Business & Tech
Night Out: Tickling The Ivories
Pikey's Pub provides the piano bar experience in an Irish pub setting every Saturday night.
It is a Saturday night at Pikey's Pub. The speakers are booming and the bar is packed. Just before 8 p.m., the stereo is silenced, and a scruff 30-something male in a button-up makes his way to a spotlit piano. An instrumental melody fills the air. The Irish pub is all ears.
Presented by LA Uptown Events, Piano Night at Pikey's launched on Saturday, July 17, and has been growing in popularity ever since, according to the promotional company's owner, Jesse Nicassio.
"Agoura Hills needed something else for entertainment," said Nicassio, who has served as a patron of piano bars in a number of different states. "A piano night fits perfect in this city. It's interactive, but kick-back, and the people in Agoura appreciate this type of entertainment."
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Customers at Pikey's Piano Night received a complimentary glass of wine with dinner, followed by 31-year-old Aaron Barnhart at the piano.
"The dinner crowd is mellow and appreciative and they want to listen and are very receptive," Barnhart said from an upright piano, tucked in the corner of the pub. "Later, I turn up the volume and play more rock."
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If left to his own devices, Barnhart would fill the night with classic rock—the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. He encourages customers to dance and sing along.
Barnhart has been playing the piano since he was 4 years old and has brought his talent to the pub for a uniquely Agoura Hills experience. Primarily a teacher and composer of his own music, Barnhart finds a certain calm in performing at Pikey's.
"This place is cool, because the energy is good and people are down to listen," Barnhart said, sitting at a piano dressed in sticky notes and miniature golf pencils. "I don't feel the pressure to be that piano bar guy."
A piano and music technology teacher at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles in his spare time, Barnhart tries to learn 20 to 30 new songs per week, he said, but admitted that he was thrown for a loop when someone asked him to play Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on his first night at the pub.
"He is great—an amazing piano player and singer," said Nicassio. "He works with the crowd very well and has the look that makes him a great fit for the Piano Night."
Piano Night at Pikey's ends at midnight and will continue every Saturday beginning at 8 p.m.