If you and your friends or family are looking to sing your face off during your next night out in Boston, then there’s one Seaport spot that caters to people of nearly all ages and music tastes.
It’s hard not to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into when you walk into D’s Keys Dueling Pianos and Sing Along since it’s all right there in the name.
“We really want to emphasize because dueling pianos is such a weird coupling of two words,” Co-Managing Partner Robert Morse recently told MassLive about the reason behind the bar’s name.
“Dueling pianos is a misnomer because dueling would indicate that the two piano players are somehow fighting with each other,” Co-Managing Partner Matthew Nichols further explained. “Really, it’s more about working together and the singalong aspect.”
The dueling piano bar at 391 D St., which also inspired the name, is known for giving guests an opportunity to drunkenly sing along to classic hits with the help of a live band. However, the owners of the establishment say people leave with more than just lost voices and hangovers.
“I see people leaning over to other tables and high-fiving people and being excited when this person goes on stage,” Nichols said. “That’s a fun thing for us.”
Nichols, who is also the entertainment director at D’s Keys, runs the show (literally) with Morse. You can often find him on stage playing one of many instruments, such as the piano, drums or bass, while Morse is often behind the bar serving drinks.
However, Morse does get on stage one night a week for his routine performance of “Come Sail Away” by Stix, which he said has attracted ever-changing compliments since the 1990s.
“In the old days, people would come up to me and just be like, ‘Oh my God, that was our high school graduation theme,’” he said. “Now, progress up to 2023, I literally have this gal come to me and she’s like, ‘That is my granddad’s favorite song.’ It’s just funny that it’s still the same song and the crowd still goes nuts for it.”
Morse and Nichols met while they were both working at Point Street Dueling Pianos in Providence, Rhode Island, which closed in 2019, according to WJAR. In 2012, the duo wanted to open a piano bar in Boston because they knew that it would be well received.
“I think every city kind of needs one, you know what I mean, and accepts one. And there just wasn’t one around,” according to Morse, who said a piano bar will stick around if it’s run properly.
“These things, I always say they’re like a roller rink or a country bar,” he added. “Every city needs one, and if you run it correctly It’ll be around forever.”
The duo liked Seaport because the area offered good business opportunities. Despite not being closer to areas with heavier foot-traffic, Nichols said the location is promising because it comes with newer developments like more hotels, parking and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
“We feel like we are in a good spot” said Nichols, who mentioned how some people often refer to D’s Keys as out-of-the-way. “We’re not looking for people to walk by and walk in the door. Usually, people are finding us, and they want to come here.”
“We don’t need to be next to six other bars,” said Morse, adding he considers the piano bar as a destination hangout. “The location is fine because they’re going to come to you anyway.”
According to its owners, people have come to D’s Keys from all around Boston and its suburbs. Some are just spending a night out on the town while others were planning on stopping by.
“We have 70th birthdays. We have 80th birthdays. And then we have 21st birthdays,” Nichols said, commenting on the range of age groups they see at D’s Keys. “Kids say to us like, ‘Oh, I gotta bring my parents here.’ And then the parents are like, ‘I gotta bring my daughter here. She’s 25. She would love this.’”
D’s Keys, which officially opened in August of 2018, was not the first dueling piano bar to come to Boston. The co-owners mentioned how Jake Ivory’s used to call Lansdowne Street home for 15 years before shuttering in the 2000s, according to an article from Boston Restaurant Talk. Additionally, Howl at the Moon in Boston’s Financial District has a piano bar, but the owners of D’s Keys don’t consider it to be dueling pianos.
“If you go, there’s plenty of talented musicians and all, but it really more has just turned into a club with a cover band on stage, whereas we are more about the interaction with guests,” Nichols explained. “We feel like it’s different because it creates a sense of camaraderie and kinship.”
D’s Keys sets itself apart by creating a more interactive experience for guests. Each show starts at 8 p.m. with two out of four piano players taking the stage for the first hour. The two other players swap in during the next hour.
At the top and the bottom of every hour, all four players jump on stage for a band set featuring bass, drums and guitar before going back to just pianos. The players take requests from the audience that are written on slips of paper and sent up to the stage, often with cash. The owners jokingly added that the more cash you send, the higher chance you have of your song getting picked.
Requests include modern hits like “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan and “Love Song” by Taylor Swift, but most requests come from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, according to Nichols, who considers these songs as timeless.
“It never ceases to amaze me that you will get kids who are 20-something and they are just demanding to hear ‘Piano Man’ or ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ or ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’” he said. “It’s wild. But I think it’s great.”
Guests can also cough up more cash to have a funny message written on a glass board behind the stage. The left side of the board has a “regular” phrase that goes up by $1 throughout the night.
Meanwhile, the right side is for the “High Roller” phrase, which starts at $20 and can go higher depending on how badly someone wants to write an embarrassing message about their friend. You can also embarrass your loved ones by making them spin the “Wheel of Destiny.”
The wheel features several dares, such as giving a lap dance, throwing a rubber chicken through a hula hoop while blindfolded or strapping a box with ping bong balls inside around your waste and having to shake them out. That challenge is appropriately called “Junk in the Trunk.”
When you get off stage from shaking your rear, you can order more drinks or a hot dog to help you refuel before singing some more. While it’s still in the works, the owners are planning to open a sit-down restaurant right next door to D’s Keys with breakfast, lunch and dinner options.
But until that opens, you can order delivery to the bar if you’re craving pizza or tacos. All Morse and Nichols want is for folks to sit down, stay a while and soak up or take part in the shenanigans.
“We just want to have fun,” Nichols said. “We want everyone to feel good about being here together.”
D’s Keys, at 391 D St in Boston, is open Thursday through Sunday, with doors opening at 7 p.m. The bar takes reservations from 7-9 p.m. on Fridays and from 7-8 p.m. on Saturdays.
The reservation ensures you have a table and service while you’re watching the show, which sometimes goes until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
However, you don’t need a reservation to stop by and enjoy live music. Anyone who walks in and pays the $10 cover can stand in the back by the bar or snag a table if it’s open.
Reservations can be made online or by calling D’s Keys at 617-531-0707.
