Among the signs in the crowd was one from a fan thanking Joel, saying his music helped them through chemo and radiation.Early in the night, Joel briefly reminisced about his first Milwaukee concert back in 1976, when he opened for Sha Na Na.View Gallery: Look back at 40 years of Billy Joel concerts in Milwaukee
RELATED: From Milwaukee to Madison to Green Bay, concert business is booming across Wisconsin RELATED: These are all the Milwaukee arena, amphitheater and stadium concerts happening in 2019 Who cares about the charts when you've got songs that will last forever? His voice, though, frequently hit the right, nostalgic notes, evoking the bluster of "Big Shot," the sinful flirtiness of "Only the Good Die Young," the smitten doo-wop charm of "Uptown Girl." Practically every song was sung from behind the piano, which itself was stationed on a rotating stage.įor the tender and empowering "She's Always a Woman," screens showed smiling female fans gently singing along and swaying to the melody. And "Piano Man" was a delight, with Joel comically offering deep exhales before those sweet harmonica notes filled the air, cellphone lights sparkled across the stadium and thousands of voices echoed his immortal words. "We Didn't Start the Fire" was surprisingly dreadful, with Joel looking physically anguished yelling out the rat-a-tat, name-dropping lyrics - including that shout-out to Liberace. Largely, though, Joel and the band presented his catalog as memory had preserved them - right down to those terribly dated keyboards on "The Entertainer" and the factory-work sound effects for "Allentown." He shook his hips and twirled his mic stand like a baton for "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," and there was a cute dig at old tourmate Elton John's "don't have much money" line from "Your Song."īut a sweet "New York State of Mind" - with sublime piano work by Joel and radiant sax work by Mark Rivera - was soured by a flyswatter bit and Joel practically belching out a low note at the end for chuckles. By the end, Chainsaw was blasting the stage with a fire extinguisher.Ĭhainsaw was quite a character, but Joel, too, was happy to supply his own comic relief - with mixed results. It would have seemed more out of the blue were it not for the random but welcome covers that slipped into the two-hour show, from a fitting "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" instrumental to a swinging "Sledgehammer," by Peter Gabriel.Īnd there was some opera, if you could believe it, Giacomo Puccini's immortal aria "Nessun Dorma," with backing vocalist and guitarist Mike DelGuidice gorgeously singing over Joel's elegant piano work, leading into the sprawling "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant."Įven more shocking: a blistering "Highway to Hell," which managed to get Joel out from behind the stool at the piano to play guitar hero, while letting a guy from the road crew named Chainsaw stomp around, unleashing a fiery snarl that could have made Bon Scott blush.
The soulful rhythms of "The River of Dreams" - a rendition more organic and engrossing than the over-produced '93 recording - flowed into the breezy charms of the Eagles' "Take It Easy." And the rousing finish on "You May Be Right" ripped into overdrive with a Led Zeppelin "Rock and Roll" chaser.
0 kommentar(er)
