Ernie Biggs

Went with a group of twelve and had a great time. Got there early (8:30 pm). Prices were very reasonable wait staff was average but I blame the bartenders they seemed slow which hampered the waitress to get drinks out faster. Business did pick up around 10:30pm. 2 Stars for bartenders 4 stars for waitress, 5 stars for the entertainment. We will go back again, thank you for the hospitality! Look for some attentive bartenders or take away the TV!

This is a great place to go worth a group of friends. They take requests and interact with everyone. Good times and laughs for all.

I have to be completely honest, I’m not usually into piano bars. However, a couple of my good friends in Springfield are regulars at this particular Ernie Biggs and generally enjoy our being there when we visit. And I have to say, I really like this place. The first time I stopped in was back in the spring. We had a large party on a busy night, but we were all able to sit together despite the large crowd. There are always drink specials and it seems that drinking here is pretty cheap on regular too. The second time I visited was Halloween, and that was just fun. My only experience at piano bars before this was in college. I always found them to be a bit uncomfortable. Mediocre piano versions of any genre of music. Usually some pretty bad jokes and sad attempts at getting the crowd involved. I just learned to avoid these establishments. Ernie Biggs Springfield though, is totally different. Great pianist who are actually personable and funny. They seem to be able to play just about anything well (key word there), and the crowd is responsive. I always find myself clapping and singing along. Both times we have been we have requested songs, which are generally put in tip order (bigger tips get first play), which does make since. I also enjoy there mirror game; we have always gotten involved there too. Real musicians, Real fun, and cheap drinks… enough said!

You know what? I give dueling piano bars a lot of shit, but every single time I’ve been to the Springfield’s outpost of the Ernie Biggs chain, I have a fantastic time. I can see why my friends who live here love to visit.
You have to be in a certain mood to visit this type of establishment, to be sure. There’s gonna be a lot of banter, a lot of half played songs, and a lot of attempts at getting the crowd to participate. When the place is slow, this can be embarrassing, but as the night progresses, a groove is found and it’s one hell of an entertaining show.
It helps that in terms of talent, this location’s bench is deep. My two favorites 1) are a guy that looks like Jack Black who is hilarious and I think should be my best friend, and 2) a skinny fella that went to frickin JUILLIARD and is just brilliant on the piano. Throw in a surprisingly deadpan drummer, and the stage is set for a good night. Their bread and butter is in requests, and when I felt it necessary to play «stump the musician» with a request of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, they grinned and bore it. It was a pretty good rendition, too!
Drinks are affordable, and the crowd is an entertaining and eclectic mix. I wholeheartedly approve.

We went to Ernie Biggs for a 21^st Birthday. We got there around 10 and it was fairly empty. There were several groups there already but it wasn’t hard to find tables enough for our large group. The atmosphere was dark with mirrors at the stage where the pianist were doing their thing. They were great up there. They knew how to work the crowd and took requests with a little $$$ encouragement. They did a special song for my sisters bday when we requested it and even got involved in being a part of her celebrating her birthday on stage. As the night went on, it did start to get a bit more crowded but there was never a time I thought it was packed. The drinks at the bar were great and reasonable for a piano bar. They workers were very friendly offering drinks, to help move tables/​chairs, and just chatting with us! We really enjoyed our evening at Ernie Bigg’s and so did the 21 year old… 22 shots later…

So cheesy… but so amazingly fun! I hate the idea of going, but I always leave having a great time!

Don’t come here for the beer selection (you have 5 choices, bud light, miller light, coors light, killians, and budweiser), but the entertainment is great!

LOVE this place! The variety of music is great and the piano players are hilarious. If you’re lucky, the skinny redhead will be there so you can get some saxaphone «jams» as well!
It can get hella busy on the weekends though which means it gets pretty packed. If you want a seat/​table, then make sure to get there early enough.

Went on a very slow night. We were 6 of only 12 or so people in there. The guys on the pianos asked if we wanted to do karaōke. It was great! Nice bartenders.
Only complaint is they let a girl get on stage and play her own original music on stage at the piano and it brought the fun down. ALOT. Thank goodness she didn’t play/​sing her stuff for very long.

I lived in Springfield for undergrad: This place is amazing!
I currently live on the east coast and if you come from any other place in the world, you will love this place for the alcohol prices alone. If you are from the mid-​west though this place is great for everything.
Great beer prices (go on Tuesday or Wednesday for the best ones), Great entertainment (The piano players know almost any song, and the people are fun), and a great atmosphere (college and post college alike).
I LOVE THIS PLACE.

YES!!! I love this place! I do not think it’s worth it to go when they charge cover as that it will be loud, busy, and you’ll get your drinks sometime around a half hour after you’ve ordered them and by then your server will probably hand you the wrong one. This is the kind of place where you’ll walk into your appropriately assigned restroom and find the opposite sex either using the toilet openly or barfing on the floor.
Charm.
Thursday night is a good time to go. It could get a little wild on some Thursdays, but you won’t pay cover and you’ll get served in a decent amount of time. Don’t be cheap with the entertainment! If you want your song played, you gotta put a little more than NOTHING with the request to hear to the whole thing. More money = quickly honored requests.
If you don’t mind getting sexually embarrassed, go on your birthday.

