The dueling piano community in Central Florida is all abuzz with the announcement of a new dueling piano bar opening on Church Street in Orlando.   Slated to open later this summer, Baby Grands Dueling Piano Bar is taking over the 6,700-square-feet space that was formerly the Olive Garden…mere steps away from where Howl at the Moon used to be.

Howl at the Moon on Church Street was wildly successful, drawing a steady flow of downtown regulars in the waning years of Church Street Station’s glory days.   I know, because I was one of those regulars, and it was my first exposure to dueling pianos as a concept (my mom suggested that I audition, something I actually did many years later).

Baby Grands is opening in a city not without its share of competitors.  Howl at the Moon operates over 10 locations around the country, and its International Drive venue has been one of the company’s flagship stores for at least six years.  Pat O’Briens in CityWalk and Jellyrolls at Disney Boardwalk also do nightly dueling piano shows.  I’ve also heard there are a few bars in the Lake Mary area that have been experimenting with the format on weekends.

To its advantage, the entire 55 West area of Church Street has slowly been making a comeback in recent months.  The area already boasts 377 of the most centrally located apartments downtown, Amura Sushi, Panchero’s Mexican Grill and Gino’s Pizza & Brew.  Now, in addition to Baby Grands, they’ve announced plans for a new bar called Blend in the old Sharper Image space and Mad Cow Theater is moving into the old Hooter’s space.  And apparently Baby Grands will be be serving food…something that most other dueling piano bars (including Howl at the Moon) do not do.

The question on everyone’s mind is:  who is behind this new venture? The Orlando Business Journal reports that the principals own restaurants, bars and other franchises in Florida, New York and Virginia.

More importantly:  Who’s going to be playing there?   There are a limited number of experienced “A” duelers in town (I’ve met or played with most of them) and without exception, all of them have steady gigs at one of the already-established venues.  Will the new bar be able to attract talent from the other clubs?  We shall see.

One thing is for certain…lips are sealed tight.  If anyone is jumping ship, they’re keeping mum about it.  But I peeked in the space, and build-out has commenced.  Banners are flying in the windows and this week’s “Best of Orlando” issue of the Orlando Weekly featured a 1/4 page color ad for the new club.  Baby is on her way.

Piano bar on tap at 55 West – Orlando Business Journal

Baby Grands Dueling Pianos in Downtown Orlando « Pulse of Central Florida.

So it’s been a couple years since Los Diggaz split up, although Johnny Diggz (that’s me) has been continuing to play solo gigs at the Red Fox Lounge in Winter Park, (filling in for Mark and Lorna) and playing for Howl at the Moon, sadly the core Los Diggaz fans have had no home.

Recently I was talking to a friend about how it seems everyone and their brother is promoting some sort of “reunion” show….and she asked me about Los Diggaz and whether or not Carlos (the LOS of Los Diggaz) and I would ever perform on the same stage again.

Truth be told, I have always wanted to continue the IDEA that we started with Los Diggaz…just without the “Los” part of the equation.

After the break up of Los Diggaz in 2008, I temporarily changed the name on our MySpace page (remember when we all used MySpace?) to Lounge Diggaz.  Since then the name has continued to grow on me.  And with the new name, I decided that instead of a power duo, we needed to become power trio.

(Yes, ladies…there are now three of us.)

I’ll be introducing the new band members soon…as well as hopefully a date for our debut live show.

Yes I know I totally stole that logo from Richard Cheese.  But he totally stole it from Las Vegas….so….

It’s actually just temporary until we get the real new one (hopefully designed by the same genius behind the original Los Diggaz logo…Doug Berger at R3M13D Orlando Graphic Design)

For now you can follow us on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/loungediggaz
Or LIKE us on Facebook:  Lounge Diggaz on Facebook
I’ve also started a blog here: Lounge Diggaz

For the curious, if you want to read about the end days of Los Diggaz…you can check out our no-longer-updated Los Diggaz MySpace Page

I gotta give the full back story to this one:

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to play at Howl at the Moon in Orlando with 3 of the most amazingly talented guys in the dueling piano business.   These guys are true modern day musical vaudevillians.   The two guys in this video combined represent over 25 years of on-stage experience.

