Billy Joel & Elton John: Review

Concert Review
Face 2 Face Tour
Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA
July 18, 2009

Double-billed concerts can sometimes be a mixed bag. Often, fans of one artist are left with a perfunctory half-set, hearing only the most obligatory hits before the stage is handed over. These artists are frequently packaged by the promotion company and may not even interact with each other, let alone collaborate. Other double-billings arise from a mutual respect between two artists who complement their counterpart's catalogue in interesting ways and foster an environment where the best in each others' work can shine through. Happily, last nights Elton John and Billy Joel pairing falls in the latter category.

I should clarify that while I am not the biggest Elton John fan, Billy Joel is on my short list of artists I can apply little critical reasoning to. My respect for Sir Elton's work is there and I enjoy many of his projects, but Joel's discography is rife with some of my favorite songs and albums of all time. I've even performed ten or so of his tunes on stage. Last night's ticket to their Gillette Stadium show was a late-breaking surprise and could not have been more exciting.

That said, the show was energetic, electric, and alive with all the accomplished playing and good vibes that one would expect from two of RIAA's ten top-selling musicians of all time. As the pair took the stage and began the first of their two mutual sets, it occured to me that these two gentlemen have produced some of the most well-known songs in the popular rock canon. And while the audience sang along for nearly 90% of the concert, there was not a whiff of weariness in even the most obvious song choices.

The joint sets that opened and closed the show offered perhaps the most highlights. It was genuinely fascinating to hear the two legends trade verses and piano fills on their material. Obviously, each has the chops to both perform and improvise upon the other's music at a moment's notice, and a high point of the show was hearing the pair trade fours in the extended outro of "Bennie and the Jets". Their vocal swapping worked well in most instances, too, making songs like "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (and even the cliche adult-contemporary lilt of "Just The Way You Are") fresher and arguably better than their recorded counterparts. John found much of his rocker side again contributing to "You May Be Right", and even if Joel's vocal style struggled with "Candle in the Wind", he was able to elevate songs like "The Bitch Is Back" into leaner, more ragged rockers.

Following the opening four tunes, Joel's piano disappeared into the stage and John and his band began their proper set. From the moment he arrived on stage, Elton was a magnetic personality. His mere prescence energized the stadium, and from the opening notes of "Your Song", he had the audience hanging on his every note. Even his (slightly) lesser known songs like "Funeral for a Friend" and "I'm Still Standing" were aired to a nearly delirious reception. That's not to say he didn't include a hefty selection of the standard hits in his set; "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", "Philadelphia Freedom", and "Crocodile Rock" all got the standard treatment and had the crowd of mixed ages dancing, jumping around, and--in at least one merry fellow's case--falling over. Elton gave a nod to the live album revival with a suite from 1971's Madman Across the Water: "Levon", the title track, and "Tiny Dancer", the last getting a boost from Almost Famous as the audience sang along word for word. Incidentally, Elton mentioned that he will return to Gillette in October to serve as an honorary captain for the Patriots. I had known that he was a fan (and a personal friend of Robert Kraft's) but I had forgotten.

If Sir Elton's presence was comparable to that of a respected modern British composer, then Billy Joel was the rock-and-roller American everyman. Beginning with the "Wipeout"-inspired piano gymnastics of "Angry Young Man", Joel's set ripped through many of his most upbeat numbers. A tougher sounding "Movin' Out" and gritty "Allentown" followed before Joel introduced the biggest surprise of the evening in the jazzy "Zanzibar" from 1978's 52nd Street. Carl Fischer's trumpet got a fantastic ovation after a lengthy and demanding solo. "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" was well-received, but it was the interpolation of a complete verse of the Standell's "Dirty Water" in the caesura of "River of Dreams" (and in the same key, no less) that got the loudest roar of approval. A moment that did seem lost on the crowd was Billy's slyly inserted screenshot of Elton synched with the lyric "England's got a new queen" during "We Didn't Start The Fire"--a song that means "nothing at all", according to its composer. On the whole, Joel and his band offered tighter, better performances than when I caught him for his 2006 tour in Boston.

The show was not without its flaws. Several songs were transposed to accomodate their singer's aged vocal range; "Piano Man" in particular seemed uncomfortable for Elton John, while "Uptown Girl" seemed uncomfortable for the entire audience. Still, for a show that consisted of trotting out songs that everyone has heard many, many times, the performances were vibrant, exciting, and amazingly satisfying. The inevitable closer, "Piano Man", rounded out a fantastic show for a very good crowd on a Saturday.