San Diego: The Shout! House
Posted August 19th, 2008 by Meg
After eating at Ch1ve, we met up with my friend’s friend, who was working as a security bouncer inside the dueling piano bar, The Shout! House. A dueling piano bar typically consists of a stage with two grand pianos, each played by a charismatic and outgoing professional player who is able to both play music and somehow increase the energy of audience. The music that is played is usually popular classic rock and popular music of the time. Interestingly, this format of dueling piano bars originated in late 1986 in Dallas, Texas. The Shout! House is a specific type of dueling piano bar where audience make requests and audience participation, interaction, and sing-a-long are all encouraged. Fortunately, my friend’s friend was able to put us on a guest list and we did not have to pay the ten dollar cover charge. Upon entering, I was immediately reminded of the Los Angeles dueling piano bar, Howl at the Moon. The Shout!
House definitely seems like the place to go with a large group to get really drunk and embarrass yourself and/or others. I was a little sad that I was unable to drink because of the race, but it was still amusing to watch other people drink and do crazy things that I hope I would never do when I am drunk! The pictures included are a part of the night where the pianists ask all the workers of the establishment to come up on the stage (bartenders get up on their bars) and lead everyone through the Time Warp.
We did not stay out too late because I was supposed to be up and moving at 5am so I could make it to the race before the start time of 7am. I fell asleep with practically one eye open at around 11:00pm. I was ¾ nervous and ¼ excited. I woke up repeatedly with different worries each time: going to be late, going to forget something, not going to finish, going to hurt myself, not going to finish, not going to finish, not going, not going to finish, going to be too tired to finish because I keep waking up, etc. Life seemed to be moving faster during these hours and there was no turning back or way to stop it.
The Shout! House
655 4th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 231-6700
Howl at the Moon
1000 Universal Center Dr # 216
Universal City, CA 91608
(818) 755-9970