Ben Folds broke his piano in Charlotte tonight

[Ritterskoop]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/0 ... -best.html

I didn't go to review it so there's not much there, but it was still way fun.

I want our arts guy to interview one of the symphony members about the creating a song on stage business. An audience member yelled out "Rock this bitch!" which has come to mean that if Folds accepts the challenge, he writes a song right then on stage. No biggie with a bass and guitar and piano, but a 60-piece orchestra and choir is a little harder.

[T_Bone0806]

I love me some Ben. And you were my introduction to his music, Skoop, as you remember. Prior to that, I had only heard "Brick". Thanks again.

[Ritterskoop]

He had a wonderful sequence about his college experience at UNC Greensboro as a piano major. He can't read music, though he can write it, one note at a time, but one professor protected him for a year until he retired. Then Ben switched to English.

[Ritterskoop]

I hate to reward someone who recorded from the audience on a phone, but this the final couple of segments of Rocking This Bitch Orchestrally in Charlotte, NC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjz23Rk72kM

Ben saluted the Star Trek Soprano.

The trumpet player never got any instructions, and just made it all up at the end.