Anyone familiar with the great port on the Great Lake that is Superior will not be surprised that TripAdvisor  recommendations for what to do when you are in Duluth lean heavily toward things having to do with the beautiful surroundings:  The Apostle Islands, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, various state parks and trails.  Folks familiar with general history won’t be surprised that the recommendations include a railroad museum, a logging camp, and an iron ore museum,or that one of the local parks is named for Leif Erikson.  Folks really keen on history might know that when President Calvin Coolidge commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first Norwegian immigrants, he was in Minnesota, and mentioned Leif as the discoverer of North America.  (Sorry, Columbians.  You still get your day in October.)  Folks RIDICULOUSLY into their history and/or History Channel buffs may remember the great Kensington Rune Stones, found by a farmer on the other side of the state, claimed to be left behind by Erikson’s expedition.  Over the years, this has often ben rebuffed as a hoax.  However, current investigations give them a “genuine” rating, so that statue of Erikson in Duluth may just rest on a spot Erikson actually stepped upon.  Maybe.
ANYWAY, enough long tales.  We were there.  In the middle of August.

Because, you know, we get around.

photo courtesy INNduluth.com

Hey kids, looking for something to do this weekend?  Mosey on over (or up, or down) to Rapid City, South Dakota.  Jefrey and Steve will be playing in Main Street Square on Saturday from 7-9pm.  It’s a public event; we’ll be high energy and family friendly.

Get there early or hang out after and enjoy the fountain — like us, it’s interactive!

More information here.

Sometimes word from the road is short and sweet.

“Grand Slam,” said Tyler and Steven of their show in Nebraska on August 15th.

By which they were referring to a bases loaded home run, not a certain restaurant chain’s breakfast special.

Testimonials to come.

After a successful showing last year setting up on home plate (yes…ON home plate), Fun Pianos! by 176 Keys dueling pianos show returns for another fundraiser on September 20.

It is the first of two September Sioux Falls shows, where the popularity of our dueling pianos continues to grow, including 7 December holiday parties, plus several more South Dakota & North Dakota events through March.

More information can be found on this Facebook page.

While a typical 176 Keys Fun Pianos! show would be performed in the round, sometimes we hop in the Way Back Machine and find ourselves in front of plush seats up on a stage with a proscenium and everything.  That’s right, we just used a 25¢ word — “proscenium,” the front part of a stage.  Not to be confused with proboscis, which would be putting our nose in it.  If we had a really long snout, or a trunk.  But to get back to our story…

…we have a good time in an auditorium, too.  The audience still gets up and dances.

And gets down and dances…

…and has a great time, comfy seats and all!

Many thanks to the Rivoli Theatre in Seward, Nebraska.  We had a great time!

Hay, let’s ketchup with some of our recent goings on!

You see what we did there.  Hey.  Hay.  Catch up.  Ketchup.   Hardy har har.  Wait…what are we talking about?  Hay, of course.  What hay?

Nebraska hay.  Atkinson, Nebraska hay.  Celebrated annually at Hay Days.  This year, Thursday, August 16, we were there!  Glad to be a part of the FUN!

Our most recent booking takes us back to Fargo, North Dakota where we have the honor of playing for the Chamber of Commerce and their members on September 25, 2014. Which way will that team of ours head from there?
It’s tough to say…two days later we have shows in Kearney, NE, Abeline TX, Blue Springs MO, and Grand Island NE.
(Ok…we’re not driving from Fargo to Abeline!)

Fun Pianos had a date to kill and fill and ran a sale in our FanMail list of over 5000 members, for the first to book on Monday September 8.

Congratulations to the folks at PRIMA! We are looking forward to being with you in Lincoln, Nebraska in a few weeks!

We’re sending teams to Michigan and Minnesota this weekend.  Everybody is looking forward to FUN in Brighton and Minneapolis, respectively, where we’ll be helping two different happy couples celebrate their marriage.

Not on either guest list?  No worries!  You can join us at any of our Public Shows.  Just check the Upcoming Public Shows list there to the right.  ——>

It’s never too early to book a gig with us.

Got some folks in Minnesota who wanted to be sure they had us for their wedding.  We’re ready.  We’re looking forward to it.

We’ll help them celebrate a June wedding…in 2019.

Take that, wedding planners.

All signs pointed to FUN Monday night in Milwaukee, where George and Matt played for a corporate appreciation dinner.

