Billy. Freaking.
Joel.
It's nigh impossible to capture the feels of finally seeing the one and only Piano Man in concert. After first discovering his music in 6th grade science class, I had gone out and bought his greatest hits CD, secured a copy of his sheet music book, and both played and listened to his ballads, doo wop ditties and rock jams non-stop. I even went and watched his "Movin' Out" musical with my fellow Billy Joel fan and oldest friend Mark. Some dozen years later, that sheet music book now has a bunch of pages falling out, and I've moved on to listening to his original albums on vinyl, but my fandom of Billy Joel has not waned one bit.
Having just finished finals and my second year of law school, I was on cloud nine. One of those nights you look back and remember fondly for the rest of your life.
Venue
The Hollywood Bowl in
Hollywood, CA.
- Saturday, May 17,
2014.
- My first time at the
iconic Hollywood venue, and more importantly Joel's first ever performance
there as well. I thought it interesting that Joel several times made comments
about his time living in Los Angeles (in the Hollywood Hills), often with hints
of not caring for it so much, and yet the crowd automatically loved any
reference anyway.
- One such example: he
prefaced "Piano Man" by telling us that the gig he sings about in the
song was at a bar on the corner of Wilshire and Western. A location we had
passed on our way to the bowl.
Recap
- I knew I had to get
tickets once a tour was announced for 2014, Joel's first national tour in some
two or three years at least. At first it was Madison Square Garden that was
announced, and I legitimately thought about seeing him in NYC, but then luckily
a slate of what wound up to be three shows was announced for Hollywood.
- I considered myself
very lucky to have a girlfriend who also appreciated Billy Joel's music with me
at the show. I looked around and noticed a few diehard fans there by
themselves.
- Opener Gavin DeGraw
was decent, but the crowd seemed to not really care. Such is the case when you
have a crowd of mostly middle-aged and older fans.
- Joel came out just
after 9 o'clock, on a Saturday. Pretty good crowd, indeed.
- Joel made a point of
playing some of his lesser hits, which was pretty neat, but it also meant the
omission of a few really good songs that I was hoping to see (Uptown Girl, Just
The Way You Are, The Longest Time, My Life, We Didn't Start the Fire). I could see a
long-time fan really loving the opportunity to hear some seldom-played in
concert songs though.
- Joel had no bones
about criticizing his own stuff. When one fan called for "Honesty,"
Joel responded by saying, "Honesty? Nah, that's another one of those
bulls*** songs."
- Joel and his band
played "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (for obvious reasons) for the first
time in some 20 years. Prefaced the song by saying that they might mess up,
which would at least prove that everything is live and not just a recording.
- The entire Hollywood
Bowl crowd taking over the vocals on "Piano Man" was every bit as
magical as one could imagine.
- Joel's range is not
quite as high as it once was, but I didn't mind the key being tuned down a few
notches. His showmanship and piano playing skills more than made up for it.
- Loved the sax solos
and the overall immaculate performance of the backing band.
- Joel covered
"Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys, which makes for the second straight
(legendary) act I've seen that has paid homage to them. I later found out that
he covered "Your Song" by Elton John in another one of his later
shows at the Bowl.
- During the encore, an
unannounced Adam Levine came out on stage to help sing "Big Shot." I
didn't recognize him at first with his bleached blond hair, but Traci did have
a minor heart attack when she realized it was him up there.
- Favorites of the
night: Miami 90210, Pressure, Vienna, New York State of Mind, Scenes From an
Italian Restaurant, Piano Man
