Go ahead and try to stump the dueling piano players at Ernie Biggs Piano Bar. They double dare you.
"They just specialize in a wide variety, from classics to stuff you think they couldn't play on piano, like hip hop," said Aaron Kenney, the club's General Manager.
The combination of high level musicianship and plenty of laughs has quickly made the club on Rock Road a hit with Wichita audiences. The success shouldn't come as a surprise. Since the first Ernie Biggs was started by a Little Rock businessman in the Arkansas capital a decade ago, four more have been opened in Springfield, Mo.; Branson; Kansas City and Wichita.
The latter seemed like a natural, since the city had been without a dueling piano bar.
"I think this was much needed," Kenney said. "There wasn't a place where you could go out and be entertained with a show and people telling jokes."
Ernie Biggs stations three or four musicians at each of its locations. They perform there three weeks a month, then make a guest appearance at one of the other clubs the other weeks.
Based in Wichita are musical director Matt Kschinki and fellow pianist/singers Paul Bowen and Zach Spakowski. All are fluent on instruments like the guitar, drums and sax as well.
