Sir Elton and our favorite Long Island boy finally make their way to Albany, 3/11/10

No one likes to pay a whole lot of money for concert tickets – especially in a bad economy (you knew it was coming), and especially because the people to whom we’re paying all this money are far richer than any of us will ever be.

And when we pay a lot for concert tickets – and two headliners on one tour cancel the same date twice – we have a reason to be impatient, at the very least.

But if you looked at the crowd at the Times Union Center on Thursday night, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that the packed house – and what looked very much like a sold-out crowd – was disappointed not just once, but twice, by the two rock gods on stage. 

They sure didn’t disappoint this time. On top of the absolute treat of being able to hear Sir Elton John and Billy Joel sing together, the audience got to hear the very best of the best of their fantastic catalogs, each spanning 30 years.

I would start at the very beginning (a very good place to start), but I can’t give you a play-by-play.  I had a true Albany experience – it took me over a half hour to find a place to park because I didn’t want to pay $20 to do so, which meant that I missed the first two or three songs, then pissed off the professional journalists who were being paid to review the show by scooching down the row to my seat, interrupting what were undoubtedly several very serious note-taking processes. (Props to my homeboy from the Gazette who whipped out his Macbook and had his review nearly finished by the time Candy and Ronnie saw ‘Bennie and the Jets.’ We bloggers cower at deadlines.)

Sir Elton went on first for about an hour, followed by Joel, before they ended the show together. (I came in just as the beginning of the show where they played together, was ending. Of course.)

During each of their sets, both John and Joel apologized for the postponements and thanked the audience for coming. John joked, “I was 51 when this gig was booked.”

John played hits like ‘Levon’ (it sounded gorgeous), ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,’ ‘Daniel’ and ‘I’m Still Standing.’

At the beginning of the second solo set, Joel asked that a spotlight be shined on his banner that hangs in the TU Center, boasting his all-time highest box office sales.

“Did His Majesty see that?” he asked. “That’s pianist envy.”

That was just the beginning of his antics. Because it was their last show on the Face2Face tour, Joel said he felt like it was the last day of school – which gave him the opportunity to goof off at every turn. He spoke in a foreign accent, he played a whistle that sounded like a bird in nearly all of his songs then giggled with his band members, he autographed a sign for a fan, and best of all, he invited a roadie (named Chainsaw) to sing a cover of ‘Highway to Hell’ onstage, to a packed arena.

All of this, as he played hits like ‘It’s Still Rock n’Roll To Me,’ ‘Only the Good Die Young,’ ‘Allentown,’ and a rocking ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire,’ which he did sans piano.

After they played a few songs together – ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues,’ ‘Uptown Girl,’ ‘The Bitch Is Back,’ ‘You May Be Right’ – John and Joel ended without the band, each singing each others’ biggest and most sentimental songs – ‘Candle in the Wind,’ and ‘ Piano Man.’ Important note: for such huge superstars, they both very graciously thanked their band and seemed genuinely appreciative of their talents. The girl in Joel’s band was amazing – she played nearly every instrument on stage at various points in the show.

One great part about the whole ordeal: no sitting through long, boring solos. Each played everything pretty true-to-form, which is good for us Gen Y-ers who get antsy with long, unplanned solos. (I’m talking to you, Dave Matthews. You and your 47-minute versions of ‘Two Step’ at SPAC.) Because each had to fit so many hits into a three-hour show, it was all tight and concise – only the hits, and nothing that was totally foreign. There might have been a song or two I wasn’t crazy about, but I knew all of them without being an obsessive super-fan, and I wasn’t bored or praying for the next song – which I’ve done at shows by even my very favorite bands.

Plus, they both pronounced “Albany” (“awl-buh-nee”) correctly, which gives them an A+ on the Visiting Rock Star Test. Joel got 10 extra credit points for asking the folks behind the stage how their seats were, following it up with, “You could be sitting out there in Schenectady with those people,” as he pointed down to the nosebleed seats on the other end of the arena. There’s not a cheaper way to win over a crowd.

Listen to these guys live and compare them with other artists who have been around as long as they have. Both have always been consistent hit-makers who have sordid, Behind-The-Music-esque histories, but their voices and their talents haven’t changed. In fact, they sound better – and Elton John looks better than ever. (Don’t believe me? Google that guy from any period before 1995.) Watching them do what they love best is inspiring.

And if you’re cynical like me, and doubt whether they really love doing this, you might think: how many thousands of times has Billy Joel sang ‘Piano Man?’ When Elton John wrote ‘Tiny Dancer,’ did he think he would sing it 10,000 more times for the next 50 years of his life? Who wants to do that?

Billy Joel and Elton John want to do that, and that’s what makes them true artists. All you needed to do was watch them play one-handed, sing with gusto the words they have sung innumerable times before, nearly knock the piano stool over because they were playing that hard. That’s when you’ll see the passion you only see when you’re witnessing someone do what they love best in all the world. 

And that’s why Elton John and Billy Joel can cancel two concerts, and all of us in Albany will still show up eight months later and tell all of our friends: yes, it sure was worth the wait.

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