He was playing a song by The Lumineers on a public piano — then a band member appeared

A man playing “Ophelia” by The Lumineers on a public piano in Boston got a special surprise on Tuesday, May 31, when a member of the folk rock band joined in his performance.

Jeremiah Fraites, a founding member of the band, spotted Sam Spencer playing the band’s 2016 song as he was walking around Boston with Nicholas Sutton Bell, the band’s creative director. Fraites watched from a few feet away as Bell filmed the encounter, but soon Fraites took over the keys.

“He has no idea who I am,” Fraites wrote in an Instagram video that chronicled the meeting.

Bell eventually informed the piano player he was playing with the musician who first recorded the song, much to the surprise of Spencer.

“I was like, ‘This looks like the guy from The Lumineers’” Spencer said of his first reaction to Fraites joining him.

Fraites even surprised Spencer with tickets to the band’s upcoming show in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Spencer commented on Instagram that he “still can’t believe this happened.”

“I was essentially in shock for at least an hour afterwards,” he wrote. “When he said it was a great song and started playing it with me I was thinking ‘how nuts would it be if this was actually the guy from The Lumineers but there’s no way, that stuff doesn’t actually happen in real life,’ but then it was! I’ll be telling this story for the rest of my life!”

Fraites said Spencer was “kind enough to let me hop in and play with him,” sharing a picture of the two of them together.

This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 2:43 PM with the headline "He was playing a song by The Lumineers on a public piano — then a band member appeared."