and audience participation. These "bits" would become commonplace at many dueling piano clubs over the years, as a staple of the industry. The name of the concept has also evolved to be called "sing-along" since the goal of the players is not generally to work against each other, but rather to gain audience participation with singing and clapping. This is widely accepted as the current incarnation of dueling pianos/sing-along.
-Wikipedia
WHO ARE THE DUELING COUSINS?
Jimmy and Patrick are 2nd cousins on their grandmother's side, and both have played in various original and tribute bands over the years. They decided to try pulling off their own version of Dueling Pianos one night 15 years ago at an Irish Pub in Marina Del Rey (where they had a residency), and had so much fun they have been doing it ever since. Jenna joined the band in 2017, and brings her theater-trained soprano voice and impeccable rhythm to add a female voice to the spectrum, as well as various percussion. She's also become the boss. She MCs/Hosts the shows and performances, does trivia, and expedites live band karaoke when needed. Xenox, who is a longtime friend and former original band mate of Patrick's, joined the group originally as a sub in 2022. But with his recent purchase of an electronic drum kit and having his black belt in technology and programming, he has become a vital part of the group.
Dueling Cousins is well-known for it's one-of-a-kind upright piano shell, which they invented to fit in smaller spaces. But they are even more well known for what they bring to that space. The band has a repertoire of over 2000 songs, which includes all the Vegas-style singalongs, as well as favorite album deep cuts. And the highlight of many shows is when the group attempts to perform song requests they've never tried before! Each member has their own specialty, which pretty much covers the whole spectrum, and guarantees that it will never be the "same show twice"!
The Fun!
The Band!
The Band!
WHAT ARE THEIR SPECIALTIES?
Jimmy has an 80's pop background, and has performed tribute shows for Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The Who, Train, Counting Crows, John Mellencamp, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Billy Joel, U2, Green Day, & REM...so he knows all that stuff pretty well. He loves it when he gets requests for Billy Joel and Elton John, but 80's ballads are especially his jam.
Patrick, being the younger cousin, can pull off a lot of more recent stuff, though his specialty is The Beatles. Patrick has a jazz background, so he is obviously the better piano player of the two. But as far as "Dueling" goes, Patrick let's Jimmy win every now and then to encourage him.
Jenna grew up in the theater and watching strong soundtrack-oriented movies. She has the Swifties covered, as well as many of the current chart hits, and also can dip into the country genre when requested.
Xenox is a master of iconic pop culture songs and also can dig deep into 80s and 90s repertoires.
When performing Dueling Pianos gigs, Jimmy, Patrick, Jenna and Xenox have been able to play upwards of about 90-95% of the song requests, which is pretty high for this kind of thing. Most dueling pianos acts, particularly those in Vegas, play a limited set of "most requested" piano songs, and use pre-recorded tracks. About 20% of the requests dueling cousins play are song they've never tried before.
Having done St. Patrick's day regularly now for over a decade, they can play just about any Irish drinking Song, as well as the hits of The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and The Waterboys.