Ain't it wonderful to be alive when the rock 'n roll plays

It's the sign of a great performer when you pretty much know what the performance will involve, your expectations are met with few surprises, yet the show is still tremendously entertaining and a great time. Such was the case Friday when I decided to head up to DC and go to the Billy Joel concert. After a manageable drive and Metro ride to the MCI Verizon Center "civic acoustic nightmare," I found a great ticket (section 228, right at the front edge of the stage) from a scalper for cheap. As I was making my way through the concourse I saw the lights go down and I got to my seat right as he was hitting the opening notes to Prelude/Angry Young Man.

I didn't see Billy Joel live for the first time until five years after his last studio album, and I've seen him a handful of times since. So I knew he'd play most of his big hits and fill out the setlist with other recognizable songs. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when he did Everybody Loves You Now, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, The Entertainer, Downeaster Alexa, Keeping the Faith, and Zanzibar, none of which I'd heard live before. He did, of course, play the hits, and gave his usual stage banter ("Thanks for buying the shitty seats...I really need the money; it's all about car insurance" and "This song is from an album that came out in 1976 called Turnstiles..." He even made the same bald jokes about himself that I've heard three times already), but also talked at length about the inspiration for some of the songs. "I made a lot of stuff up for that song [Ballad of Billy the Kid]. Some people think it's about me -- Billy, hey Billy, it's about himself. No, it's actually about Billy the Kid even though I made most of it up. He's not buried under a boothill grave, I don't know where he's buried. He wasn't hung, he was shot. Well, we don't know if he was hung. East and west of the Rio Grande, the Rio Grande runs east and west." Later, he talked about moving to California and trying to make it in the music business. "A lot of people think that this song [The Entertainer] is me bitching about my job. Believe me, I love my job. It's the best job I've ever had. It's just my take on the music industry."

As you would expect from a band that has been more or less intact for the past ten plus years, every number was pretty tight. Billy was in great voice all night; he even hit the high notes in An Innocent Man. He pretty much went directly from song to song but needed a breather before the usual closing run of We Didn't Start the Fire, Big Shot, It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me, and You May Be Right: he brought out a roadie to sing Highway to Hell. It was a competent cover but one I certainly could have done without; all Billy did was play a little guitar and wave to the crowd. My only other complaints came during the encore. The intro to Only the Good Die Young was not the riff an octave up that makes girls everywhere scream. Instead he played it around middle C and was singing the first verse before anyone knew what was coming. And I don't have perfect pitch or anything, but I swear that Piano Man was a key or two lower than normal.

Overall it was a great show and I didn't want to miss a single song. Not even the tried and true concert staples like Pressure, Allentown, or River of Dreams disappointed or were even worth missing for a beer run. Personal favorites included My Life (with the Stars and Stripes Forever intro), I Go to Extremes, Movin' Out, and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. I also saw something I'd never seen at a concert before: a sign language interpreter! She was standing on the floor, signing for the first few rows of the section right below me. If I knew sign language I could have followed along. She knew her limitations though -- during We Didn't Start the Fire, she just held up cue cards for the people to read! Another funny moment came late in the show. The stage had an elevated runway with a couple of keyboards around the back so Billy could play to the people seated behind the stage. During a song he was playing from front and center, the bass player started walking back and forth along the runway trying to get the crowd into his jam. I doubt more than six people even cared. I even thought to myself, buddy, they didn't come here to see you. They're watching the man play the piano.

Watching the man play the piano...a pretty damn good way to spend a Friday night.