The question of the night for me was how many giant hits can a couple old performers cram into 3 hours and 45 minutes?  More than the average radio station I’d say.  The average radio station might give you 10 hits, 32 fly by night, flash in the pan, wanna be hits and a shitload of the lamest commercials you’ve ever heard.

When I’d first heard of these two guys getting together for a tour I thought what an interesting combination, but more than that, would it work?  All the rumours floating around about how much of a drunk Billy Joel is and how much of a diva Elton John is somehow only seemed to spell disaster to me.  Sure they might get together for a few shows and mingle some tunes together but after Elton got sick of Billy fixin cars on stage left and Billy watchin the gay brigade marching in and out of their dressing rooms night after night, I could see New York and London going to war.

Well I’m happy to say I couldn’t be more wrong.  Right from the opening “Your Song” sang as a duet by both Billy and Elton, we knew we were in for a treat.  Their voices combined beautifully, their piano styles complimented one another and the personalities of the two, as different as they are, seemed to mesh perfectly creating a larger than life persona one could call Billy John or Elton Joel.

Then there’s Billy with his down to earth, swaggeringly liquored, joking and self deprecating humour that I’m a huge fan of.  Cracking jokes about his exes, his looks and even making fun of the lighting guys up in the rig who’d been there for 2 hours with no bathroom break and still a long way to go, he had the audience laughing on numerous occasions and fully laid to rest any doubts about his ability to entertain.  At one point he spun his piano around facing stage left where Elton’s piano was stuck in a stationary position facing the same direction, quipping that this was the big “special effect” of the night. Billy was all too quick to point out that his piano, swings “both ways” where Elton’s only swing’s one.

On a musical note Elton nailed all the faves.  I can’t think of a tune I really wanted to hear that Elton didn’t play.  Of course, it’s a pretty short list cuz I’m mainly a fan of the 70’s stuff, with the odd Elton newbie thrown in like “This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore” which he didn’t play.  All my faves were in there though.  Rocket Man, Daniel, Your Song, Crocodile Rock, Tiny Dancer, Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”.  See what I mean about hits?

The same has to be said for Billy Joel though too.  For me, I never cared much for anything after the 80’s rolled around but man he had the greatest tunes in the 70’s which seemed to come to an end for me around ’79 with the release of “Glass Houses”.  Anything after that was just a spotting of the odd “hit” that I usually didn’t really pay much attention to but he played em all.  “Allentown, Uptown Girl, We Didn’t Start the Fire”, a bunch of tunes I had no idea what they were but then all the faves were prominently placed as well.  My personal faves, “Still Rock n Roll, You May Be Right, My Life, Movin Out, Piano Man were all there.  The only one missing I thought was Big Shot but hey, you can only fit so many tunes into 4 hours… again.. hits galore.

The show ended with a hell of a duo set featuring some of their biggest hits trading lyrics back n forth as if they’d both written the songs and ending the night with quite possibly the biggest crowd pleaser of the evening, “Piano Man”.  Sure Billy’s tune ended the night, but Elton got to sing the line “Cuz you know that it’s ME that they’re coming to see to forget about life for a while”.  Well I have to admit, Elton has always been right at the top of my list of performers I gotta see before I/they keel over, but had I known Billy Joel is as good as he is, he would have been right up there too.  In fact I’d have to say if it were a competition, which it definitely wasn’t at all, I’d have to say Billy stole the show.

So I’ll just end by saying I’m SO glad I took in this show.  Thanks to Tara for the ticket even though I had a nosebleed and had to stare at Elton’s ASS all night, it was definitely worth the $100 for the “rear view” seat.  What other view of Elton would you want anyway?  ; )

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