It was by chance that I was listening to The Piano Guys one day and thought to myself, “I wonder if they are on tour?” Turns out they were and they were coming to the Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis, MN on March 9th, which was only a little under a week from when I looked! I’m lucky I caught this show as they came through Minnesota! I got to the venue and made it in just as The Piano Guys were starting their show. I had never shot at Northrop before and I was in awe of the grand hall! A large main level and three more levels above that made this a huge venue and it was sold out! Needless to say, a lot of people were looking forward to this show!
They started with the two main members, Steven Sharp Nelson and Jon Schmidt, playing “Batman Evolution” and many more of the popular songs I had watched on their website. In between songs, the two of them would tell jokes and stories about their experiences and how the songs came to be. Members of local Twin Cities schools came out and played a song with them as well, which was really cool to see and I imagine very exciting for the kids up on the stage with them! Al van der Beek came out and sang “Fathers’ Eyes” and that was very cool to see live! Before the intermission, Paul Anderson joined the other three and they all played a song with each of them rotating around between the piano and cello, keeping the beat with the piano frame and bench, and even plucking the strings inside the piano and multiple people playing the piano at the same time! It was quite the performance to witness!
The second half of the show started out with their newer cover, Adele’s Hello / Lacrimosa (Mozart) mix. This one was one of my favorites of the night and they informed us it was the first time that was played live, which was amazing! As they introduced the next song, “The Mission / How Great Thou Art”, I was touched to hear them talk about their experience while filming the video for this song featuring the Christ the Redeemer statue and Iguazu Falls saying the statue was a tribute built by man to show their love for God, but the falls were a tribute built by God to show his love for us. Follow that up with my all time favorite cover, “Story of My Life“, complete with the video playing in the background, and I was certainly feeling the emotions of the show. It appeared everyone else was as well and the hall was silent as the audience enjoyed each song.
To lighten things up after a few emotional songs, The Piano Guys had a fun and short Terminator mix and a funny performance about a the song with only 8 cello parts!! I’m sure they will play that in the future, so I won’t spoil those for you! The last song was also a first time played live, “Fight Song / Amazing Grace“, and even featured some people with bagpipes! Not wanting the night to be over, the crowd beckoned them up for one more song, which was again played by all four members moving about the piano.
This was a night of truly great music and wonderful performers! The Piano Guys put on a performance at the Northrop Auditorium that I won’t soon forget and I’m sure everyone else felt the same way! Check out their tour schedule HERE so you know when to catch them! You’ll be glad you did! You can see all my photos in the slideshow below!
As always, get out and support live music and I’ll see you out there!
