Face 2 Face

Ok this post is about my life without 4 children. At least temporarily. Phil and I celebrated our anniversary early (it'll be 11 years on the 21st) by going to see Billy Joel and Elton John in concert together. I saw them in concert together 15 years ago with friends of mine and loved it so I knew we HAD to see this. I actually found the tshirt I bought at that concert. Even more amazingly I actually still fit into it. Ok it was a little tighter now than when I first bought it, but I was impressed that I was able to get it on! So off we went. The concert was AWESOME!!! The format was fairly similar to what I remember them doing 15 years ago. They played a couple songs together, then each one did a set of 7-8 songs alone then they finished up with a couple more together.

We had seats on the extreme right side of the stage (as you're looking at the stage-extreme left if you were on stage looking out) and up in the nosebleed section. And those tickets alone were STINKIN' expensive! I paid as much for a tshirt tonight as I paid for the whole concert back then. And I remember griping about the high price then too. hee hee hee. Anyway, we found our seats and were waiting. The lights dimmed and the crowd cheered. Then onstage 2 empty pianos rose out of the floor facing each other and the crowd cheered louder. Everything got dark and we heard the sounds of "Yankee Doodle" playing as Billy Joel came on stage. There was some cute British song that played when Elton came on, but I can't remember what it is or where I've heard it before. What is the British equivalent of "Yankee Doodle?" They sang 3 or 4 songs as duets, which was just so cool! After the first song, they started playing something by Bach. It was very electronic and un-Bach-like but very cool. I just think they were trying to keep the audience guessing because that was the intro for Billy's song "My LIfe."

Billy lef the stage and Elton played 6 or 7 songs, several of which I admit I didn't recognize. He was not terribly talkative between songs-just waved to the crowd and kept playing. He did "Benny & the Jets," "Saturday Night's Alright" and finished his set with "Crocodile Rock." (of course-how could he not do that song?) When he first walked out, I was impressed at how conservatively he was dressed, considering his reputation for flamboyancy. He had on a royal blue shirt and a balck jacket and pants with royal blue sunglasses. I was impressed until the camera showed the huge, green, sparkly, sequined crocodile on the back of his jacket. Hee hee hee.

So he finished up and left and Billy took the stage. (Don't you love the way I call him "Billy" like we're friends or something?!) He did "Allentown," "Only a Woman to Me." WHile he was playing, his piano was moving slowly in a circle so everyone could see his face while he was playing. I have no idea how they did that. I wonder how he kept his composure trying to play and sing while the scenery kept changing as his piano moved. Anyway. . . He left the piano and started dancing with one of those microphones in a stand and was clowning around with it for a bit. He did a few Elvis-type moves and some Fred Astair-type dancing (did anyone see Fred Astair dance with the coat-rack in "Royal Wedding?") and finally sang "We Didn't Start the Fire." This is one of my favorite songs of his because I know all the words. It took me several years to learn them all. For those of you not familiar with this particular tune, it lists dozens of significant events in the last 50 years or so of American history. It's a big list and goes fast so it's hard to learn them all but I did.

Then they brought back Sir Elton and his piano for a final round of duets to close the show. In the mist of Billy's song "River of Dreams," they unexpectedly launched into playing "Hang on Sloopy." The crowd, which to this point had been cheering but sitting down, jumped to their feet and started singing along. For those of you who aren't native Ohioans, "Hang On Sloopy" is Ohio's official state rock song. The whole crowd was singing along ("Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on. . . ) and doing the motions (put your hands over your head to form an "O" - put both hands up in the air parallel to each other to form an "H" - bring your arms together to form an "I" - then make another "O") The just as abruptly they went back to "River of Dreams" again. They also sang Happy Birthday to someone who was apparently celebrating today. Do you know the version that goes, "You say it's your birthday? It's my birthday too yeah!" They also did "Back in the USSR," "Candle in the Wind," "Uptown Girl," and of course had to close with "Piano Man." At one point Billy and Elton stopped singing and playing and let the audience do the chorus. So there we all were, singing acapella with thousands of other people: "Sing us a song, you're the piano man. Sing us a song tonight." It was amazing! One of the lines in that song is "It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday" which they thoughtfully changed to "It's a pretty good crowd for a Tuesday" since today was Tuesday. Lots of cheers for that of course. It was an absolutely fabulous concert!!!!!!!!! And the cool thing was that there was a huge age range of people there. Lots of people in their 30s, but also some people that looked to be about half my age (late teens/very early 20s) as well as some that looked to be almost twice my age (in their 60s somewhere). How cool is that? Personally I can't believe they are still touring. Elton John has been giving concerts since before I was born. In fact, during "Crocodile Rock" the giant screens were showing newspaper headlines from some of his very early concerts, talking about how he got the crowd singing and stamping their feet and what a great career he would probably have.

I'm sure there are things I've forgotten but that's all for now. I'm getting tired, but wanted to write this down before I forgot it. I wish I had brought my camera!!!!