I promise this won’t happen to us…

In 1987, Billy Joel was one of the first American rock acts to play in the Soviet Union since the construction of the Berlin Wall. There were live performances in Moscow, Leningrad, and Tbilisi.

What was really striking about the concerts was how Soviet audiences weren’t used to having a good time. In Billy Joel’s words:

Remember, this was the Soviet Union in 1987, and they'd never had a major rock concert before. There was a film crew filming a documentary, and they turned very bright lights on the audience. The audience was having a good time — until they turned the lights on. They froze; they turned paranoid. There was a lot of anxiety — why are we being looked at? And whenever they turned the lights on, anyone who was overreacting was being pulled out of the audience by a security guard.

You can see a really interesting clip about the first of the concerts here.

So we don’t have Billy Joel and we don’t have terrified audiences.
But on April 15th we'll have a Billy Joel tribute band and a rocking audience to celebrate our Spring Event.

Join us to celebrate Taryn Berelowitz and Jonathan Liss, our Julius and Bessie Cohn Award recipients. Click here for more information and to register.
Join us for community, and fun.
Join us because you’re not terrified at having a really good time. Plus, we’ll have great Billy Joel music.
 

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