Musical Road Trip: Billy Joel Takes on Wahoo Territory
Recommended beverage
to go with this show:
We hit the Starr Hill Brewery just up the road before the show;
The Jomo (a German-style lager) was outstanding.
This has been a good weekend for the
Joel’s voice sounded in top form, though he snuck a few puffs from an inhaler now and then and frequently reached for the water bottle. A decade ago, he had trouble hitting some of the high notes but he continues to hit them, almost effortlessly, on this tour, most notably during “An Innocent Man.” He also clearly was having fun up there, joking with the crowd throughout the show about his age, looks, and spiked cost of his car insurance, talking as comfortably as if he was sitting in your living room. “I’m Billy’s dad,” he joked, adding that he didn’t have much hair anymore but that now he has more head.
He also promised a rocking show despite what the Roanoke Times predicted. It turns out, on its short list of things to do that week, a Roanoke Times columnist wrote, “Aww, yeah. The Piano Man will ROCK you. With his, uh, hard-driving, um, head-banging piano.”
As I see it, the paper could have rejected publishing this assessment that could only have been written by a 15-year-old intern, but then they’d be forced to publish something regionally appropriate like, “well, hold on dere, son, I ain’t heard of no Billy Joel; I thought they said it’d be a HillBilly Show.” At any rate, there was a brief head-banger portion, as Chainsaw—Billy’s long-time roadie—rocked the house as he has on every show this tour with a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” while Billy indeed rocked the rest of the show with classic, melodic, intelligent rock.
The setlist has remained fairly standard on this tour, which started early last year, though he has changed up a half-dozen songs here and there, offering surprise oldies. “Root Beer Rag” was a nice addition on Friday. Last year, in
I did have an anticlimactic-climactic moment at the show. Billy offered fans a choice between “Summer,
Truth be told, much of the
I’ve been a Billy Joel fan my entire life. His music has helped me through dark times and helped me celebrate the happy ones. It warms my heart to know that Billy himself is in good spirits, seemingly happy in life. He’s been sounding fantastic vocally, which must be a product of his current contentment. “It’s either sadness or euphoria,” he sings in the song he didn’t sing that night (because the crowd chose
on a personal note: These were my first-ever floor seats for a Billy show!
SETLIST
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now (from the album
Root Beer Rag (piano instrumental from the 1974 album, Streetlife Serenade)
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
An Innocent Man
Don't Ask Me Why
She's Always A Woman
Keeping The Faith
I Go To Extremes
The River of Dreams
Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover sung by his roadie)
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
You May Be Right
Only The Good Die Young
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man
2 Comments:
At 12:40 PM, Anonymous said…
I went to the millenium concert in MSG, 12/31/99, and he offered the choice as well; of course, in NYC, we all chose Summer Highland falls (my favorite as well). Too bad ht e "wahoos" in Virginia passed on it.
Can't wait for him to work his way back to Boston or if I need to roadtrip, NYC!
At 12:43 PM, Anonymous said…
BTW, it was nice of the Virginians to let you off the hook for the Yankee hat.... I don't have that luck up here in Boston.
My Yankee stuff and the Yankee dedicated (pinstriped walls and everything) family room is cause for ire from my neighbors.
It's fun being an NYC transplant in boston!!
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