The state had recently legalized gambling and casinos were opening along the waterfront. When he graduated, it was a good time to be an aspiring musician in Atlantic City. “I was pretty nerdy in high school,” he says.
The band played some school dances, but McGinty didn’t get any dates out of it. He started playing piano as a freshman at Mainland Regional High School and joined his first band, called Etc., a year later. It’s a very neighborhoody vibe.”Īs a child growing up outside of Atlantic City, McGinty listened to Yes, Burt Bacharach, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and The Beach Boys. “It’s like Cheers or something,” he says. People liked it, so he organized more at Manhattan and Brooklyn bars like Fez, Barmacy, and Motor City. The former keyboardist for the Psychedlic Furs started running karaoke nights two decades ago at the birthday party for a member of the band Dinosaur Jr.
“I’ve always enjoyed people singing around the piano,” says the 54-year-old. Joe McGinty is 6-foot-5, which means he has to hunch over to play piano at his weekly karaoke night at Manhattan Inn.