It was early in the night…shortly after 8pm..  The 4 of us had already been there since 5:30 for a quick rehearsal, afterwords we ate some Thai food and then came back to an open club with a completely empty room…save for 2 women who said they had tickets to go see the Blue Man Group.

Ken and I sat back as Joe and Brian took the stage and asked the women if they had any requests.

They didn’t.

Then, after some coaxing, one of the women said, timidly, “Do you know Brown Eyed Girl by Bobby McFerrin?”

This what they got: (oh, and they never made it to the Blue Man Group show)

Oh, and in case you can’t make it out, the back of  Joe’s shirt says : (withheldoforpayment)

YouTube – Howl at the Moon Orlando – Joe and Brian Brown Eyed Girl Acapella.

For those of you who just can’t get enough Diggz, here are some upcoming dates you can catch me playing at Howl at the Moon in Orlando:

March
17 Wednesday Happy Hour 6-8pm St. Patrick’s Day!
23 Tuesday 8pm-2am

April
1 Thursday 9pm-2am April Fools Day!
3 Saturday 7:30-2am
5 Monday 8pm-2am My Birthday!

Last Friday at Howl at the Moon in Kansas City, someone requested a song I had never heard of called “Pants on the Ground”.    One of the other players called out the name of the song and half the room went nuts.

Well, apparently it all stems from this clip from American Idol with General Larry Platt singing his song “Pants on the Ground”  (see it while it’s still available)…

YouTube – Pants on the ground.

Another player learned it and performed it the following night (along with some choreography…I was backing him up on drums) and it went over HUGE.  Certainly one of the bigger songs of the night.

Well,  yesterday we got word from Howl at the Moon Corporate that we’re not allowed to perform the song “Pants on the Ground” anymore.  I would have to assume that it would be off limits if someone requests the Jimmy Fallon AS Neil Young’s PARODY of “Pants on the Ground” as well:

It’s censorship, yes.   And despite the fact that  I firmly believe that an individual has the right to play or perform the songs they choose,  I also firmly believe that right also extends to a company.   If they don’t want a song performed it in their club, for whatever reason, that is their decision.  There are thousands of other songs we CAN play.  Let’s not split hairs over this one song…yesterday was, after all, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

But it’s a slippery slope.   What if Google started removing this song from search listings?   What if a law was passed banning public performance this song?   What kind of precedent does this set?

For me, it says one thing…keep my pants off the ground.  Word.

Not too long ago my friend Andrea dragged me into her bedroom…

Wait, that didn’t come out right…let me try again…

Not too long ago, my buddy Dave’s girlfriend, Andrea (who also happens to be my friend as well), dragged me into her bedroom to show me something she had recorded on her DVR.   A performer she had seen on American Idol…one “Lady Gaga”.   Andrea had gone goo goo for Gaga,  and really wanted me to see her…presumably because Andrea knows I appreciate a good entertainer (that’s what I’m sticking with, anyway).

It was a memorable performance, and I remembered it well.  Twice remembered, in fact.  Two times, once before and then a second time after the first time.  Remembrances in all totaling two.

Fast forward.  The year is 2010.   Where is Lady Gaga?    Everywhere.

Amanda Palmer recently held an entire web chat discussing Lady Gaga which culminated in a song which Amanda Palmer called “Gaga, Palmer, Madonna”.

So I finally started learning a Lady Gaga song, a ballad called “Speechless”:

Rob Volpe from Howl at the Moon and The Orlando Show joins the Crew again and talks about Lonely Island’s “I’m On A Boat”, Diggz pranks his Facebook Status, and talks about attending the Hitchens/DeSousa religion debate at UCF and much more.

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 CS 73: Painful and Bloody: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Been really enjoying Stephen Lynch lately. I’ve started working on some piano arrangements of a couple of his tunes, including this one.

Stephen Lynch – If I were Gay.

Rob Volpe from Howl at the Moon stops by to talk about his Internet show, The Orlando Show, his American Idol audition, and the two play a game that Ryan thought would have gone much better.

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 CS 72: The Orlando Show: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PoNuclear Power Plant Operator and all around swell guy Vance Johnson joins the Crew to talk about Submarines, Easter, Water, the Weeds, and Diggz’ decision to quit Howl at the Moon.

Episode 69 Page Link:  http://www.thechannelproject.com/crew-show/2009/9/4/cs-69-easter-rules.html

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 CS 69: Easter Rules: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download