<p>Review: Elton John & Billy Joel at Gillette Stadium, July 18</p>
<p>Play list was pretty close to what was at wharfrat2’s concert, except that there were no technical problems. They started with EJ & BJ and their pianos, playing ballads (Your Song first). Gradually as they played a few more songs band members joined in. Elton’s set was second, followed by Billy’s, then they came back together again. Piano Man (Piano Men?) was the finale.</p>
<p>It was possibly the most enjoyable concert I’ve ever attended. The weather was perfect (70’s and dry) the crowd was into it, and the performers were truly enjoying themselves. Elton was a little more reserved, more the professional performer who seemed most motivated by the music. Billy did a lot more interacting with the crowd, and remembered to introduce each member of his band. Although it was a huge stadium concert, Billy’s banter to the crowd made it feel more personal, more like he was playing a small club. Some might call it pandering to the crowd, but I appreciated his shout-outs to his favorite Italian restaurant in Boston and his complementing the terrific jazz musicians in Providence. </p>
<p>Based on the music playing in the parking lot before the show, and on the reception each guy got when he first walked out on the stage, it seemed like this would be an Elton crowd. And the crowd seemed really happy with Elton’s set, but because of Billy’s energy and personality by the end of his set the crowd seemed even more enthusiastic than they were when Elton finished. </p>
<p>The only thing that surprised me was the lack of banter between Billy and Elton. They hugged, saluted each other, and played off each other really well, but I don’t think they ever spoke directly to each other.</p>
<p>It was a huge audience sing-a-long, and it was great.</p>
<p>^^^We also had a fabulous time and your review was spot on! Earlier in the week, and day for that fact, I was worried about the weather, but we couldn’t have had a more perfect night. The fact that we got to share it with S#2 and friend made it all the better. I think the only person in the whole stadium that wasn’t totally into it was the guy in front of me who stayed in his seat 90% of the time with headphones on!</p>
<p>What? No hipster parents are going to see The Dead Weather touring in support of their debut album and video? Come on, NPR even streamed their show from the 9:30 Club in D.C. live last week. The video, said to be bringing romance back to rock n’ roll, had its world premier on Cinemax:</p>
<p>And, the mothers can even register at Venus Zine magazine to win the Diesel leather jacket and gazillion-dollar Swedish jeans worn by lead singer Alison Mosshart in the video. Just what you’ve always wanted, huh?</p>
<p>The sound was absolutely amazing . . . I could easily differentiate the acoustic guitar from the rest of the band, including the harmonic chords. Brilliant.</p>
<p>But what is with this sing along stuff? The person behind was belting out the words - it really wasn’t signing - kind of like nasal Dylan, it you get my drift - at the top of her voice. And she knew ALL the words to both Elton John and Billy Joel’s songs :-(</p>
<p>If I wanted to go to a Karaoke concet, I would have stayed in Boston.</p>
<p>I feel like I missed out on some damn good music because Elton and Billy both had that kid in section 133 doing bad harmony with them.</p>
<p>In the spirit of the OP: Review of Paul McCartney at Citifield: June 18, 2009</p>
<p>Great sound, enjoyed the video clips during the songs…many in the audience felt that this would probably be one of the last times to see history being made;</p>
<p>lots of references to Shea performance in 1964</p>
<p>net, net: Paul sounded AMAZING and his current band is awesome…so much fun!!!</p>
<p>For those of you in the NY area, there are still tix available for tomorrow night’s show!!!</p>
<p>Kei-o-lei - I kind of agree with you. At one point I thought, “I paid to hear Elton and Billy sing, not to hear the people around me sing!” But then I just shrugged and joined the party and sang along. And it was fun.</p>
<p>I get chills when Eddie doesn’t sing and turns the mike to the crowd.
( plus we may know the words better than he does )</p>
<p>Not so much when I am actually in attendance, but when I see the clips on youtube, they are magical.
I have never seen any musician or any band relate to their fans/audience as geniunely as PJ. perhaps that is the difference, because it doesn’t feel like a gimmick.