As usual, folks were on their feet and having a great time — including a gentleman from Alan Thicke’s generation, executing some Robin Thicke dance moves.  (The report did not include whether a Beetlejuice/jailhouse stripe suit was part of the picture.)

We’ll have a different team in Milwaukee this Saturday for another private event.   But if you are in the Minneapolis area Saturday, you can catch Jefrey and Whitney and bust your own moves at the Independent Lifestyles annual fundraiser.  For information, click on the link in the Upcoming Public Shows list, just over there to the right of this post.

Question:  What could you find in Fort Collins, CO last Saturday?

Ty and Matt were the team that played 5,000 feet above sea level.  Well, 4,982′ above sea level…which is good, because of course that helped them stay close to the happy couple, whose heads were in the stars.  (Awwwww….)

We’ll have teams a little closer to the ground next weekend, in Saskatchewan (yup!) and Minnesota.  Here’s to a good week for all of us, no matter what our elevation.

Eldora, you ask?  It’s a city in Hardin County.  In the middle of Iowa.  Their county fair is happening RIGHT NOW, and last night was the coronation ceremony for the 2014 Hardin County Fair Queen.

Congratulations!  (There is the 2013 winner.  We’ll update with the 2014 winner as soon as information is available online.)

How did Hardin continue the celebration?  With a performance from 176 Keys, of course.

The client was happy.  We’d say aw, shucks..but that would be a corny joke.  (You see what we did there?  “Corn(y)”?  “Shuck(s)”?)  Just giving a little humorous tassel.  Erm, hassle.   Really, it sweet.  SUPER SWEET.

😉

We wrapped visits to Minnesota on either side of the 4th, and sent a team to North Dakota as well.  Just before our nation’s birthday, we played in the round for a fundraiser in Baudette.  Just after, we played to 500 from a fixed stage in one state, and to nearly 200 in a country club in another.

As with happens many weeks, we played in various configurations — size of audience, set up of show, even style of show.  (On the long weekend, it was the range from all ages content to mature audiences only.)

Happy Birthday, United States of America.  Diversity.  We get it.

If you are in Baudette, Minnesota tonight, come say hello and join in the fun at the Lakewood Healthcare fundraiser.

On Saturday, you can catch us when we return to Moondance in Walker, Minnesota.  Details here.

What a game today!  Overage time and a fantastic effort from Team USA at the World Cup.

Our teams understand keeping up play to the end of the game.  Four thousand miles away from Brazil, we cover a “pitch” three thousand miles wide.  Last Friday, we had coverage for half the width, from Maine to Iowa.  Three teams delivering mega-interactive request-driven fun, and each one knocked it into the goal.

You might say we scored a hat trick of our own.

U.S. Soccer will have another shot in four years.  You don’t need to wait that long for your dueling pianos fun; contact us now, and have a fabulous fun event as soon as next weekend.

While we prep for gigs in the middle and on the East coast, perhaps you’d like to take a moment and look at our new video (linked below).  If you haven’t seen us perform, it’s a good introduction to what we do, and how we do it better than any other dueling piano experience.

HINT:  Not just FUN, but interactive.

What We Are / Why We Are Different

Nisswa, Minnesota, has a population of 1,971.  Map coordinates are 46º 30’N 94º 17’W.  Has a store called Zaiser’s:  shoes, kitchenware, and kid’s toys.  Frank and Ty were there on Friday — and the Nisswa audience, which included lots of kids, had a blast.

No word on how many dancing shoes were moccasins…

This week, we have not one, but TWO gigs in the only U.S. state whose east and west borders are formed by rivers. (Want a hint? The cities we will be in are Ottumwa and Boyden.) Meanwhile, Jefrey and Steven will be heading up to Carrington, ND. And Sam, George, and Matt will be trucking east — WAY east — to play in Portland, ME.

Which means 176 Keys will hit longitudes from 70ºW to just about 100ºW. That’s a lotta latitude — done with a FUN attitude.

(Still want to know what that state we’re going to twice is? That would be Iowa — about 90º W to 96ºW.)

Last weekend, Ty and Jefrey were in Glenwood, IA, providing the entertainment for a just-wed couple and their guests. Up and on their feet and engaged, they were; as always, a 176 Keys FUN Pianos wedding is about the interaction. You might say that Mills County’s county seat was having a hopping good time thanks to the assembled guests being out of theirs. (Seats, that is.)

Let’s see where the reports come in from this weekend…and what manner of FUN was had….