My concert bucket list isn't very long - I haven't actually put pen to paper and produced an actual list - but I think I have a pretty good idea of artists I'd actually pay my hard-earned money to see live and in person. One of them made an appearance in Denver earlier this month (No, I'm not talking about Taylor Swift) and so I actually coughed up the cash for a couple of nosebleed seats in the Pepsi Center.
Billy Joel. I went to see Billy Joel. The real guy.
I gained an appreciation for Billy Joel mainly through my ownership of a cassette tape containing his Greatest Hits Volume I & II, which remains as one of the best-selling albums of all time. He certainly made his name in the 1970s, before I was of music-listening age, but his eleventh album, Storm Front, came out when I was in junior high school. It featured his third and final Billboard #1 song, "We Didn't Start the Fire", so he also had some pop culture relevance during my teen years.
We got pretty much the cheapest seats in the house, because while I like Billy Joel I guess I don't like him several hundred dollars worth. As you're buying the tickets they really caution you - WARNING! THESE TICKETS ARE BEHIND THE STAGE! - but I didn't think they were that bad.
Billy Joel is old. And kind of large. In case you didn't know. One of the first cracks he made was, "I'm Billy's dad. . . Billy couldn't make it tonight." But physical appearances aside, he's still got it. He's an amazing musician. So many different styles of music, from the more tender piano-based "love" songs to the harder-edged "rock-and-roll" numbers to his "doo-wop" influenced the 1983 album An Innocent Man, which was a tribute to the music of the fifties and sixties. He also has his share of socially themed music and whatever category "We Didn't Start the Fire" fits into. Heck, Garth Brooks covered his song "Shameless", which reached number one on the country charts.
His last pop album, River of Dreams, was released 22 years ago, but he has such a huge catalog of beloved numbers that there were several he didn't even do during the 2 1/2 hour concert. He didn't sing "Just the Way You Are", which won a couple of Grammys back in the day, nor did he use "Tell Her About It", which is one of the three Billboard number one hits he has to his credit. (Although I just read that he hates playing those songs in concert so I guess that explains it.)
He played pretty much all his best loved and adored songs. I don't need to tell you what they are but here is the setlist if you want to see it. I enjoyed yelling "JFK/blown away/what else do I have to say" along with everyone else during We Didn't Start the Fire. Piano Man, of course, was the last number (before the encore) and of course everyone knows all the words. I don't necessarily have a favorite, but let's just say he played all my favorites. The photo below was taken during his performance of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood."
One of the great things about live concerts is how they "customize" the music for the evening. We heard stuff from The Four Seasons, The Lion King, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and John Denver. Also many others that I didn't pick up on.
My favorite part of concert-going aside from the music might be watching the other people. We were sitting about five rows behind a group of guys. One showed up wearing a white shirt and a tie and another had a ponytail. The first hour they were rocking it pretty hard, totally into the concert. The second hour, still rocking, but in between a lot of trips for more beer and probably trips to the restroom. And then the last hour they were nowhere to be seen. Not in their seats. So I'm not sure where they went, although we did see the white shirt guy reappear after the concert ended to retrieve something. I observed a similar phenomena of people starting off strong and then burning out when we went to Bon Jovi.
There was someone nearby who wasn't getting sufficient enjoyment from the music and so had to participate in some recreational drug use, which was really annoying, but legal, right? Actually, no, it seems like it would fall under the clean air act and is expressly forbidden per Pepsi Center policy. Otherwise it was a great evening.
Here's a link to the Denver Post's account of the concert, along with photos much better than what I had to share.
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