Face-To-Face Concert (Billy Joel & Elton John)

The first concert we attended in 2009 was on Saturday, March 28 and featured about the biggest name acts available anywhere.  Even my mom acknowledged that they were big names and she usually hasn’t heard of the acts we see live.  We had always wanted to see either of them separately.  Together was even better and at a great venue like the Honda Center in Anaheim we couldn’t pass this up.  I’d enjoyed listening to both of them on the radio through most of the 1980’s.  The stations in Juneau liked to play them on the morning shows I listened to when I woke up and when I took the bus to school.  I never bought any of their records.  My wife had a few of their greatest hits CD’s.  They are probably some of the oldest acts we’ve seen, yet they’ve both been continuously popular.  They haven’t faded into obscurity like some other younger acts.

Like all concerts in Socal, the first step was getting to the venue.  We left around 6:00-6:15 pm and took the 210 east to the 57 south.  We had thought we could exit Katella but the Honda Center website said that Katella was often blocked off when there were concerts there.  Following the website’s recommendation we exited at the Ball Road exit, turned right (west) onto Ball Road, left (south) on Sunkist and then left (east) on Cerritos that turned right (south) into Douglas Road.  From there we thought we could turn left into the parking for the Honda Center as we had done in the past.  But some lanes were blocked and a sign said that only those with parking passes could turn left into the lot.  We followed some other cars and turned right into the parking lot for Westwood College that’s on the west side of Douglas Road, opposite Honda Center on the east side.  They charged $20 for parking, the same as they charged at Honda Center.  We parked close to one of the college buildings and followed the crowd of concertgoers across Douglas Road to the queues to get in.  As we waited we heard a security guard say that professional cameras with a long lens were not allowed, meaning that regular cameras were OK.  Security consisted of getting wanded and opening bags and purses.  We entered the venue and passed where they were selling merch, food, and where someone was selling tickets to a wine tasting.  We climbed up the stairs to the top level (400) and found the sign for our section (407).  To get to our seats we had to climb to the very top, to the back row, row U.  It was a long, high, and steep climb.  Still, the seats weren’t that bad.  They were on the left side towards the back.  We arrived at our seats at 7:15 pm.

On the way in we noticed that most of the other concertgoers were older than us.  Some looked like they were our parents’ age or not much younger.  The only younger concertgoers looked like they came with their parents.  I noticed that very few wore T-shirts.  Many men wore polo shirts or shirts with collars.  They looked more like they were going to an orchestra (though business casual) than a rock & roll concert.  A few wore T-shirts and one older guy wore a Beatles T-shirt and a “Hard Day’s Night” cap.  The concertgoers were mostly Caucasians with a few Asians also in the mix.  After we sat down, we noticed more people who looked to be around our age sitting in the upper rows.  I guess our age group can only afford the cheap seats high up in the back.  Well, they could have been worse.  Every seat in Honda Center was sold, even the ones on the top level behind the stage.  Talk about nosebleed seats.

The stage did not have a backdrop but was open all around.  It was curved in front and back and it looked like it was made of brown wood paneling, though probably faux.  The front had the lowest and largest space.  A few steps up and behind it was a narrowest space: a long curved ledge with a rail in the back.  Against the rail rested many instruments, some in stands: several guitars, a saxophone, trumpet and a trombone.  There were also eight microphones stands set up on the ledge.  Behind the rail was a larger space with six slightly lowered panels.  The stage had long curved ramps in front so people entering from the sides could easily get up on it.  Above the stage was a large treble clef and bass clef that looked like they could be lit up.  Between them were musical notes in white lights against a black background.  This setup mixed in with large banks of spotlights and speakers.   Another large bank of spotlights hung above the first few rows of floor seats.  Canned music played over the speaker including the song “Laid” by James.  In early October we saw the band James perform at the House of Blues Anaheim.

