In the current issue of SF Weekly, we brought you an interview with Elvis Costello, who will join the San Francisco Symphony starting tonight for a three-performance run of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) at Davies Symphony Hall. In it, we noted there were also plans for a blow-out 70th birthday celebration for Symphony Director Michael Tilson Thomas, with a Jan. 15 performance hinting at "special guests" that would likely include Costello.
Well, it doesn't get much more special this: Via KQED, we have word that a supergroup consisting of Costello, Metallica's Lars Ulrich, the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, and blues-rock giant Boz Scaggs took the stage at Davies last night to play the Beatles' "Birthday." Meanwhile, legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma made the standard "please turn off your cell phones" over the Symphony's PA, and at another point attendees were treated to a special recorded message from Pres. Obama, recognizing Tilson Thomas for his work.
We thought our 30th birthday party was pretty cool, but this really puts it to shame. A sold-out crowd of more than 2,700 included folks like Gov. Jerry Brown; a special pre-performance dinner backstage was put together by a lady named Alice Waters. Nice friends you got there, MTT.
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