I’ve been quite fortunate in that I’ve seen Billy Joel perform many, many times over the last 25 years. The first concert of his I saw–the first concert I ever saw–was his [i]Piano Man[/i] to [i]An Innocent Man[/i] tour around 1984. And it was great.
All these years later, Billy doesn’t run around like the wild man of his younger days, but [i]man[/i] he still brings it. In a sold out show with 63,000 people, Billy Joel played for 3 hours–the longest show of his I’ve ever seen–breaking I’ve been quite fortunate in that I’ve seen Billy Joel perform many, many times over the last 25 years. The first concert of his I saw–the first concert I ever saw–was his [i]Piano Man[/i] to [i]An Innocent Man[/i] tour around 1984. And it was great.
All these years later, Billy doesn’t run around like the wild man of his younger days, but [i]man[/i] he still brings it. In a sold out show with 63,000 people, Billy Joel played for 3 hours–the longest show of his I’ve ever seen–breaking out one great song after another. He had huge video screen up, a fantastic sound system … and a full moon to boot on a gorgeous night.
Plus, as his "special guest" he had Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Don Henley and John Cougar all come out to play on one song each–with Don Henley doing [i]Boys of Summer[/i] and John Cougar doing [i]Pink Houses.[/i]
Bill Joel also played a bunch of early Beatles songs throughout the night to honor them–as they were the first band to ever play Shea–and closed out his set with just a string of his most killer songs: [i]Still Rock ‘n Roll to Me, You May be Right, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, Only the Good Die Young[/i]. And of course [i]Piano Man,[/i] and one his older songs he used to close out his shows with, [i]Souvenir[/i].
At one point Shea, which is made of concrete, was literally shaking.
It was just a great, great night.
