The evening was sophistication itself, with the flavor of the Champagne enhanced only by a collaborative performance from soul singer John Legend and concert pianist Lang Lang. Mr. Lang told The Observer that the duo had been preparing for the brand’s “The Power of Creation” event for three days, and their hard work undeniably paid off. The pair were the toast of the evening, and happily milled around the reception, Mr. Legend looking particularly loved up with his model fiancée Chrissy Teigen.

The tasty morsels whipped up by chef Josh Capon went down a treat, with caviar topped deviled eggs, shot glasses of Manhattan clam chowder and mini lobster sandwiches sating the guests. The church’s intimate vestibule was soon cleared in preparation for the performance, which took place in the building’s stunning hallowed hall. Mr. Legend kicked off the proceedings before being joined by Mr. Lang, with the pair creating their own take on Nina Simone’s cover of Here Comes the Sun. As the singer’s velvety tones rose to the very top of the Hispano-Moresque dome, complimented perfectly by Mr. Lang’s lightning speed tinkling, guests swayed dreamily to the music (most likely due in part to the free flowing champers). Church pews had been removed in favor of black leather seats, which added to the evening’s comfortable elegance.

Guests were also treated to a rendition of All of Me, a song from Mr. Legend’s forthcoming album. He told The Observer, “I’m really excited about the new record, and I feel like it’s coming together beautifully.” Scheduled for completion at the end of the year, the Grammy Award winner has been working with friend and collaborator Kanye West, who also assisted with the creation of his first two records, to produce the new album, which “thinks about what it’s like to be a soul singer in this modern context. We’re in an era where soul music is pushed aside in the landscape of popular music,” he continued. So how does he keep the genre alive? “You keep making the music, but are always thinking about how you can keep it fresh and new and exciting.”

Mr. Legend cut a debonair figure in a suit and bow tie at the sultry event, which was worlds away from his time spent handing out food supplies in Far Rockaway on Saturday. “I didn’t do much,” he said – such modesty! – “but it was crazy to see how things are there when I live in New York and all we had was a power outage.”

As the guests were seated for dinner at a beautifully laid table in the church’s hall, the chatter and laughter continued late into the evening, with glasses of Dom being filled up quicker than attendees could drain them. As the event drew to a close, we tottered out onto the streets of Park Ave filled with delight after a fabulous evening, mixed with just a hint of dread at the thought of the next morning’s fizz induced fuzziness.

Jack White playing in Australia earlier this summer. (Photo: Getty)

Jack White is playing a pair of shows at Radio City Music Hall this weekend and last night's sold out concert was short on songs and long on drama. The former White Stripes frontman abruptly left the stage after an hour prompting a crowd of irate fans to take to the streets. 

The Observer was in attendance for pleasure rather than business, but once things got weird, we got to work. But, despite our best efforts, we're still not entirely sure what happened.

Mr. White's show began with a rollicking set featuring songs from his recent solo album, Blunderbuss, and tracks from his bands: The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. From our seat in the nosebleeds, it seemed as though Mr. White's music was enthusiastically received by the crowd. However, after about 45 minutes, Mr. White suddenly left the stage.

RELATED:  Elephant in the Room: White Stripes Hit New York

Thinking this was the standard concert tease that often occurs prior to an encore, the vast majority of the audience remained, clapping and cheering in an effort to encourage Mr. White to retake the stage. After more than 20 minutes, all of the house lights were turned on and ushers began to make their way through the crowd informing them the show was finished.

"The show is over. We don't know why. You'll probably find out on a blog, MediaTakeOut or some other source," one said.

This early ending clearly did not sit well with the crowd.

As fans, who paid a minimum of $40 to attend the concert, filed out the venue we heard (and may have even participated in) chants of "Fuck Jack White!" and "This is Bullshit!" In the lobby, we witnessed multiple attendees angrily returning merchandise they had purchased at the show.

