Nick Milleson was the kid who liked piano lessons. He even asked for lessons, after his parents got a piano when he was just 6 or 7 years old.
Two decades later, those lessons are paying off as Milleson performs in the "rock 'n' roll dueling pianos" show at the Shout! House bar in downtown Minneapolis.
"I don't foresee myself having a better job," said Milleson, 26, who has been at the Shout! House since it opened six years ago. "It's never a grind to go into work." The crowd is different every night, Milleson said, and so is the show, which is driven by audience requests. The challenge of learning to play and sing hundreds of songs and performing any of them on the spot keeps it interesting. The show involves two piano player/singers squaring off at face-to-face grand pianos. When they're not playing, they're joking with bar patrons and each other. Audience participation, with sing-along and clap-along numbers, also plays a big part.
The one downside is that Milleson's schedule, working nights Tuesdays through Saturdays. Getting up for early classes — he's studying mechanical engineering — isn't fun.
Neither is working opposite hours from his wife, who is a teacher. Then again, he met her at Shout! when she was among a group of early regulars there
Milleson began playing professionally seven years ago. He was working as a tow truck driver and studying at the University of Minnesota when he answered an ad looking for a piano player and singer at Axel's Bonfire restaurants.
Three and out with Shout! House's Nick Milleson
- How many songs do you know?
Completely memorized without having to look up the lyrics, probably 400 or 500. If I can look at the lyrics, it's probably up toward 1,000.
- Do you get weird requests?
In our break room we have our Wall of Shame, covered with ridiculous requests, 100 or 150 of them: "I Will Survive," by Urethra Franklin, "Moondance," by Van Halen, "American Pie," by the Beatles.