Around 7:40 pm a couple of guys came by and said we were in their seats.  It turned out we had sat down in section 408 by mistake.  We hastily made our way to the top level of row 407 as the lights dimmed and the canned music got louder and mellower at the same time.  On stage two large motorized sliding trap doors opened and two large black grand pianos rose through them.  They were set up so that the players would face each other and the audience in front of the stage would see them from the side.  The audience cheered and cheered even more loudly as Billy Joel and Elton John walked on stage from opposite sides and sat down at the pianos, Elton John at the one on the left and Billy Joel at the one on the right.  They then started playing and singing Elton John’s “Your Song” with only their piano playing for accompaniment.  Billy Joel sang the first verse, Elton John sang the next and they alternated vocals.  Meanwhile we made our way to our seats.  It was hard because the only light on in the venue were the spotlights on Billy Joel and Elton John.  We made it to the top (back row) of section 407 and, to get to our seats, we went behind them and climbed over.  The performers then sang and played Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” again alternating vocals and with only piano accompaniment.  Through my binoculars I saw that Billy Joel was wearing a gray suit, black shirt and no tie.  Elton John wore black pants and what looked like a black shirt or suit coat with long tails in the back.  There was writing in bright yellow letters on the back of his shirt/coat.  He also wore slightly tinted sunglasses, an earring, and had bright blond short hair.  Toward the end of the song a saxophone player joined them on stage.  He wore a black pinstriped suit and red shoes.

Things got brighter for the next song, Elton John’s mellow but more grandiose “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”.  Orange, red, and yellow spotlights shined on stage.  Other lights shined out on the audience and we were not longer sitting in the dark but in a virtual sunset.  The lights alternated blue and green.  Out of the panels in the back of the stage rose a drummer with full kit, keyboard player with keyboards, and standing percussionist with a set of congas and other instruments.  A guitarist, bassist and other musicians joined them on the narrow midstage.  Elton John and Billy Joel again sang alternate verses.  At the end of the song the audience on the floor gave them a standing ovation.  Elton John and Billy Joel got up and conferred a bit before sitting back down at their pianos.  Billy Joel would always refer to his co-performer as “Sir Elton John.”  They started playing their pianos very fast and went into a rockin’ version of “California Here I Come”.  The audience clapped out the rhythm and the spotlights shone purple and red.  The music then changed into Billy Joel’s “My Life” that mentions the West Coast and L.A.  The musical notes in lights and their black background that hung above the stage became a screen that showed Billy Joel and Elton John singing.  At the end of the song Billy Joel left the stage and his piano lowered back through its trap door.

There was the sound of wind followed by loud orchestral sounds accompanied by a loud guitar solo.  Elton John played his piano and soon added vocals.  It was a long, rockin’ song about having “this feeling in my hand.”  Elton John’s band consisted of a keyboard player, drummer, percussionist, guitarist, and bassist.  The guitarist had long blond hair and the bassist had long black hair.  We would learn later that Billy Joel would have a different band.  The steps between the different levels onstage also served as screens and green light flashed on them along with the larger screen above the stage.  Towards the end of the song the music got very fast and was accompanied by blinking spotlights.  The next song was the more familiar “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”.  Blue lights blinked on stage and images of burning skulls and dinosaurs moved across the screens.  Elton John added a long piano solo at the end.

Following that song, the sixth of the evening, Elton John said, “Good evening” and mentioned that it was the 40th year since his first visit to Los Angeles.  “I am so lucky,” He remarked.  He then said the next song was from the album “Tumbleweed Connection” and it was “Burn Down the Mission”.  I had heard the song at least once before on 100.3 FM, The Sound.  “Tumbleweed Connection” was in the Album Madness competition put on by the station.  It’s a slow to mid-speed song with these fast instrumental interludes where Elton John played some fast piano.  The screen showed religious imagery: angels and the Virgin Mary.  Towards the end they sang a loud, fast chorus of “Burn it Down” and the screens depicted flames.  Elton John mentioned that the next two songs were from the album “Madman Across the Water.”  The first was the title track that I hadn’t heard before, a dark, heavy song with a loud bass drum beat.  Blue and green lights shined on the stage and the song had a long instrumental end.  The next song was more familiar.  Before singing it, Elton John said he could only see the first few rows but still noticed that there were “many beautiful girls here.”  He dedicated the next song to all the beautiful girls and it began with him singing and playing the piano.  It was “Tiny Dancer” and the audience loved it, singing along to the words “softly, slowly”.  By this time it was 8:30 pm so Earth Hour had begun, though they didn’t really do anything to observe it at the concert.

Elton John said, “Feel free to sing along” to the next three songs.  He sang the mellow but very popular “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with yellow spotlights shining on the stage and into the audience.  He then sang the equally popular and mellow but less grandiose “Daniel”.  Next he sang “Rocket Man” that starts slow and gets faster and grander.  Strange, psychedelic images appeared on the screen: large flowers in outer space, images of a younger Elton John, rows of pink flamingos.  It showed a rocket taking off with Elton John’s smiling face on the side.  Blue lights shone in the audience.  The song ended with a long piano solo and the repeated line “I’m a Rocket Man.”   Elton John got up to shake hands with some of the audience and then returned to his piano and played a solo to begin the song “Levon”.  It started slower but got louder when the rest of the band joined in after the first verse.  They ended the song with the repeated line “he shall be Levon.”  He played another fast piano solo that led into the loud, fast, and defiant song “I’m Still Standing”.  The screens showed a view of flying over a black and red checkerboard with white lines separated into squares on the sides.  There were blue and white spotlights blinking and the drum was loud and prominent.

