Rob V

Review of Howl at the Moon Boston

This is a review for a Friday Night experience, sp...

This is a review for a Friday Night experience, specifically.

If this place just marketed itself as a bar, it'd get 3 stars. Nothing special, but not terrible. Free buffet from 6 to 7:45 (very small selection, but man those fried cheese macaroni balls are delicious), and draft beer priced at what you'd expect in Boston, $6 a pop; decent selection as well. Very little seating though - embarrassingly so. And not that much floor space either. And an OK live band that takes requests.

"Wait... isn't Howl at the Moon supposed to be a piano bar?"

And here is where Howl at the Moon loses a star down to two total. The Howl franchise got its reputation as a chain of dueling piano bars, and markets itself as such as well. Yet, all that I saw on Friday night at the Boston location was a live cover band: guitar, bass, drums, and piano. They took requests, but did just "straight" covers - no banter, and no putting their own twist/style on the songs they played. Oh, and you can't hear the piano, because the guitar, bass, and drums totally overpower the piano.

A dueling piano bar is supposed to have entertainers that can not only play music, but banter with the crowd and make jokes. It's two performers at pianos alternating between each other as the "main" piano, taking turns playing the songs requested by patrons, and putting their own flair on the song. Every once in a while, they might play the drums as well or something, but the focus is on the PIANOs, not the other instruments.

If I wanted to see a live band, I'd go to any other bar - they're not hard to find. Here, I expected a dueling piano bar, and that's not what they offer - at least on Friday nights.