Still rock 'n roll to me

03/04/2007

We went to see Billy Joel in concert this weekend. I was a little concerned that this would be disappointing: if you’ve seen picture of him lately he looks more like Alan King than Billy Joel.

We had great seats—floor, 7th row center. We’d see every detail, for better or worse.

As it turned out, it was an awesome concert. No ballads, no crappy Uptown Girl pop junk. Despite his advancing age (he jokingly introduced himself as “Billy Joel’s Dad”), he pulled it off with power and conviction. Would that we all had that level of energy and intensity at any age.

He played a lot of B-sides and lesser heard pieces, including a ferocious version of Zanzibar, featuring some stratospheric trumpet and flugel horn by budding Maynard Ferguson wanna-be Carl Fischer.

He also played a couple of ragtime bits (well, one full one and a couple of bits of noodling in between pieces).

Then, for added punch (and to rest his hands from those 64-note runs while he played guitar), he brought on a roadie who goes by the nickname “Chainsaw” to belt out a marvelous tribute to AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”. Billy told us to consider this song as we drove home from the arena, and sure enough, the mis-managed traffic in the parking lot of the RBC center did not disappoint.

Other than that, two thumbs way up.