“Where else can you go from ‘F You’ to ‘Let it Go’ in one song?” one of the Howl at the Moon performers shouted to the audience while diving into the celebrated song from the recent Disney hit, Frozen. But on Friday night in the Shapiro Science Center, the sudden change from the pop/hip-hop song to the lyrical Disney tune seemed absolutely normal and even encouraged by the audience.

The event, called “Dueling Pianos with Howl at the Moon,” featured two musicians who simultaneously sang and played their own accompaniment on the piano. And the audience created the playlist—slips of paper littered the tables on which listeners were invited to write songs they would like to hear. Requests ranged from “Mamma Mia” to “Fancy” to “Dancing Queen” to “Proud Mary”—and everything in between.

Howl at the Moon is actually the name sharred by 11 piano bars around the country at which performers create this same type of dueling piano and sing-along performance. The Howl at the Moon bar in Boston is located in the Financial District. Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes said in an interview with the Justice that the event was the “brain child” of Steve Pagios, the new associate director of student activities, who took the position last spring. Pagios commented in an interview with the Justice on the choice of Howl at the Moon, “A lot of people like music, [so we were thinking] ‘how can we still provide music but do it in a different way?’”

The Science Center Atrium, usually a staid entrance where students study or gather before class, was turned into a cool piano club where two musicians sat at adjacent baby grand pianos as students gathered around tables, singing and chatting with friends.

The concert did not just resemble a playlist of popular and requested songs, however. The duo put their own spin on songs—improvising lyrics, jazzing up songs and spontaneously switching from song to song when two songs had the same chords. At times the two performers would leave out a word or a phrase out of a song for the audience to fill in. The musicians had iPads in front of them for lyrics, but it seemed as though the piano parts were completely improvised.

“We were trying to think of something new that would appeal to both upperclassmen and underclassmen,” Paigos said, “We wanted something, especially with new people coming on campus but also for returners, as kind of a ‘welcome back, let’s sing together.’”

As it got later, students started dancing in the center of the atrium and the performers adhered to the vibe—changing their songs to group dance numbers such as “Cotton Eyed Joe” and “The Cupid Shuffle.”

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel made an appearance toward the middle of the show and engaged with students—chatting and partaking in the dancing and singing.

When asked if he would think of doing something like this again, Pagios said, “I always like trying different things because there are so many different things out there, so why repeat?”

But he also reflected that since this event worked so well, he would be interested in making it a tradition. “If something like this worked out and people were really engaged and want to do it again, maybe we [would] try it for the spring semester again,” he said.

In the spirit of orientation, Howl at the Moon with Dueling Pianos brought students together through a new experience.