Piano Man

Great concert! Billy Joel played for 2 1/2 hours (27 songs) without a break. When one of his beer-belly crew members in baggy shorts came on stage to sing AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," we thought Billy would take a break. But, no...he played back-up on guitar!

There were 9 performers on stage. I hadn't realized how prominent the saxophone was in so many of his songs. The sax and trumpet players were fantastic! The piano rotated a few times so Billy could face different segments of the audience.

A small teleprompter was right on top of the piano and keyboards so Billy wouldn't forget the words. He even used it for his "ad-lib" comments between songs. One interesting note is that for "We Didn't Start the Fire," he wasn't at the piano. He was at the microphone, and had his eyes closed the whole time. I don't think he used a teleprompter when standing at the mike on stage, but I'm not sure. It sure looked like his eyes were closed, and not looking downward at words.

For his 2 encores, he played with the audience. He'd pretend to leave the stage, then turn around back to the piano. Each time he retreated, the audience booed, when he approached the piano, they cheered. It was funny. Boo-yay, boo-yay, boo-yay, etc.

For "Good Night Saigon," 6 soldiers were on stage and everybody cheered for them each time the lights shined on them.

One of the ushers gave us a copy of the playlist. It was sort of like the East Coast Update spoiler thread, knowing in advance what would happen. Loved it!