TITLE: You May Be Right
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 28, 2022 4:12 PM
DESC:
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BODY:
I first saw Billy Joel perform live in 1983, with a college roommate and
our girlfriends. It was my first pop/rock concert, and I fancied myself
the biggest Billy Joel fan in the world. The show was like magic to a
kid who had been listening to Billy's music on vinyl, and the radio, for
years.
Since then, I've seen him more times than I can remember, most recently
in 2008. My teenaged daughters went with me to that one, so it was magic
for more reasons than one. I've even seen
a touring Broadway show built around his music.
So, yeah, I'm still a fan.
On Saturday morning, I drove to Elkhart, Indiana, to meet up with three
friends from college to go see Billy perform outdoors at Notre Dame
Stadium. We bought our tickets in October 2019, pre-COVID, expecting to
see the show in the summer of 2020. After two years of postponement,
Billy, the venue, and the fans were ready to go. Six hours is a long
way to drive to see a two- or three-hour show, especially knowing that I
had to drive six hours back the next morning. I'm not a college student
any more!
You may be right; I may be crazy. But I would drive six hours again to
see Billy. Even at 73, he puts on a great show. I hope I have that kind
of energy -- and the desire to still do my professional thing -- when I
reach that age. (I don't expect that 50,000 students will pay to see me
do it, let alone drive six hours.) For this show, I had the bonus of
being able to visit with good friends, one of whom I've known since grade
school, after too long a time.
I went all fanboy in
my short post about the 2008 concert,
so I won't bore you again with my hyperbole. I'll just say that Billy
performed "She's Always A Woman" and "Don't Ask Me Why" again, along
with a bunch of the old favorites and a few covers: I enjoyed his
impromptu version of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", bobbles and all.
He played piano for one of his band members, Mike DelGuidice, who sang
"Nessun Dorma". And the biggest ovation of the night may have gone to
Crystal Taliafero, a multi-talented member of Billy's group, for her
version of "Dancing in the Streets" during the extended pause in "The
River of Dreams".
This concert crowd was the most people I've been around in a long time...
I figured a show in an outdoor stadium was safe enough, with precautions.
(I was one of the few folks who wore a mask in the interior concourse and
restrooms.) Maybe life is getting back to normal.
If this was my last time seeing Billy Joel perform live, it was a worthy
final performance. Who knows, though. I thought 2008 might be my last
live show.
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