The fast organ chords began the next song: “Crocodile Rock,” a favorite on radio morning shows in Juneau, Alaska when I was younger.  The screens showed images of cartoons.  Different colored spotlights blinked and many people on the floor stood up and danced.  Elton John had the audience sing the high-noted words “La la la la la la . . . . ”  At the end the screen showed the faces of the crowd singing.  After they finished the band left the stage.  Elton John bowed and left and the lights went dark.  The screen showed the words “Elton wows em”.

The spotlights shone onstage revealing a different band.  They played similar instruments: drums, keyboards, percussion; but they had risen from alternate panels from Elton John’s band.  There was also a guitarist, bassist, saxophone player (same as before in black pinstripe suit and red shoes) and a musician who switched between trumpet, trombone, and background vocals.  Elton John’s piano had been put away and Billy Joel’s piano was there.  Billy Joel came out onstage, sat down at the piano and they played a fast, ranting song.  Billy Joel played some fast piano and sang about “an angry young man.”  I didn’t know that song, but I knew the next one.  With a “1-2-3-4” they played “Moving Out” that featured a very loud bass drum.  The African-American woman playing percussion picked up a saxophone and joined the main sax player and trombone player as they played and danced in the front part of the stage.

As the applause from “Moving Out” quieted Billy Joel said, “Thank you and good evening, Anaheim.”  He introduced a member of his band and would introduce others after most of his songs.  They were from many different places such as Brooklyn, NY; New Jersey; Indiana; and one member of the band was from right there in Orange County.  Billy Joel addressed the audience behind the stage.  “Those seats aren’t too bad, right?”  He turned to the audience to the side of the stage and said, “It’s you who are getting screwed.  Actually, you’re getting a lot of head.”  It was a joke since they saw the back of Billy Joel’s head when he sat at the piano.  He described how he was a solo artist so he couldn’t break up with himself.

A factory whistle signaled that the next song as the very topical “Allentown”.  It’s about a factory town affected by a bad economy.  The screens showed images of the inside of a car factory and American flags.  Billy Joel’s piano revolved around as he sang.  Before the next song Billy Joel said, “Thank you for buying tickets to our show.  We’re happy to have jobs.”  He explained that the next song was from the 1978 album “57th Street” and was called “Zanzibar”.  He wasn’t sure if it was a single.  It was fast and also sounded very ‘70’s.  It featured the trombone/trumpet player who played two different trumpets for different parts of the song.  The screens showed images of boxers boxing and baseball players.  After the song Billy Joel introduced the trumpet player and spoke with a mock accent, either German or Norwegian, I couldn’t tell.

Billy Joel mentioned that the next song was from the album “Glass Houses”.  It was the mid-speed rant “Don’t Ask Me Why”.  They then slowed down with “She’s Always a Woman”.  The audience sang along with the chorus.  I wasn’t as familiar with the next song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”.  It started slowly with the lyrics “Bottle of red, bottle of white . . . ”  The scenes showed restaurant employees setting up the table cloths.  The song got faster and sounded like old-style Nawlins jazz a bit.  There was a saxophone solo.  The sax player and other horn players would wave goodbye when Billy Joel sang “Waving goodbye.”  Towards the end they went back to the slow part from the beginning “Bottle of red, bottle of white . . . ”  For the next song they performed the fast, fun “River of Dreams” that begins “In the middle of the night, I got walking in my sleep . . . ”  The song seemed louder with more sound then I’m used to hearing in it.  In the middle of the song they did one verse and chorus of the Beach Boy’s “California Girls.”  Billy Joel finished the song with a long piano solo.

