Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 19:46:19 -0500
Message-Id: <199407260046.TAA26653@chaos.bsu.edu>
From: "Karen J. Smiley" <73760.531@compuserve.com>
To: joel@chaos.bsu.edu
Reply-To: "Karen J. Smiley" <73760.531@compuserve.com>
Subject: 7/24 concert impressions
Sender: joel-request@chaos.bsu.edu

X-Author: "Karen J. Smiley" <73760.531@compuserve.com>
Hi folks,

Just thought I'd pass on some notes & thoughts on the 7/24 concert and how it
compared to the 7/22 version! (Reid - I *think*/hope this is just under 3
pages?) If you don't want to spoil your own upcoming concert experience by
finding out a lot of little details, quit reading ...

First of all, the crowd was much more UP right from the start! More waves, more
beach balls, and more people in their seats by 8 pm when it started (1/2 hour
late again). When Billy came out on stage to "Yankee Doodle Dandy", people
stood to applaud (on Friday most people stayed seated). There was more
standing, earlier, and more enthusiasm than Friday night throughout the entire
concert. And botb Billy and Elton seemed more into it. Billy clowned around
even more, and Elton even left his piano once :) and generally interacted more
with the people in front, mugging and looking out at the crowd, while playing
than he had on Friday. The whole concert seemed to have more energy, and I
noticed the improvement most in Elton's performances. "Levon" really kicked,
and the end of "New York State of Mind" was much stronger. Billy was generally
in better voice, IMHO. And he did more between-songs patter (some near-quotes
below). At one point, I think early on cuz the crowd wasn't completely up yet,
Billy asked "What is this, a Grateful Dead concert?" and pretended (well, from
where I was sitting I couldn't tell, I assume he only pretended :) to puff a
joint. The set list was the same, I believe, *except* that no improvisation of
"Singing In The Rain" was warranted, fortunately, and he played a bit of "Born
To Run" at one point (see below). More tidbits:

After "Your Song", Billy said to the crowd, "So is this a cool idea or what?!"
and got the expected response :)

After "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", Billy went off the stage
Groucho-style. (I think he did this at least once on Friday, but not at this
point in the show)

At the end of "Rocket Man", again an extended version, Elton had the crowd join
in with "long long time" a few times at the end. (this also happened Friday but
I forgot to mention it; perhaps it's standard for Elton, I wouldn't know)

The delay Debbie had noted before starting "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies
Bleeding" was much shorter and didn't seem disruptive this time, at least not
to me.

By "Feeling In My Head" a large part of the crowd was up on their feet and
stayed up when Billy came on for "Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues".
Billy's vocals on this near the end were excellent, I thought.

Elton dedicated "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" to his family and to two people
who did voices in the film.

Percussionist Ray Cooper was GREAT again!!

During the intermission (this one really *was* 20 minutes as announced, I again
checked my watch :) there were two proposals of marriage for couples apparently
in adjacent seats in section 130 row 4, announced on the scoreboard. There were
two subsequent "she said YES"es to each, to suitable applause.

"I Go To Extremes" had a nice piano improvisation in the middle - and at one
point Billy 'sat' on the keys :)

After "Pressure" Billy started talking to the crowd, saying in part (excuse the
language, guys, but it's for purposes of journalistic integrity :) "... there's
a big-ass storm on the way down here. I don't give a shit! If it starts
raining, what do you want to do? Do you want to leave or do you want to stay?"
and again, got the expected crowd reaction. Then he began asking "How many
people here are from New York?" (claps & cheers) and "How many people here are
from New Jersey?" (more claps & cheers), then went into a good bit of "Born To
Run".

Billy announced that his next song, which turned out to be "The Ballad of Billy
The Kid", was "dedicated to my mother who's here tonight" (she got a big round
of applause) "Top of the world, Mom." Crystal did nice harmonica work on this
song. But I did notice even from my new & improved seats, section 113 row 19,
that the vocals were echoic on this song. For most of the concert though I
found the sound to be just fine.

Billy talked some more after this, making comments to the effect that he does
*not* live in the piano-shaped house on Long Beach Island, and feels sorry for
the guy who does because all these people are going up to his door, ringing the
doorbell, and asking "Is Billy Joel here?" Then he said "You've been reading a
lot of crap about me, don't believe most of it!" (hmm, he said 'most' not 'all'
:) Then, and I didn't quite catch this, he said something about not moving,
that he's staying here and paying these taxes. Guess *I* haven't been reading
enough of the "crap" to know what he was referring to :)

On "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", Billy hit the high notes pretty well. I think
on Friday, he didn't try them, I think he let Crystal do them? This was a great
rendition.

On "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant", there was much more crowd sing-along
than on Friday.

Anyone else who was there know the name of that song he used as an intro to "My
Life" with Elton? I know the song but can't put a name to it - all I could
think of was that I'd heard it in church :) Elton sang a verse of this,
starting with "I never said you had to offer me a second chance ..." and did it
well. There was a beautiful piano duet in the middle of this one.

Lullabye had no verbal intro or dedication this time.

During "River of Dreams", there was a presumably-accidental display on the
right video screen, words like "gain" and "iris" and numbers. Anyone know what
that was??

Billy put on his electric guitar at the end of RoD and began introducing the
band including their (mostly-local) hometowns. Then he said, "I hope you're all
in the union cuz you're all being recorded tonight!" And once again got the
expected reaction. Then he went into "We Didn't Start The Fire", and had a nice
jam before "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me", for which he did much more dancing
and clowning around than anything else. By now literally the entire crowd was
up on their feet. He took off his black jacket for this (he was wearing a black
sleeveless shirt under it), and went along the front edge of the stage with the
mike, at one point near the crowd doing a good Elvis imitation. And at the end,
for the last "it's still rock n roll to me", Billy stuck the mike into the
crowd so a small group in the front could sing it right into his mike. (Debbie,
you had second row seats and I'm guessing you rushed the stage - were you one
of the singers?? :)

In "Big Shot", Billy talked through one part of the lyrics, but I did not catch
most of the words, sorry. Anyone else get them? And during this song, Billy
jumped on the "piano keys" painted along the outer edge of the stage, just like
Tom Hanks did in the movie "Big". He'd done that Friday too.

Mark Rivera did a GREAT job on sax, much to the crowd's appreciation. He played
spotlighted solos not only on the usual songs like "Scenes", but also on "The
Bitch is Back" and "You May Be Right". During the latter, Billy snuck/crawled
up to Elton's piano and played on the high keys. (He did this once, more
conspicuously, on Friday but I don't remember on which song.)

"Bennie And The Jets" had a particularly nice piano duet in the middle and at
the end. Obviously there were some such duets Friday too, but I think there
were more and better ones Sunday. At least I noticed (and enjoyed) them even
more. To me these were among the best parts of the concert - the two of them on
piano together are incredible.

"Hard Day's Night" had some especially nice harmonies. No jacket exchange this
time.

Hope that's enough minutiae for you all :) Do I need to say that once again I
had a GREAT TIME??! I'll agree with the other posters, I would have loved to
have heard "The Downeaster Alexa" and "Angry Young Man" and a few more personal
favorites like "Summer, Highland Falls". But that's not a complaint; I'll just
have to try to catch Billy's next solo tour!!

Unfortunately I don't have tix for Tuesday or the other nights, so someone else
will have to provide the set lists & comments ... unless somebody out there
wants to give me a ticket?? <G>

To Debbie and Carl and Paul, nice to have met you! To all who are awaiting
*your* concert dates, ENJOY!!!!