Friday, March 02, 2007
OK - so, I just got home from finally seeing Billy Joel in concert. Call me a dork if you like, but that man can put on a show. In the past, whenever I've been able to see someone I've adored all of my life, I have somehow been at least a little disappointed - they've lost their chops, they can't hit the high notes any more, or they simply seem to be going through the motions and don't care about entertaining the crowd and giving them what they want. Not so with Mr. Joel. He played to the crowd and gave us a fantastic show. Sure, he's getting older, he's gained weight, he's lost his hair. To quote the man himself, "It's not about having less hair, it's about getting more head." All that said, his voice sounded good, he was funny, energetic and played a good mix of his music.
The show took a somewhat surreal turn when he called one of his roadies, "Chainsaw," to the stage and said they were going to let him perform something they'd overhead him doing during a sound check. Billy straps on a guitar and they break into AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" - it brought down the house. If someone had told me today that Billy Joel would be performing an AC/DC song at the concert tonight...well, go ahead and finish the cliche with your favorite phrase.
In addition to playing a good selection of his most popular hits (and AC/DC), he threw in "Dock of the Bay" and "Georgia on My Mind" for a little home-town flavor. He also let the audience choose a song - "Vienna" or "All About Soul" - "Vienna" won, but it was almost too close to call. He kicked everything off with "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" and closed the final encore with, of course, "The Piano Man." In between, we were treated to some really big hits, some older stuff that never got much (if any) radio play, and the personal favorites of everyone in my group - not an easy task considering that we ranged in age from 8 to 50-ish.
Well, I believe I will wrap up my gush-fest by saying that I am very happy to have finally seen one of my all-time favorites, and not a bit disappointed that I had to wait so long, or that I never got to see him in his younger years. I'm heading off to bed - I'm sure it won't matter what I dream about tonight, the soundtrack will be provided by Billy Joel.
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So, you saw the Piano Man, eh? Cool! Now, Billy Joel was never a gotta-listen-to favorite of mine, but I really liked a few of his songs. "Tell Her About It", "The Longest Time", "Allentown", "My Life", and "Still Rock n Roll to Me" were big-time favs, but the rest just sort of fell short. Never liked the ballads, but then again, I'm not a ballad kinda guy. Gimme Huey Lewis & the News any day of the week & twice on Sunday, and I'm set. But, Joel's obviously a legend.
So, now that I've given you some absolutely rambling and un-expert music review, how does it feel to be closer to the "50-ish" end rather than the 8 end of the crowd?
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