I am probably not Billy Joel’s primary demographic. After all, I’m in my mid-20s, an age more suited to Global Gathering than a Billy Joel concert. And while Global Gathering had a stellar lineup (though not necessarily stellar fashion), I just could not turn down the chance to see the Piano Man last Sunday. This was the music I grew up listening to, yes, I’m going to say it – this was my parent’s music, and I can’t help but love it.
After all, here is a performer who after more than three decades and some serious hair loss is still debuting songs (he played Christmas in Fallujah for the first time ever at the Perth show) and packing stadiums.
He is the consummate entertainer, sticking to his roots as a through and through New Yorker – self-effacing and sarcastic – and playing the perfect mix of obscure (including the instrumental piece Root Beer Rag from Streetlife Serenade, the album Joel told the audience that ‘no one bought’) and the well-known. He mixed in two well-chosen covers, tailored to his audience, Waltzing Matilda and AC/DC’s Highway to Hell (performed by Billy Joel’s roadie of 30 years Chainsaw).
Yet, while Billy Joel stuck to the tried and true concert formula – between song banter and wisecracks, some rock style showmanship, and the songs that get the crowds singing and the songs that give them something new – he also added some of those secret ingredients that make a concert something more and explain why 35 years since he penned Piano Man, he is still selling out world tours.
It comes down to two things – pure talent and the ability to connect to the audience. Mr Joel and his ensemble of nearly a dozen musicians have the talent in droves. The 23-song set featured a wide-range of instruments, expertly arranged and played. There was the call-and-answer of the sax on New York State of Mind, the bongo drums on River of Dreams, and the flute on She’s Always a Woman to Me, just to name a few.
With the music near to perfection and the songs as classic as they have always been, Billy pretty well sealed the deal on the songs that first got him and his piano ditties noticed. There is no denying that Piano Man was the highlight of the show. Everything built up to that song – his first ever hit and surefire concert closer. And as he played it, he managed to connect to the entire stadium as though it was just an intimate piano bar and he was filling an evening with a song worth singing along to.
For all the rock n’ roll, the lights, the guitars, Billy Joel finished as he had started – the legendary observer behind the ivories, able to encapsulate an entire life in a couple of lines and a few chords played with the subtle, whiskey-drenched desperation of the characters he immortalizes in Piano Man.
If you missed Mr. Joel this time around, keep your fingers crossed that Billy and his buddy Elton add Perth to their list of stops on the upcoming world tour. After all, the only thing better than the Piano Man is two piano men.
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