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Friday, March 31, 2006

Update on Billy Joel

Well, I decided to answer all questions and elaborate on my experience in a new post rather than in the comments. Yes, he can still jump up on the piano! Or, rather, he stepped onto it when it was still below the floor (they had it on a platform that could be raised up to the stage or lowered down under it), and then jumped off once it was all the way up. Then at the end he stepped up onto his chair, and then the keyboard, and then onto the top of the piano, to try to get the tech people to turn his mic back on! Hah. He wanted to talk, and they'd turned it off. And the cool thing with the mic stand was kind of like twirling a baton, only big... he spun it around, and threw it up in the air, and did all sorts of really cool tricks with it.
Here's what I remember for sure that he sang, in the order I remember them (there are probably ones I'm forgetting, but maybe I'll think of them later):

The Entertainer (my fave Joel song EVER, which he sang right after some Philly radio personality came onstage to announce that Billy Joel had performed 46 sold-out concerts in Philly, which was a record, and they'd made him a banner that they hung at the top of the stadium with all the banners for the sports teams, so when he introduced the song, he said that he had no idea any of this was going to happen when he wrote it, and that it would now sound like bullshit)
Allentown (of course, since it was in Philly...)
Ballad of Billy the Kid
River of Dreams
You May Be Right
Still Rock & Roll
Only the Good Die Young
We Didn't Start the Fire
Innocent Man
Italian Restaurant (that has a different title, I think, that I don't remember...)
Goodnight Saigon (there were soldiers on the stage for that one...it was interesting.)
Captain Jack
Pressure
She's Always a Woman
Keeping the Faith
Piano Man (naturally, we knew he couldn't leave the building until he did that one, and of course it was the best finale ever.)

That's all I can remember at the moment, but I know for sure that there were more. The concert went about three hours, with no breaks, so obviously I'm forgetting some things! ;) At any rate, though he looks older, his voice is just as good as it ever was--it was truly amazing to watch him perform, and to hear him actually right there in front of me. Becky and I were almost at the very top of the stadium, nosebleed kind of seats, but we rented binoculars so that we could watch him closer up. His band was also really cool, especially this really energetic black woman who did lots of different stuff--percussion, sax, backup vocals, harmonica..... She was fun to watch, as well.
All in all it was a fantastic concert, and I'm so, so pleased that I finally got to see/hear him in person! That's one more to check off my list of concerts I'm dying to see. :)

4 Comments:

Blogger Kath-o-lil said...

I never would have guessed you were in the nosebleed section from the sound over the phone! As a matter of fact, I even mentioned to Daddy "wow! they must have great seats."

10:52 AM  
Blogger Kath-o-lil said...

ps- the song title is "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" :)

10:57 AM  
Blogger Rachel (a-big-apple) said...

Aha, I knew there was more to it.

1:35 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well, at least he's consistent...he did all of those when I saw him too!

1:12 PM  

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