ticket to last night's show..thats right.. JERRY LEE LEWIS at the Strathmore Center in Bethesda.....not cheap but absolutely worth it.... he's still got the piano chops though he can't climb on top of the piano and maul it as he was wont to do fifty years ago when he was recording for Sam Phillip's Sun Records in Memphis...at the time he was a member of the so called "Million Dollar Quartet" with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins.. he's the lone survivor now.....in any case he started the show with a fitting Chuck Berry cover - "Roll Over Betthoven"- which somehow seemed to fit Jerry Lee Lewis more than Chuck.. immediately I got gooesebumps as his pianoplaying included those fancy piano rolls and the put one hand over the other and the have the right hand all the way to the right end of piano and the left hand all the way to the left and make tap those keys from on high moves..all moves burned in anyone's mind from those highlight films of jerry lee lewis pretty much inventing the rockabilly/rock and roll piano just about 50 years ago....some other songs he played including chantilly lace, you win again (he talked almost embarassed about how this was a hank williams song but "we had a pretty good version"), crazy arms (seemingly responding to a shout out from audience.. after finishing the performance he guffawed about forgetting the last verse and having to end it early), spoono wine or some such.... georgia on my mind which he said a cousin had taught him and he auditioned for a tv show when he was 10..this again made him laugh and add "how about that".....he kept joking about his sprite which he drank from after most songs..ocasionally taking a swig and saying "mercy!!!!!!" before going into his next song.. he closed the show with just great versions of "whole lotta shaking on" and then with a preface of "if you liked that one you'll love this one" played "great balls of fire".. all in all fabulous.. sure he was a bit stiff getting to and from the piano but once sitting there and playing/singing he sounded great.. indeed he sounded far better singing than when he talked to the crowd....it really felt amazing to see one of the first legends of rock'n'roll in person....i'm still pinching myself!