Outside Radio City, a group of more than 100 people began to gather outside the main backstage exit booing and demanding answers as to why the show concluded so abruptly. Security quickly erected barricades and began pushing the crowd back. In addition to banging on parked cars and the repeated shouts of "Fuck Jack White," we overheard a few more inventive bits of invective.

"Jack White kills puppies," one man yelled.

"I'm going to fuck Meg White," another person said, referring to Mr. White's former White Stripes bandmate.

"Bababooey!" someone else yelled, perhaps inevitably.

The mini-mob became more enraged when deliverymen showed up to bring multiple pizza pies back stage. As Radio City staffers and others left the exit they were barraged with questions from the crowd. Most remained silent, but one man in a Radio City t-shirt was slightly more forthcoming.

"Y'all do me a favor, when he gets out, boo his ass," he said.

In addition to the boos and shouts, rumors flew through the crowd. We spoke to multiple people who claimed Mr. White had several angry exchanges with a shirtless man in the front row. They said the man who provoked Mr. White's ire was subsequently removed by security. Others claimed Mr. White shouted something before leaving the stage. From our seats in the second to last row of the theater, we hadn't seen anything amiss. A post from BuzzFeed Music, seemingly without basis, blamed the situation on Mr. White's rage at scalpers also circulated throughout the crowd.

After about an hour, the group outside Radio City thinned to about 50 angry diehards. Along with the rumors, the situation provoked a flurry of frenzied tweets. One hashtag, #JackWhiteDebacle, which was coined by the inimitable @Blabbeando, quickly generated more than 50 postings.

Many in the crowd speculated Mr. White was displeased with the response he got from the audience.

"Jesus Christ, is this an NPR convention?" Mr. White asked at one point during the show.

However, having seen Mr. White twice before, mocking the crowd to get louder seems to be part of his regular repertoire.

Eventually, a member of the Radio City security team provided us with an answer.

"He wasn't happy with the sound," the man said when we asked if he knew why the show seemingly ended so early. "I don't know why he pulled that."

He added that Radio City staffers expected the evening to last much longer.

Since we had a seemingly credible answer and our companion was very eager to get home, we decided to head to the subway rather than remain at the venue attempting to continue deciphering the reasons for Mr. White's diva-like departure. We sent an email to his publicist asking for an explanation, but, as of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

Three separate shows that have since sold out and infuriated people.

11:01 AM: The shows are announced, along with ticket sales: "TONIGHT: Louis CK works on his new hour of material @BellHouseNY! 7/9/11pm shows! $10 2 tix limit, cash only via our box office, open now!" Anyone who wants tickets would have to make their way to Brooklyn.

1:14 PM: The 9PM show is sold out.

1:21 PM: The 11PM show is sold out.

1:26 PM: The 7PM show is sold out.

Now, despite the fact that this is the most fair way possible to go about selling tickets for a concert—only the most devoted and available fans can go, limited to two tickets each, at a reasonable price, without much room for scalping—two universal facts of buying into a ticketed event in New York City emerged:

1. People are pissed that they didn't get tickets.

"It is really sucky that you can't release some tickets online. I guess this is what we get for being responsible and working."

"doing it on sunday would have been better :( especially for us desk jockies..."

"why aren't you selling them online?! Why must you only reward the unemployed??!!"

2. Despite all the measures taken to deter re-selling, people are scalping the tickets on Craigslist.

2:08 PM: "Please make your best offer and I will get back to you if it's in the ballpark."

4:14 PM: "$30 or best offer."

It'll be interesting to see how that works out, seeing as how ticket buyers to tonight's show will need to present their IDs as the ticket buyers to get in. But the lessons put on show here are pretty clear: Every live event in New York City will inevitably leave someone upset, and supply-demand economics and a capitalist hunger for profit extends to even the most ostensibly respectable of fanbases.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Fear not, though. The modest opening of the Barclays Center (the new home of the NBA's Nets, of which, Jay-Z is an investor) will now shove this seemingly arbitrary but actually earth-shatteringly important query into irrelevance, as Jay-Z will not be playing one, or two, but three shows to open the new stadium, this September.

