This place has gone significantly down hill. Â I've gone to Sing Sing about once a year for the last 6 or 7 years. Â When we started going there you couldn't get a seat unless you got there early. Â It was always packed. Â However, each year the crowd seems to get smaller and smaller. Â Crowd is an important component of a piano bar due to the interactive nature of it all. Â I was there last Saturday night (8/4/12) and there was about 20-30 people there. Â Very slow and boring. Â It appears the crowd is no longer allowed up on stage, taking a lot of the interactive fun out of what this place used to be. Â This was likely my last time at Sing Sing. Â Save your $7 and skip this place. Â A real shame because this place was once a lot of fun.
Review Source:Lame. Lame as heck.
The premise seemed kind of fun, but when I got there it did not take long for Sing Sing to disappoint. The $7 cover was way too high for this place, and the drinks were not good. The music the guys played was all stuff from like 1987. Nothing modern, mostly stuff you would hear on Bob FM during the two o'clock hour at work. The medley from Grease was a crowd pleaser I guess.
Part of their schtick is that if a member of your party is having a birthday or wedding or what have you then you can pay to have that person dragged on stage and they will sing a song to them. They were doing dirty versions of well known songs, and there was really only one joke. Â "Hey there Delilah" became "Hey There V****a" and that was the cleverest one. Hope you like 7th grade dirty jokes, because you'll be hearing a lot of them. Mostly ones that you already know from 7th grade.
I would not recommend anybody go. I want my brain cells back.
Came here with a group of girls and didn't have a reservation. We paid the cover, walked in and it was absolutely packed. There was nowhere to even stand. One of our friends was having issues with an expired license and when we found out that not all of us got in, they let us get our $7 cover back without issue.
I recently went with a big group who had reserved about 50 seats. People who were not in the group kept coming in to the reserved area but the staff was very helpful in dealing with the group.
They brew their own beer so do not expect to see any known brands. There are only about 6 beers on top, so if you are more of a light beer drinker you might not be too happy with the beer choices. They also have mixed drinks and wine. The mixed drinks around about $9 and they have a limited number of bottled wines (despite what it says on the menu).
The entertainment was great and I would recommend it for a group outing. But definitely make sure that you have a reservation.
What a great time! Â This place was awesome! Â I wish I lived right down the road, because I could see myself being a regular here.
Honestly, these guys have got some talent, like real talent. Â They can play the piano, sing, play guitar, and the drums. Â Did I mention that they are all pretty hilarious, too. Â I'd easily pay the $7 cover to get in here any day because it really is worth it. Â
I am sure I will be back in no time at all. Â Next time, I am bringing a big group of friends.
Dueling piano bars in Pittsburgh started at Station Square, and they died out. Then when the chain restaurant magnet "waterfront" opened in 2000 the parent company of The Rock Bottom Breweries decided to open Sing Sing in back of The Brewery.
When it first opened it was pretty cool. The very first house band could put on a show that led to standing ovations. I know, I was there. From Stairway to Heaven to Free Bird, Stayin' Alive to She's My Cherry Pie, Elton John to the Boss, they were amazing at sounding like the bands they were covering. Equally incredible were the obscure songs that audience members would shout out, songs only you though you knew, and they would effortlessly sing a good portion of the song, sounding like the band who's song they sung.
But today, Sing Sing seems like it's stuck in the early part of the 21st century. The whole dueling piano, shout out a song to stump the band, Sing us a song you're the piano man has run it's course. I don't hate Sing Sing, but I could never come here more than once a year. It's a been there, done that kind of place.
I've been asked, "What did you do on your birthday, Mel?"
"I went to the dueling piano bar, friends!"
"Also, I went to the Waterfront!"
*blank stares*
Seriously, I know I'm not 21 anymore, and this joint is filled with pretty-in-blinky-stuff bachelorette parties -- not to mention, this place is a hike for a certain downtowner who prefers cabs as her primary source of drunk-night-out transportation... BUT it is SUCH a good time. And it doesn't hurt that it's attached to (and serves) Rock Bottom (beer).
You can't have a birthday party without beer!
OK, so it was just the boyfriend and I, but my main purpose at a place like Sing Sing is trying to stump the piano players. ALMOST HAD 'EM (after a second request to play Extreme's "More Than Words", one of the guys looked up the chords).
(and NO, I did NOT tell anyone it was my birthday)
Yeah, there's an expensive (and lame) cover, but this isn't the type of bar you'll be hanging out in every weekend. Let loose a little this weekend! And brush up on those song dedications and crowd sing-a-longs.
Cheers!
In my opinion, Sing Sing is really not worth it. It gets expensive because you drink, maybe start to sing a few lyrics, drink some more, think of a song you wanna hear, put $5 and title of said song on a piece of paper, you drink, they play it, everyone else is trying to get their songs played so you put $10 on your next sticky note...and so on and so forth. I wasn't really into it when I first got there but as the night went on and lager went in I started to warm up to the place. I feel that if I have to drink in order to have a good time, it's not worth it. But again, that's just me.
The 2 stars are for the piano players, who are entertaining and very talented, and the Rock Bottom brews they serve.
So.Much.Fun!
I WISH I could play a song at the drop of a hat. Too bad I never took piano lessons and I'd probably end up mumbling half the lyrics other than the chorus. Unless it's Salt n' Pepa's Shoop.
This is a really great place to go when you have out of town guests or are looking for a fun place to take someone for a birthday celebration or a fun night out. It's just something different to do other than boozing it up at the bars on a Saturday night.
