REVIEW by Alan Head August 18, 1994 Face to Face Tour Billy Joel and Elton John Setlist: (the order's not perfect, but it's as close as I can get) Both: ======= Your Song Honesty Don't Let the Sun go Down on Me Elton: ======= Philadelphia Freedom Take Me to the Pilot Levon The One Can You Feel the Love Tonight *New York State of Mind Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting Pinball Wizard Billy: ======= Angry Young Man *Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Lullabye River of Dreams We Didn't Start the Fire Still Rock & Roll Only the Good Die Young Big Shot Both: ======= The Bitch is Back You May Be Right Bennie & the Jets Hard Day's Night Lucille Great Balls of Fire Candle in the Wind Piano Man *trading songs for the night :^) I have a review from the local paper, but our local reviewer is a jerk, so I'll have a go at it myself. By a couple strokes of sheer luck, my best friend and I had ended up in the front row. The crowd (all 57,000) seemed thrilled to be there. After the "grand entrance" (each had their theme music, Billy entered to "Yankee Doodle") Billy thanked everyone for putting up with the postponement, stating "It wasn't any kind of typical rock star crap, I was actually sick." Elton reminded him, "You've always been sick." They settled in at their back-to-back pianos, Billy in a tasteful suit and Elton in a red vinyl suit (?!) over a black tank top. After trading verses on a few tunes, Mr. Joel yielded the stage to his co-star. Elton did a wonderful job. I wish I could say more but the fact is I was waiting for Billy to take the stage, and as soon as he did Elton's performance began to fade from memory. The only exceptions were his renditions of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", which happened to be one of my personal faves at the time (It rocked, of course), and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", which was still reasonably new at the time (_The Lion King_ was still in the theaters). Video clips from the movie were playing on the 30 foot (?) video screens at each side of the stage. After a brief pause Billy took the stage, with energy to spare. He offered the crowd a choice between "Ballad of Billy the Kid" and "Angry Young Man"... we chose the latter, and he obliged with a percussive piano riff... if it had been a lesser performer I would have cried piano abuse, but I'm not one to question a professional :^) The crowd obligingly calmed down for "Lullabye", but the house erupted with the first notes of "River of Dreams". The pause in the middle seemed to last for minutes, as The Entertainer shook hands with a couple people off to my right, grabbed a drink of water, and shook out his shoulders. The cheering from the crowd rose constantly until he struck up the band to finish the song. Billy marked the 17th anniversary of Elvis' death with a moment of silence, after which he told Col. Parker to "go F*** yourself" and broke into "We Didn't Start the Fire. Apparently he still harbors no love for professional managers. He finished off with some of his oldies, and I never would have guessed he was 45 years old. He was dancing on his piano (and briefly on Elton's, to the crowd's laughter), and ended by placing his hands on the edge of his piano and doing a handstand, with a flip to the stage. After the set intermission was announced. A small fight broke out at the bathrooms, but otherwise people were well behaved. The concert reconvened with both bands on stage. The joint performance included covers of songs by the Beatles, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The concert drew three encores, the second being "Candle in the Wind" (wonderful). Several people got up to leave, and I asked them what they were doing. "Leaving. The concert's over" they said. I reminded them that they hadn't done "Piano Man" yet. A couple minutes later the curtain rustled again, and the house lights went down. Our two favorite people walked on stage, and the crowd grew silent. Even today, two years later, I have chills remembering that last encore. As Billy Joel and Elton John shared the verses of one of the most recognized songs of my lifetime, a constellation of tiny flames flickered across the Pontiac Silverdome. As they reached the chorus their voices were silent, and we took over. "Sing us a song, you're the piano men" echoed through the stadium, 57,000 voices singing words that were wrong, but more right than ever. As the echoes died away, we slowly rose from our seats and went back to our lives, temporarily refreshed at the fountain of Music.