Pianist draws crowd to local bar

Jason Yeo/Exponent Photographer MUSIC MAN: Local piano man Bruce Barker is a well-known entertainer for the local scene. He plays and sings at the Neon Cactus three nights a week.

By Megan Finnerty
Senior Writer

It's so cold outside that the women in their skin-tight shirts are almost rethinking not bringing that coat.

It's 8 p.m. outside of the Neon Cactus, 360 Brown St. There are about 25 people standing outside the dark, locked building.

They shuffle their feet and breathe into their cupped hands, but no one gets out of line.

They have come to see the "piano man," Bruce Barker.

The doors open and the crowd streams in as Barker stamps their hands. He stands near a $12 T-shirt with his caricature on the front, proclaiming his show's fame.

The college-age crowd bellies up to oversized plywood table tops resting on wooden barrels inside West Lafayette's most popular version of a Tennessee honky-tonk.

Barker, 34, packs this place three nights a week, the only three nights he works.

Out on the area's largest dance floor, only red and blue lights dance, but inside Barker's room, the Rusty Bucket, toes tap before he even slides onto his piano bench.

The regulars are all here. Men and women already deep into their oversized Neon Cactus cups pore over Barker's 350-song set list featuring categories such as TV themes, Elton John and guitar rock.

The Rusty Bucket looks like an old barn decorated by frat brothers. Horseshoes and farming implements hang from the walls next to signs advertising Jim Beam and Miller Lite.

But the centerpiece of the room is Barker's black baby grand piano.

Barker, a Purdue alumnus, opens the show a little after 9 p.m. by making all the first-timers, or "virgins," raise their hands and say, "Hi," then he opens the floor for requests.

The cacophony of voices is deafening. He rips through "Imagine," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Only the Good Die Young."

All the songs are played quickly, sped up for a TRL-friendly audience, but all are played with attention to the feeling of the song and not just note-for-note perfection.

And once he starts, he never stops. Although Barker sports little glasses, a light plaid shirt and a receding hairline, looking more bookish than rocker, he is a dervish of riffs, off-color jokes and clever turns of phrase.

Shelia Cochran, co-owner of the Neon Cactus, said Barker has always been able to command a room.

"He is a guy who is full of energy, fun-loving and spontaneous," she said. "He also has a serious side that doesn’t show up too often, but he’s got more energy than most. We're really happy with the way everything's turned out with Bruce."

Cochran said Barker's show was an immediate success because of word of mouth and it's remained so because there are always new students coming to Purdue, ready to discover the piano man.

"I love it," Barker says of his job. "I am blessed to do what I love to do and in my own town. I come early and I stay late."

Barker said one of the things that makes him enjoy his job so much is that he gets to know the majority of the people who come to his shows a couple of times. It's part of his party philosophy.

"The party may be centered around me, but you're part of the party and without you there is no party," he said. "You're not there just to see me. I want everyone to be a part of the show, and if you're just standing there, taking up space, I don't want you there because there are people who've been in line for 15 minutes who want to participate in the party."

Barker earned a degree in recreational management, but had no real career prospects right out of college, so he got a job checking fire extinguishers. And while paying the bills as an inspector, he paid for his first honeymoon as a karaoke contest winner at Burton's, now known as Cox's Pub, 2401 Schuyler Ave., Lafayette.

Barker soon became something of an area karaoke star, winning his honeymoon vacation as well as other prizes during his early singing days.

Barker was a member of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club while a student, and always knew he loved to sing, but also knew that no one was going to pay him to sing a cappella. So, he taught himself piano and began working as a dinner pianist at a now-defunct area restaurant.

But soon, the Neon Cactus picked him up, and local history was made.

Travis Conley, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts, has come to see Barker for years and loves the show.

"I've heard everything he sings about a thousand times, and it's always fun," he said. "You just kind of go with Bruce; he's a really great guy."

 

Purdue Exponent 2002