Great Night Out

Last night was a night I had waited for for a long time. This is the third time Billy Joel and Elton John have toured together but last night was the first time I managed to get there. We saw Elton John on his own a few years ago(and loved it!) but Billy Joel is someone I've always wanted to see in concert so seeing them together seemed a great combination. I thought I was going more to see Elton John than Billy Joel but I've got to say the Billy Joel blew me away. I was completely shocked at how great a show he put on. Really amazing.

I was afraid we were going to miss the beginning of the show because 1) we had a long wait crossing the border, 2) traffic was at a standstill on the highway, and 3) I really had to hit the bathroom before we could even get to our seats. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30 and it was 7:40 before we got in our seats but fortunately things didn't get started until 7:45. Perfect!

They started off with 4 songs that they did together, 2 from each artist. Then Elton John and his band took the stage for an hour. It was amazing but because we had just seen him in 2006 the show we saw last night was a lot the same as what we saw then. He also did two songs back to back that he clearly loves but that didn't seem to connect with the audience very well (Burn Down the Mission and Madman Across the Water). The jerks behind us (I'll get to them) were yelling "Move on!" at one point.

When Elton John was done, Billy Joel took the stage for an hour. He was amazing, from beginning to end. His band was made up of a group of multi-talented (most of them played several instruments) musicians and he really talked a lot and interacted with the crowd, which Elton John didn't do at all. I was a bit surprised by his potty mouth but he was really funny. He even poked fun at some of his previous traffic accidents and his ex-wives. He chose great songs and is a fantastic live performer.

I was so excited to be there that I was on the edge of my seat for most of the night. I could hardly sit still. We were pretty high up and it was hard to see but I didn't care. It was great to be there. As I mentioned earlier we had some twits sitting behind us. They were singing along a little too loudly and then talking loudly when they weren't interested in the song. Before we were into the second song Nick had his chair kicked, he'd been hit several times with a program and had a pizza box dropped on him. During the show I got beer spilled on my purse and shoes twice. They did settle down for most of the show but they were a bit of an annoyance.

Because it was a combined show, neither artist could do as many songs as I would have liked to hear. My favourite songs by each of them are little known ballads so I didn't get to hear those. For those of you keeping track you can hear them here and here. They each did some fantastic songs though and it was great to hear them combining on some of the classics.

The show ended at 11:15 but because of traffic it took us over an hour and ten minutes to get onto the highway. It was a distance of two miles but it's all so poorly laid out with bad traffic lights and we got steered out to a bad exit so it took us a ridiculously long time. We were feeling pretty badly because our friend who was babysitting needed to work this morning but she was really understanding when we rolled into the house after 1:00. Fortunately she only lives across the street.

It was such a great night, we're so glad we did it. Now we've got another concert to look forward to next week when we see the actors who played musicians in Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. That should be a great night too.