Howl at the Moon with the best, and the worst of us...

If you live in Boston and you’ve yet to hear about Howl at the Moon (the new dueling piano bar in the financial district), you’ve been living under a rock. For the past couple weeks I’ve been blasted with emails, texts, free admission passes, BuyWithMe coupons, etc…all in the name of promoting this place. So this weekend I checked it out.

I was prepared for a long line and my expectations were right on par – it was around the corner. I went with a small group of girls and one of them asked the bouncer what the best way in was. He said if we went in downstairs, there would be no line and we would be able to go upstairs once inside. Great! 30 seconds later with stars stamped on our hands, we were in.

The scene downstairs was very trendy. Colored lights backlit each section of the bar and the walls were lined with booths offering bottle service. Drinks were reasonably priced – rum and coke for $6, or a filthy, dirty martini (with grey goose) for $9. We later discovered you could order what looked like a scorpion bowl in a bucket for about $26. Seemed like a strange offering for a place with bottle service, but I’ll take it.

We headed upstairs to check out the live music and found ourselves elbow to elbow with entirely too many Bostonians, eager to take part in the hyped up Howl at the Moon experience. The music was great – musicians were on key and on target with their song choices. I found myself singing along to everything they played. However, as much as I wanted to enjoy with piano duality – there were really just too many people to be comfortable in that space for long, so we headed back downstairs.

The lower level picked up with some interesting dance beats (I still have "shots, shots, shot" stuck in my head) – all in all, a lot of fun. The trouble with this place is that everyone in the city wants to be there right now. It didn’t take long for someone to lose their marbles in the bathroom…and near the bar…not so classy, but not surprising either with buckets of booze being offered. We tried to go back upstairs to see if it had cleared out at all, but were told that because we had come in through the downstairs entrance, we couldn’t go back up (turns out, those who stood in line got a "cooler" stamp). I have to say, I was not impressed that we were told we’d be able to get upstairs, and then forced to stay down.

Overall, this place has the potential to be a really great addition to the night life in this city, but not until the hype has died down. I’ll definitely head back for the great tunes and good prices…but not for a few more months.

-Little B