Billy Joel: A Concert Review
An enthusiastic crowd of somewhere over 150 greeted Mr. Joel last night at the KFC Yum! Center. Mr. Joel immediately gained bonus points for not saying what a horrid, crappy name "KFC Yum! Center" is, and instead complemented the venue based on size and neatness (or so I read into his comments. I was seated approximately 1.3 miles away and 200 feet higher in elevation, so I may have missed some nuances.)
Speaking of venue and audience, I would also like to mention that all those people didn't smell that bad. How do you cram that many people into a building, and not have a terrific stink problem? I suppose that the ventilation system must be top-notch, but I think some credit must also go to Americans in general. Americans are very good bathers. This crowd was also very nicely dressed.
Mr. Joel played many crowd-pleasing favorites, and he played them just softly enough to allow me to hear the mellow, joyful voices of my wife and several thousand of our terraced seat-neighbors singing along with him. The songs, in my opinion, got better as the night wore on. Perhaps he was wearing me down? Or perhaps he was saving the best for last?
One of the evening's grand highlights was a belting performance of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" by Chainsaw, one of the road crew, with Mr. Joel on guitar. It was very nice of Mr. Joel to pause his piano performance for an homage to rock and roll, a genre for which he seems to have some fondness, though seems hesitant to venture into himself.
Despite my disappointment with the mysterious absence from the playlist of the theme song to "Bosom Buddies," the Tom Hanks/Peter Scolari cultural watershed from a generation ago, the evening was a delight.
Carlton Winwood opened for Mr. Joel. I may be mis-remembering the name. I did not recognize any of his songs, but from a great distance his shiny leather jacket and hat looked dashing.
What a review. I'll catch his next performance for sure.
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