Billy Joel stood up and his piano went back down its trap door.  The staff set up a microphone, handed him a guitar and they performed the fast, kinetic “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”  On the screen they showed pictures of everything mentioned in the song: Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television, etc.  But for “England’s got a new queen” they showed a picture of a young Elton John.  During the last chorus, they just showed fire on the screen.  Billy Joel put down his guitar and the band played some blues music.  Billy Joel sang the lines “What does it mean?” and “It doesn’t mean anything”.  The song quickly turned into “It’s still Rock and Roll to me.”  During the instrumental parts Billy Joel tossed and spun his microphone stand.  At the end he threw it high across the stage where it was caught by a staffer.  Billy Joel’s piano returned and they played the fun but slightly morbid “Only the Good Die Young”.  At the end the entire band stood in the front part of the stage and bowed.  Billy Joel said, “Thank you, Orange County” and the lights went out.  It was 10:30 pm.

The cheering and applause were loud and it didn’t take long for the stage lights to turn back on to reveal Elton John, Billy Joel, and both their bands combined.  The back of the stage had two keyboard players, two drummers, and two percussionists.  Midstage there were two bassists, two guitarists, and several other musicians.  There was only one main saxophone player, though, the one introduced by Billy Joel with the black pinstripe suit and red shoes.  Elton John was wearing a different black suitcoat or shirt with tails.  This one didn’t have the yellow writing on the back but just had what looked like streaks of gold glitter.  They played Elton John’s song “That’s Why they Call it the Blues.”  It sounded faster than the familiar recorded version.  Naturally, blue lights shone around the stage.  They then did the more upbeat Billy Joel song “Uptown Girl”.  I could see Billy Joel flexing his arm muscles when he sang the line “I’m not so tough.”  With these two songs they alternated singing verses as they did for the songs at the beginning.  The next song started with fast and fun music from the bands.  Both Elton John and Billy Joel climbed on top of their pianos.  Elton John climbed down and they performed “The Bitch is Back”, a loud and fast song accompanied by fast blinking lights.  Billy Joel’s sax player did a solo.  They then performed Billy Joel’s ranting song “You May be Right” that had very loud piano playing.

The loud piano continued and they performed Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets.”  The spotlights shone purple, blue, orange, and white.  Billy Joel’s piano revolved.  Blue spotlights shone on half the audience and white shone on the other half.  When each loud piano note of the chorus played the color switched: the white half turned blue and the blue half white.  They ended the song with dueling piano solos.  They then wished everyone in the audience with a birthday “happy birthday” and for them (“Rather than the usual song” as Elton John said) they performed the Beatles song “You Say it’s Your Birthday.”  They followed that with another Beatles song, the fast “Back in the USSR”.  The band left after that song and with only their pianos for accompaniment, Elton John and Billy Joel performed “Candle in the Wind”.  They alternated singing verses as they had for the past several songs.  Billy Joel sang soulfully and the audience sang along with the chorus.  For the next song, that would be the last, Billy Joel had a harmonica set up so he could play it without holding it.  I think it was around his neck but I couldn’t tell even with binoculars.  They then performed Billy Joel’s signature tune “Piano Man”.  Even though it was just the two of them playing pianos and harmonica, the sound seemed to fill up the venue.  The audience sang along.  I don’t remember what was one the screens, just the great music.  Towards the end, Elton John improvised one of the lines a bit: “You’re a very good crowd for a Saturday . . . ”  They finished, bowed, and left the stage to a long standing ovation.  It was 11:13 pm.

The lights went out, the audience cheered and it seemed as if there might even be another encore, but soon the lights came back on and the canned music returned.  It took a while to work our way through the crowd of middle-aged people down the stairs, out of the Honda Center and across Douglas Road to the Westwood College parking lot.  Traffic was jammed all through the lot.  When we finally reached the exit to the street, we could only turn left (north) onto Douglas Road.  They seemed to have turned it into a one-way street as it veered left (west) into Cerritos Ave.  We carefully merged to the rightmost lane and turned right (north) on Sunkist.  Next we turned right (east) on Ball Road.  To get on the 57 freeway north, we stayed towards the right.  The entrance is on the right side after the entrance to go south and after driving under the freeway.  It’s one of those loops.  We made it home after 12 am on Sunday, March 29, 2009.

Well, Billy Joel and Elton John put on an impressive show.  Not bad for a couple of 59- and 60-year olds.  Our cousin with whom we discussed the concert later said Elton John should have introduced his band as Billy Joel did.  They didn’t perform all the songs that we knew such as Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time” and Elton John’s “Sad Songs they say So Much” but they did many of the big songs along with a few lesser known ones.  We’re glad Billy Joel did the very timely “Allentown”.  It was also cool to see them singing and performing each other’s songs.

Yeah, “Moving Out” of the parking lot was difficult but it turned out that “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” traffic.