Keep in mind you'll be paying around a $5-10 cover plus whatever drinks and food you get. The good thing is the food is coming from the attached Rock Bottom Brewery. So a lot of it is restaurant quality good. Plus the brewery beer is actually pretty good! OF course you will be paying restaurant price drinks...so of course they're up charged a bit. But you do pay for the whole experience....so you gotta get into the spirit with some spirits!
The guys who play are incredibly talented. There's 2 guys that will take requests and play songs on the piano. They pretty much play ANYTHING you ask. Contemporary songs, throw back songs, fight songs, rap songs, pop songs. You name it, they play it.
My favorite part is when they switch out to another two guys. They'll all four get on stage and play two piano's, a guitar and drums. They usually rock out with some fun familiar songs (um, Journey, of course!).
The birthday song is seriously the best. They sing to you....and call you some names....with expletives. But in a totally nice way of course. You just have to go!
While we were in Pittsburgh for the Winter Classic on New Years Day, we figured we'd see what the area had to offer for NYE. My wife and I, along with my friend and his girlfriend hit up Sing Sing in Homestead. It's apparently located on what was the site of one of the largest steel mills in the area. When it closed they turned the entire site into a large outdoor shopping and entertainment development. The only remaining artifacts from what once was, were the nine or so original mill smoke stacks still standing at the primary entrance. Pretty cool.
Sing Sing, which is a piano bar, is attached to the Rock Bottom Brewery and serves a selection of RBB's in-house brews and shares a similar menu. There are no TV's, no sports memorabilia (which is rare for this city), and no big booths for large groups. This place is all about being a cabaret with the focus on the musicians. Mind you this isn't a bad thing, just note that if you want a bar, go next door or across the street to Dave and Busters. I'd say Sing Sing holds about 150 people seated.
This particular night they were hosting a (shocker) NYE's party. For $40 bucks a person you got a choice of two entrees (beef tenderloin tips or lemon chicken), veggies, mashed potatoes, one free drink coupon, a midnight champagne toast, and, what turned out to be over four hours of non-stop music. Again... Pretty Cool.
There were three musicians holding down the fort playing more than just piano (drums, electric synth, bass guitar, and apparently I missed the sax). There was plenty of crowd involvement. As in most piano bars you request songs along with a tip. The larger the tip, the better chance of hearing your song you have. I put three requests on a sheet with a 10 and managed to get two played. Their rendition of Toto's Africa was fantastic and surprisingly, my curve ball got hit out of the park when one of the guys actually knew the tune and words to the Theme from TV's "Growing Pains." I was sold from that point on.
I will take this time to note that this is NOT a family friendly joint. I'm not sure if it was 21+ only but I certainly wouldn't bring anyone too young to drive. A good amount of sexual refrences and strong language awaits you.
Drinks were stiff and not horribly overpriced. I think rail mixed drinks were $7.00 and beers were 6 or so (RBB doesn't brew anything I particularly enjoy so I stuck with rum and cokes). All and all my bill wasn't scary and I'm not used to that on Dec 31st. Waitress staff was really nice and incredibly attentive. No complaints there.
The only down side to everything was group seating as you're sitting at 2-top cab tables. It was easily fixed though as the group next to us was up for rearranging tables from side to side to front to back (allowing us to talk and share food/booze etc), also, being a tourist, we had no idea how hard it would be to get a cab in Homestead. Understandably NYE has its issues with cab availability but we had to wait 2.5 hours for a cab because, as we found out, Homestead is a very suburban community right outside of the city and everyone drives.
Ooops!
All and all a good time and someplace I'd certainly return to if for any reason I'd be back in Pittsburgh... as long as I have a car.
Well, the experience did not start well. When we walked in the singing we heard was NOT good. Oy was it not good... Thankfully, it (mostly) improved from there.
So there were 3 piano players rotating out on a half hour basis. So each was on for an hour and off for half. Of the 3, two were really good. Good singers, good piano players, and very funny. The third guy, well, not so much. Piano skills were fine. But his singing was not. When he sang in his range, he wasn't too bad actually, but too often he reached for notes that he couldn't get to or forced things that just weren't going to happen. Often his jokes fell completely flat. Luckily the other two usually did most the talking.
They played a variety of songs as requested by the crowd and would do them in unconventional styles if requested (Closer by NIN as sung by a lounge singer was a highlight). We requested Britney Spears' Toxic cause we thought it would be funny and so they gave it a shot and as luck would have it, it turned out REALLY good. That takes some serious talent to pull off. If they didn't know it (like Toxic) they'd find it and play it. They played a wide variety of stuff.
Part of the experience is based on the crowd. We had a couple larger groups (there on a Thursday night, so smallish group in general) that they interacted with a lot, providing some running jokes and comedy. Of course, that also meant some annoying drunk people feeling like they could take over half the show.
My friends were BIG fans of the super cheap beer specials. $1 drafts from Rock Bottom next door. The waitress wasn't great but it could have been that she was the only one there and the layout isn't that easy to navigate. The bar was generally uncrowded though so getting service there was fast.
If in the Waterfront for a night out, definitely a place to hit and have some fun if you are up for some fun and willing to sit through a couple clunkers of songs/jokes. Having a fun loving group of friends to mock things with when they go off the rails a bit will help make it more fun.
$9.75 for a red bull and vodka? I'm sorry, I thought I was in Pittsburgh, not New York City. Sing Sing, a dueling piano bar, is fun, but it would be a hell of a lot more fun if I could have more than one watered down drink before I warbled my way through "Paradise City" with the rest of the crowd.
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