If you like big, loud and crowded this is the place for you. Always a party, always people to meet, great staff and solid atmosphere. It will be sticky and smokey by 10:30, so buyer beware. There are many, many places to listen to live music in 417 land, but this is the only place where you can give someone $ 5 to hear a white middle aged man sing ‘baby got back’

Oh how I love Ernie Biggs! I celebrated my last birthday there and they had me get up on stage and sang a special birthday song. It’s a great atmosphere that really makes you feel at home. Everyone is at ease and the pianists are amazing! They can play anything you throw at them. One of my Springfield faves!

I Diggs Ernie Biggs
I’ve only lived in Springfield now for 3 months and I always enjoy exploring and experiencing new businesses. I moved near National and Elm about a month ago and since then I have wandered the streets a few times to see what I could find.
One Tuesday evening I walked downtown and started at Trolley’s Downtown Bar & Grill. That place was a sardine can, packed wall to wall with college kids. They had domestic bottle specials going so I pulled up to the crowded bar and got a bucket of Select, 5 bottles for $ 5. While sitting there I had a conversation with the little cutie beside me and she mentioned Biggs was doing karaōke. I thought that was odd knowing it was a dueling piano bar. I am a huge karaōke junkie and had to go check it out. I showed up at midnight and the place was busy and borderline packed, but there were still some open tables and room to move around.
I agree with the other reviewers, here we are even a year later since most of their reviews and the staff and environment remains friendly and inviting. Now, their karaōke is not true karaōke in the sense of having a monitor with lyrics… Biggs has what they call keyboard karaōke where their boys on piano and drums play for you, but I found I liked it a lot better. One exception, it is best that you have the lyrics memorized versus trying to look over the piano player’s shoulder, squinting, trying to read the lyrics on his laptop computer (if they have the lyrics).
Anyway, I have a few songs memorized and asked if they knew Garth Brooks The Dance, Billy Joel She’s Got A Way, Big and Rich Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy, and Augustana Boston. They are batting 3 for 4, they knew them all except for Augustana’s Boston, which really surprised me because that is a beautiful piano song.
I had a few drinks in me and managed to forget the tail end of The Dance but the guy on the piano was awesome and redirected the music to the chorus and ended it after that. They are musically talented and they have to be to work with us fools up there drunkenly singing.
I since went back a second Tuesday and got there earlier at about 9pm. That night was dead, crowd wise, but it picked up some around midnight and honestly it was just about right in my taste in terms of how crowded it was, so no complaints.
I give Biggs 5 out of 5 on the eye candy scale. There were some real little cuties in there and not shy to show they are having a good time, I took some pics with one of the hot waitresses, but I look like crap so I need to crop myself out before I post it.
I agree with Monika that this piano bar does not quite measure up to others I have seen in Fort Walton Beach, Chicago, and San Diego but still, for Springfield it is a very nice place to go and have a good time. You all can expect me to be down there on many Tuesday nights grabbin a mic…

I love piano bars. And I was VERY excited to have Ernie Biggs in town. They just aren’t as good as I wanted them to be. It’s a lot of fun, but they could take some lessons from the St. Louis and Chicago piano bars.

I have never so quickly felt at home…
Im aware that Erie Biggs on Thursdays is as close to hell for men over 30 as i personally can get.(way too drunk, way too young and way too «pick-​a-​fightish) However on Tuedays, «The Ern» dresses herself in a way that make me feel oh so at home…
Never visiting Ernie Biggs on a tuesday before i crossed the strees (Having completly exausted my faith in work, and quitetly dying at Mud House a few minutes earlier). The friendly dorrman happily waved me past the door, and into the heart of the establishment.
Im not a showman, nor a shy-​boy, nevertheless I instantly took to the care-​free stage at Ernie Biggs. Greeted by piano, drums and guitarr playing old classics. the voice of amateurs of variying quality and the oppurtunity of beer i made my way to the bar.
My personal coice of 3 Budweiser botttles in hand i sat down, expecting to listen to a song or two, drink my beer and go home i was preasantly surprised in just about every way possible.
The friendlynes, the people, the artists and the atmostphere beckoned me to stay… As I write this little report i realize that the reason my spelling is so bad is not the fact that im from Sweden rather than the US, but more the 12 beers i had… Going out to have 2.
Ernie Biggs on wednesdays to me will from this day allways be a day of beer, good people, great music and fun.
My advice to everyone over 25 (im 31) is to grab a friend and go to Ernie Biggs on a Tueday. Its friendly, its cheap (beer and drinks $ 2), and mostly its just F**n fun!
Swing By! I’ll be there!

Wow, I am very disappointed in myself, that I have not reviewed this fine establishment. A great place to frequent if you like good music, they will play just about anything you request and if you think more money will get your request played quicker, then you’re right. Most of the time it is just a $ 5 cover which is very reasonable. They give you drink specials and drop a business card in to win pizza and cover for 10. Most everyone can sing very well and all of the piano players do a great job, even if the have to learn a new tune. If you want to go, just remember it is always crowded, but it turns into one big group of friends singing to songs we all know. And if you think your sing the wrong lyrics, put your worries to rest and sing louder, nobody can tell what you’re singing anyway.

This use to be our Thursday night hangout. Why not Friday or Saturday, you might ask yourself? BECAUSE IT’S TOO FLIPPIN CROWDED. That is the ONLY bad thing about the place. The Piano players and drummer are a lot of fun and usually can play just about anything you request. The bartenders work their ass off to try and get everyone served. If you don’t like huge crowds, go on Thursday, if you don’t crowds it is a VERY hopping place over the weekend.