SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- When attending a Holly Bowling show, get a seat where you can watch her hands.

The young pianist hit the Funk 'N Waffles stage at 9:18 p.m. on Thursday night, casually dressed in jeans, a black tank and cap. She briefly said hello, sat down unceremoniously at her keyboard and promptly banged out ferocious jams by Phish and The Grateful Dead.

Immediately, the audience craned their necks to watch her hands.

Her fingers move with speed and force, like pale-knuckled tarantulas attacking the keys. By herself, she handled the heady, complex melodies of multi-piece jam bands, and seamlessly melted into mesmerizing, improvised lullabies.

James Austin, co-host of "Live From the Box," attended to study Bowling's performance.

"Look how she doesn't look at the audience; she hardly looks up at all," Austin noted. "She's just pouring herself into the music."

He was right. Bowling set up a tablet computer in front of the keyboard but barely looked at that either.

Holly Bowling performs on Thursday night, March 16, 2017 at Funk 'N Waffles in downtown Syracuse.

Instead, Bowling rolled through notes at lightning speed, eyes closed. When her eyes did open, she watched her own spidery hands competing against each other with hypnotizing accuracy.

Her classical background allows her to distill all the noise in wall-of-sound jam anthems into crystal-clear piano melodies.

A young blonde at the bar turned to me after Bowling's fourth song, eyes watering.

"I almost just started crying," she said. "She's just feeling it. It's incredible."

After a half-hour break, an upbeat Bowling returned to the stage for "Cryptical Envelopment." The seated crowd, loosened up by a few drinks, bobbed along.

A young woman grooved past the bar on her way to the bathroom, flailing her arms like noodles.

"This is how I walk," she proclaimed, wriggling by.

Funk 'N Waffles put out a rare setup of chairs out for Bowling. Normally the club either clears the floor for dancers or leaves dining tables out for a dozen or so people. On Thursday, they brought out several rows of chairs for the crowd of about 50.

Concertgoers wore tie-dye, Phish hats and Umphrey's McGee T-shirts. They were cheerful and chatty, encouraging my theory that jam bands and their ilk draw out the friendliest audiences.

One Phish fan, a professor at Alfred State, drove more than two hours to see Bowling in Syracuse. It would seem like a long way to go for a tiny club act, but Bowling made the journey worth it.

Was she as flashy and lively as Marco Benevento, who also jammed out on his warbling piano last January at Funk? No. That's an entirely different kind of act. Bowling needs no costume, no light show and no laser sound effects.

She's just a raw nerve of talent, pounding away on the black and whites.

Holly Bowling set list

Funk 'n Waffles | March 16, 2017

Set 1

My Friend, My Friend

It's Ice >

Frankenstein >

It's Ice

Cassidy >

A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing >

Taste

Lost Sailor >

Harry Hood

Set 2

Cryptical Envelopment>

The Other One >

Scents and Subtle Sounds >

The Other One >

Cryptical Envelopment>

Swept Away > *

The Other One jam >

Sand > **

Saint of Circumstance

Encore: Waste (Cassidy)

* w/ Cassidy mashup

** w/ The Other One tease

> means one song blended into the next

Katrina Tulloch writes music and culture stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook