The N.C. Symphony starts its season with an open-air concert away from its usual home at Meymandi Concert Hall. Faithful to the "Pops in the City" billing, the program features requisite marches by Sousa and W.C. Handy, along with John Williams' heroic theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark and some melodramatic selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. There are tastes of the masters—Beethoven, et al.—but only enough to whet the appetite. Come concert season, it'll cost at least a few bucks to catch Tchaikovsky's manic Fifth Symphony or Mozart's devastating "Requiem." This 7:30 p.m. show may not have that kind of depth, but it's free. —Corbie Hill