Monday, July 2, 2012

Salt Lake City Street Pianos

For the past two weeks a really cool art installation has graced the streets of downtown Salt Lake City.  A number of pianos were donated, painted and setup on street corners all over town with a sign that encouraged people to sit and play.  The boys had some fun trying a few of them out.  Some sounded better than others, but all looked really fun and unique.  The art installation or movement (not really sure what you call it) originated in Britain and has been all over the world, but surprisingly to not that many places.  I'm so pleased they picked Salt lake City.








And here are some videos of the boys playing said pianos.

Roman playing Coldplay


Roman playing Nyan Cat theme tune


Callum playing something classical


The Dingley boys playing some kind of boogie woogie song


Roman playing Downton Abbey


Roman playing an original song


You can read more about this amazing art installation here.

I was trying to encourage Roman to play a tune by the British band Keane, who played at the Gallivan Center on Tuesday.  There was a piano actually just outside the concert venue.  The Keane song was one of the first tunes that Roman's old piano teacher taught him to play on the piano.  Unfortunately he'd forgotten how to play it.  But, we were fortunate to actually meet the lead singer and piano player from the band before they did their sound check.  The boys got their autographs, but despite the fact that I had just filmed Roman playing one of the street pianos, I forgot to get a photo of the boys with the band.  Ugh I was so annoyed with myself.  Anyway, the lads were very nice, and we chatted for a short while before security kicked us out.


We surprised the boys with tickets to see Keane perform later that evening.  The show was fantastic of course.  But what I really love is when we get to see famous (in the UK at least) bands play smaller venues, it makes it so much more personal.  The boys are doing quite well for gigs this year.  Last month we saw The Shins at Red Butte Gardens, and next week we're all going to see Ringo!  Rock on!  Peace and Love, peace and love.