Benjamin Leatherman
Audio By Carbonatix
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Cue up a sad song. A longtime Tempe bar known for its dueling pianos is shutting down after 12 years in business.
Low Key Piano Bar, the basement-level nightspot at Mill Avenue and Fifth Street, announced on social media Wednesday that it will close Sunday after one final weekend.
“It’s time for us to play our final song,” the announcement stated, in part.
“To every guest who ever requested a song, sang at the top of their lungs, celebrated with us, tipped our entertainers, or simply walked through our doors… thank you,” the announcement continued. “You gave this place its soul.”
The exact reason for the closure wasn’t specified.
Low Key, which debuted in 2014, was the latest in a series of nightspots and piano bars to occupy the basement-level space at the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and Fifth Street over the years. The basement-level business first operated as Beeloe’s Cafe & Underground Bar in the 1990s before becoming The Big Bang in 2003.
After The Big Bang closed in 2014, the new owners rebranded the place as RCK CTY before it later became Low Key that same year. The business later expanded to a second location at Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale, which operated from 2018 until its eventual closure.
Whatever its name or address, Low Key followed the same lively piano bar formula of dueling pianists turning rock and pop hits into nightly crowd singalongs.
Low Key reflected on its 12-year run in Wednesday’s announcement of its closure.
“Low Key has been so much more than a piano bar,” the post stated. “It’s been a place where strangers became friends, birthdays turned into traditions, celebrations became unforgettable memories, and thousands of voices came together around the piano night after night.”
Longtime patrons of the place shared memories across social media following the announcement of Low Key’s closure on Wednesday.
One commenter on Instagram shared his long history with the property and recalled milestone moments he experienced at the nightspot.
“(I) started going to Big Bang in 2011, was sad when it closed, was so excited when Low Key revived the old Big Bang format and spent MANY nights there,” they wrote. “This is really sad. I asked my now wife out for the first time while there. Have many memorable nights, and even a few I can’t remember.”
