Last night was one big mess, but at least it wasn’t a total loss for one group of people who headed out to see violinist Joshua Bell play at Strathmore. According to DCist reader Dakota Korth, when his group arrived at the venue, they were informed that the show was canceled due to a power outage. We’ll let Korth take it from there:

As we were putting coats back on, I noticed a guy standing around with a violin case slung over his shoulder. No way, I thought, but sure enough Joshua Bell was hanging out and apologizing personally for canceling. Finally, an older lady said, “can you play something for us here?” Joshua laughed; she didn’t. “You played in the Metro, so you can play here, right?” Well, for the 30 or so people there, he did. Now his second concert in D.C. in a random public place.

A short clip of Bell, no stranger to public performance, playing outside the venue is above. It’s not much — Korth could only get the start of Bell’s performance “before his handler asked [him] to stop” — but frankly, we’ll take anything that isn’t a story about power outages, bus service suspension or the worst traffic ever at this point.