Ticket prices aren't out yet, but DNAinfo notes that over 7,000 tickets for the shows—September 28th, 29th, and 30th—will go for under $30 (the other prices have not been announced). What they didn't say is how much those $30 tickets will go for after a bunch of awful scalping robots vacuum them up and resell them on StubHub or Craigslist for over 7,000 times their original face value.

If anything, however, this presents a wonderful out, so you don't have to choose between wearing your Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn shirt, your Occupy All Streets shirt, and your I'm Still Calling It Pacific-Atlantic shirt to Jay-Z's Barclays Center opening.

Now, you can wear all three.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Or so one club would like to think.

One of Washington D.C.'s go-to music venues, the 9:30 Club, recently announced a ban on cell-phone photography before an M. Ward concert. NPR music blog All Songs Considered was none too pleased to be instructed:

When I walked in the front doors of the club to see an M. Ward show recently, I was surprised that I, along with everyone else getting their hand stamped, received the following marching orders: "Tonight, no photography or videos. Including cell phones." When the kind folks at the door told me that, I thought to myself, "Really? At the 9:30 Club?"

Really. Of course, said blogger took it to Twitter, and even singer-songwriter Neko Case weighed in on the debate ("Just put the phone away and watch the show. That IS why he is traveling THOUSANDS of miles to play"). But they were still peeved:

The idea of being at a club or a public event, standing around and not being able to silently share seems almost old fashioned to me.

Concert venues in New York don't have policies on this. But they should. In the same way you can't—or generally shouldn't, by unspoken rule—take photos or video at the theater, or at the opera, or at dance performances, you shouldn't be able to ruin great New York City concerts anymore with your absurd cameraphone pictures. This is, in no particular order, why:

• Your pictures aren't that great.
• You're impeding on somebody's sightline.
• You're inherently removing yourself from the experience of being a concertgoer by becoming a concert documenter, which will remove the people around you from their respective concertgoing experiences.
• Nobody on Facebook really cares all that much that you went to a concert.
• Nobody on Instagram really cares all that much that you went to a concert.
• Nobody on any social network really cares all that much that you went to a concert.
• Your bad photographs will not help you relieve the moment of the concert you missed, anyway, because you were taking a picture.
• Unless you are at a Coldplay concert, the band you are seeing probably doesn't appreciate it either, and if they see you documenting the good time you could be having, they may be less incentivized to show you a good time. Or I would be, if I played in a band that wasn't as happy to see your cameraphone as Coldplay probably is.

Put Down The Camera And Watch The Show ... Really? [NPR/All Songs Considered]

The new site is the vacant lot at center. Looks like a real blast. (Bing Maps)

Things have been up and down ever since the renowned JellyNYC Pool Parties left the McCarren Pool and moved to the Williamsburg waterfront. Sure, the backdrop was nicer, but there have been money woes ever since. Senator Charles Schumer even had to come to the rescue two years ago to keep the party rocking.

The latest complaints come from the neighbors, who are fed up with all the unwashed masses streaming down the side streets of Williamsburg to get to the waterfront. The Open Space Alliance hopes it has a solution, according to The Brooklyn Paper, and JellyNYC will move the parties a few blocks north.

The new location is currently an asphalt parking lot on the east side of the neighborhood’s western avenue, a plot that was once leased by the Sanitation Department before the city acquired it two years ago as part of its plan to build the 28-acre Bushwick Inlet Park.

But the park, which could cost several hundred million to develop, has stalled after the city refused to buy its surrounding properties.

How this would cut down on hipsters humping it past all the rowhouses is unclear to The Observer, but perhaps because northern Williamsburg is a bit more industrial, the unhappy homeowners could be avoided. Still, they're not buying it. “They’re still going to have to funnel upwards of 6,000 people into the neighborhood — that doesn’t seem manageable,” Susan Fensten told The Brooklyn Paper. “And we’re still going to be able to hear it. The era of quiet nights on the waterfront is over.”

If it seems like she's overreacting, how would you feel if people were doing nitrous outside your house?

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC