Elton John & Billy Joel: Face 2 Face

Thursday, Matt, Mr. and Mrs. G., Jackie, Tom H., and I gathered at Matt's to set off for Citizen's Bank Park to tailgate, and eventually, see the two greatest pop piano players in history. While packing for the parking lot experience, I found and appropriated a pogo stick for the wait. We managed to arrive just as a new parking lot was opened, so we got to chill upon the grass of a median. My first attempts at pogosticking resulted in a top score of 3 hops. Tom and Mr. G both tied at 4. We discussed college, the artists at hand, and Matt took a picture of me with my hand on a beer (black mail!). My mom called and, despite my best reasoning, assumed that I was just there with a bunch of kids. Nearing 7 o'clock, we began the trek from our parking spot to the stadium. Tom and Matt both snuck in water bottles, because the security patted their middle section, but not their lowest cargo pockets. Oh well. It was sorta around this time I found out that our seats were on the field. I was stunned and delighted.

There were numerous antics from the fans around us. There was a fabulous man two rows ahead of us with a tongue piercing. There were two old guys cracking jokes with Tom all night. Behind us was a short, irritable woman who screamed at us to "sit the fuck down," even though every single row ahead of us was standing up... To our left, in section 108, there was a man in yellow in the very first row who very animatedly sang every Elton John song, sometimes to his miserable girlfriend. He was hilarious.

I think Billly Joel came out first, but I'm not entirely sure. The entire stadium erupted into cheers. Elton John came out, they bowed, hugged, sat down at pianos, and began playing Face2Face. I have no idea what order the songs were played in. Joel and John played together for maybe five or six songs, then Elton John took the stage solo. His guitarist had a new guitar for every song and a fan inexplicably always blowing his long, scraggly hair like in a Bollywood movie. Rocket Man was, by far, the longest song of the night. His jacket has a sequinned genie/waitress on it, his red, frameless glasses were bedazzled with real diamonds to spell "EJ," and his silver platform shoes had little colorful stars on them. He is quite the showman.

Billy Joel, on the other hand, is a dirty old man. He flexed, took off his jacket, swayed his pelvis, and was possibly the teeniest bit drunk. At one point, he shouted, this next song I'm going to play... doesn't mean shit... it's like... Louie Louie (which made me think of the shrimp). He started the intro to Hound Dog by Elvis Presley, but then started We Didn't Start the Fire. Because it was an extravagent concert, there were visuals flashing overhead to coincide with the lyrics of that particular song. On the line, "England's got a new queen..." they showed Elton John. Maybe halfway through his set, Billy Joel brought out one of his roadies from Chester to "sing a religious song." This old guy, very closely resembling Fat John of the high school's janitors, proceeded to sing "Highway to Hell" rather fantastically. Some of the old people around us who had not paid money to hear AC/DC sat down.

Elton John and Billy Joel came back together to sing. Elton had changed his jacket into one depicting him "Rocket Man," with all manner of glittery shooting stars. They played through some of their bigger hits, ending with Piano Man. During what should've been the last chorus, they stopped singing, and the whole stadium carried it out (mostly in tune!). Getting out of the stadium was a little troublesome, but we were in high spirits and not too eager to face the parking lot traffic. It was an utterly fantastic night. I got home before midnight too, which was nice.

Tom and I sang through most of the songs, Matt through a few.