Elton John & Billy Joel: Face 2 Face
So, on Thursday night, I went to see the John & John concert in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. This was an interesting experience for me. I’ve seen plenty of concerts with openers and headliners. I was at “Last Play at Shea” (Wednesday night show) when Billy Joel invited numerous guests (including Tony Bennett, John Mayer, and Don Henley) to play and sing various songs. I’ve even myself performed shows where a friend and I are playing each others’ songs. Face 2 Face is a different experience altogether.
Before I went to the concert, I did a little research as to exactly what was going to happen. It wasn’t the first show on the schedule, so it certainly had happened at least once this year, and with the advent of blogging (since the first time the Face 2 Face tour has happened) I was sure someone somewhere had posted something about it. Well, I wasn’t disappointed.
For those of you who have never been to a Face 2 Face concert, there is a typical setup for the concert. Billy Joel and Elton John go on stage and introduce a song from the other artist. Then, the associated bands show up and they play one song from each artist. Billy waves to the audience, and disappears into the darkness, letting Elton to his entire set. Once that is done, they switch off and Billy comes out to play his set. At the end of Billy’s set, Elton joins him back on stage, with both bands, and they do a few songs. Then, the bands disappear and the two play a few more songs to end off the show. Sadly, and I think this is tradition, the artists do not do an encore, mostly because of how specific they can get. I know from a performance side of things, it gets a little scary when setlists change night to night and you aren’t entirely sure how a song goes. I won’t get into the exact setlist until after the break, but I will highlight a few of my favorites here, for sure.
So, just as we get into the venue and close to our seats, Billy opens the show singing “Your Song,” arguably one of Elton’s most prolific songs. Mind you, this is 15 minutes before show time. Which is fantastic, because the other two Joel shows I’ve been to have started about 20 minutes late, rather than early. I think the most amazing thing about Billy Joel and Elton John playing with the “dueling piano” aspect of the show is one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard. You’d think you could tell the difference between the to pianos, but… you can’t. It literally sounds like one piano, even when you look down and realize that, yes, both of them are playing something.
As follows, the bands came out and played a few tunes before Billy waved his way off stage to let Elton play his entire set. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I basically know NOTHING about Elton John’s music, except for the most well known songs. So, the setlist below might be wrong, and if you know better than I do, let me know so I can make the change. The first thing I noticed about Elton’s set was that his drummer was wearing a bright pink shirt and white gloves. That I could see from almost at the end of the third base line in the top tier of seats. Without the use of the camera. Anyway, the best way for me to describe the Elton set is to use one word: sprawling. The first piece (which I believe turned out to be at least two songs with instrumentals) lasted almost 15 minutes. And the second piece I didn’t know seemed to do the same thing. I’m not sure if this was because I didn’t know many of his songs, so I was simply listening to music I didn’t know, or if it really was sprawling. But some of the pieces felt like they took forever and a half. Don’t get me wrong. It sounded great. I enjoyed the set and definitely listed the songs I knew. Elton just seemed… like he was doing what he had to do. Performing a show.
Being a good concert-goer (excepting the viewpoint of the venue, which would make more money closing earlier), I definitely did not want to see the end of Elton’s set. Alas, these things must happen, and he waved his way jovially off stage. Billy came up and continued the energy Elton left from “Crocodile Rock” with his own famous “Angry Young Man.” I think the best part of this song was actually me telling my fellow concert-goers that it really isn’t that hard to play, you just have to practice a bit. Besides that, this was a band I’d seen at least once, if not twice. As I expected, the music was great, and there was a very good order to what Billy did. He played fan favorites, and he played some that weren’t as well known, but he made up for that with the witty banter he included between his songs. One of the most interesting things about Billy Joel’s performance style is that he likes to… play classical ditties while he’s conversing to the audience. Every time I find myself going “what song is next?” and then realizing that he’s just playing the piano. Probably to give himself a second to think about what he’s about to say. Something Billy does during most of his shows is probably considered rather unorthodox. He gets rid of his piano (it skillfully disappears into a compartment under the stage) and dons an electric guitar. He then proceeds to tell the audience to “give this next one a shot” because his guitar roadie (aka Chainsaw) has been with him for 30 years, and loves to sing the next song. Probably one of the most energetic songs of the night turns out to be “Highway to Hell” as “Chainsaw” and the Billy Joel band give a rousing performance of this AC/DC classic.
Many of you might not know that the two or three shows previous had been canceled due to Billy Joel’s doctor telling him to not do anything strenuous for a 72-hour period earlier in the week. Despite that, Billy got on stage, addressed it, and said “I’m here, and I’m gonna give you what I got.” Even though he no longer has the voice he did when he recorded all of his hits and therefore had to sing almost every song in a lower key, he gave the audience what he had, and possibly even more. I know I was a little concerned when he finished playing “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and put his head down on his arms on the top of the piano.
Finally, Elton joined Billy on stage and the two and their bands gave a great combined closing set to the audience, ending with the Billy Joel classic, “Piano Man,” started, of course, by Elton. As I observed during the confusion as to whether or not there would be an encore, it’s fitting that the show opened with “Your Song” and ended with “Piano Man,” bookending the fantastic show with the arguably two most well-known and well-received classics from these two fantastic musicians.
Check the setlist (and some notes) after the break.