( Not saying that the Joel/John concert was superficial, I have also heard very good things about their performances)</p>
<p>Lafalum84, I know, go with the flow, enjoy what is and blah blah blah.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand why anyone would pay good money to go “hear” an artist strut their stuff then go pollute the sound with their own voice . . . it’s not a performance any more. Instead it’s “being with” the performer, in which case they’ve got some serious narcissism going on.</p>
<p>Seems more like talking to your friends about what you like about a movie while at the movie theater: others do not matter.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>P.S.The two women in front of me were cool about it: thet were quietly signing along, respecting others wgiel having their good time. But the chick behind me was belting it out off key!!! </p>
<p>P.P.S. Good concert, despite the karaoke :-)</p>
<p>I’m going to see No Doubt and Paramore (with, I believe, The Sounds, but they’re not touring with No Doubt&Paramore the whole time) on August 1st, but they’ve been touring for a couple of months now.</p>
<p>I’ve read some reviews, and only heard good things. This is No Doubt’s first tour since the band broke up in…'97, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong), and from what I’m hearing, they did not disappoint or lose anything. </p>
<p>Paramore (for those of you who don’t know) is a more recently famous group, but with a sound very much like No Doubt. They’ve become very famous very fast, and again, from what I’ve heard, they give a fabulous live performance.</p>
<p>I’ll post again after the concert with my thoughts…although it’s my first concert, so I’ll probably be easily impressed!</p>
<p>We were strongly encouraged to sing along with all the doo-wop acts at Wolf Trap. While I wouldn’t jam along with my karaoke leanings at Le Miz in Pittsburgh past Saturday (fantastic btw), happy to sing along with Drifters, Edsels, Skyliners…</p>
<p>There are more movie singalongs happening (I mean, more than just Riocky Horror): Sound of Music and more recenlty Mama Mia. Those are fantastic fun.</p>
<p>Best singalong I was in was Arcade Fire last year; after the group ended their set I heard a soft susseration than turned into a barely audible melodty that turned into a full throated audience hum of the chorus to the last song played . . . the combination of the wonderful vibe and hearing - for me the first time - 2500 people humming as loudly as they could was absolute joy!!!</p>
<p>Once advantage to hearing jazz live is that most people CAN’T sing along :-)</p>
<p>Went to the Coldplay concert on Sunday night. Fourth time that I have seen this band. As usual they put on a great show and really involved the audience. Had a few hundred giant yellow balloons floating around the amphitheatre during Yellow. A cool thing they did was move off the stage twice and play on two mini stages. Once going all the way up to the lawn section. Did a great cover of Billy Jean for a tribute to Jackson. People give Coldplay a hard time as being too main stream. Nothing wrong with a group of hard working guys playing music for the masses. Chris Martin could be a real prima donna but comes off as normal bloke. Fun time.</p>
<p>Green Day Tuesday Night at Madison Square Garden. Went as a parent/chaperone and fan. Exhilarating, powerful, engaging, fun – everything a rock concert should be. Up til now nothing for me had ever topped Springsteen at the Garden in 1978 (the Darkness tour) and I was a huge fan at the time.</p>
<p>thanks, lspf72. Son is going to see Green Day tonight. (Verizon Center, DC) He’s not really looking forward to it. I don’t know why. Maybe he just prefers bands before they hit it big. :rolleyes: Maybe by this time tomorrow he’ll be saying the same thing as you.</p>
<p>S1 is the same way. He somewhat grudgingly decided to use our extra ticket, since he really prefers their older stuff. Even being unfamiliar with the newer material, he really liked it. It was hard not to. Better seats would have been nice, though!</p>
<p>Steeley Dan tonight - Internet requests night but they played the Aja album first in its entirety. Fantastic concert. Catch the tour if you can.</p>
<p>Opening act was a Swedish group called The Sounds. I’d never heard of them before, but they were excellent. They did maybe 4 or 5 songs, then Paramore came out.</p>
<p>My goodness, they were incredible. It’s awesome how much they interact with each other and with the audience.</p>
<p>They took a short break after Paramore, during which the Amphitheater completely filled (the concert was entirely sold out, even the lawn seating). No Doubt came on with a large curtain still in front of them, giving an incredible silhouette effect. The curtain dropped, and you’d swear a bomb had gone off in that theater. </p>
<p>The show was absolutely amazing. This is their first tour in several years, but they have not lost any of their magic and obviously still enjoy playing together. Everyone knew all the words to every song, and Gwen Stefani recognized that regularly…several times she had us sing along with her. </p>
<p>Everyone was on their feet for the entire concert, dancing and singing along. </p>
<p>Absolutely the best night of my summer. Catch No Doubt the next time they tour (this is the last weekend of their North American Summer '09 Tour).</p>
<p>I saw No Doubt in June and it was great, we were all the way in the back on the lawn, but it didn’t matter, the music was awesome and we were just fooling around and dancing. at the very end it started pouring and thankfully we were all wearing rainboots so we just continued jumping around and dancing in the rain, haha so fun!</p>
<p>Monday night I saw the Arctic Monkeys.
possibly best night of my life so far…
they’re my favorite band, and they were absolutely amazing. the energy was great and it was a small venue filled with intense fans who knew all the lyrics of the songs they played from the new album that isn’t even out yet (it leaked recently)
and on top of that, Diddy showed up! we saw him up in the VIP lounge in the beginning, and it was funny and all, but a few songs in he came down by the stage, right next to me and my friends, and rocked out with the crowd. it was awesome.
i mean, i moshed with Diddy. seriously.</p>
</p>
)</p>