Is Billy Joel a God?

That is an easy question…. No, based mostly on the newly learned fact that he was banned at one of the nation’s preeminent Christian University: Notre Dame (Although I find this fact funny because he was banned for playing the song “Only the Good Die Young” twice after they asked him not to play it because of its message regarding Catholic women). All of that being said, his musical abilities, including writing music, lyrics and performing many types of music, he is one amazing human being.

On Monday, April 23, Kristy and I saw Billy Joel at the Sears Centre in Chicago. First off, the Sears Centre is a brand new end-stage design arena. It was nice, but many of the employees were clueless and woefully unprepared for the sold out crowd. In fact, the floor seats were not even labeled more than by sections. Someone actually counted out rows and seats; initially our seats were wrongly pointed out to us. It was row 18, two from the back of the section, but it seemed very difficult for them at the time. Eventually, someone with chalk came and labeled the rows and the end seats with their numbers.

The concert was scheduled to begin at 8:00. Kristy and I pulled into the first row parking spot at approximately 5:45. The doors didn’t even open until 6:30, but we were both so excited that we braved the chilly weather (I was comfortable, but Kristy seemed a little cold) and stood by the door. We were the first in line by the door we chose and could hear the sound check taking place just beyond the thin pane of glass. This only intensified our excitement.

A few minutes after 6:30, they opened the doors and corralled us into rows for our tickets to be scanned. Although, they would not start scanning tickets for another ten minutes, we were excited to be in the building. Kristy and I struck up a conversation with the scanner of our tickets and discussed the various ways to get to our seats. Our conversation helped out later as after we made a few souvenir purchases, he let me bring them out to the car and let me back in.

After that, Kristy and I went in search of food. We walked to both ends of the horseshoe-shaped concourse. I got a Vienna Beef brat, which was decent, but nothing like the Johnsonville brats in Wisconsin. Kristy got baby shrimp shaken in barbecue sauce. The food was okay, but the service was terrible as none of the workers could get the orders correct and we waited for 15 minutes for the shrimp (C’mon Levy). Masses of people had piled into the arena by then and were all around the concourse hurriedly shoving meals into their mouths. Kristy and I both assumed you couldn’t take food into the arena, but that seemed odd for an arena, so we asked and sure enough food was allowed by the seats.

We ate our food and waited in extreme impatience for the show to start. There was some side-action, however, as a couple behind us apparently were fighting and threatened each other to leave. Behind us in the other direction was a guy who talked too loud about how great he is, which is apparently incredibly great. Here is a picture of us waiting for the show:

At about 8:15, the show started. The lights dimmed and classical music played through the main speakers. More lights dimmed and then many spotlights turned on, all pointing at Billy in the front of the stage. Immediately, he began playing “Angry Young Man” which is a fast-paced piano-driven piece. It was a nice way to start. Here are a few pictures from our seats:

Another highlight of the show was “Root Beer Rag.” It is a Ragtime-inspired piece, with no lyrics, but a lot of piano showmanship. It was incredible to hear live. Later, Joel gave the audience a choice of three songs, one that he hadn’t played in over a year. That was “Captain Jack” and that of course won. During “Keeping the Faith” (one of my favorites), I took the camera and climbed over the seats behind us and worked my way up to the front section to get a picture. There was a mass of people just standing in the aisle dancing, with no security or people telling them to keep moving along, which was nice. I stood there for half the song, clicking away and hoping for one to turn out. Here is one, perhaps the only one that turned out:

An interesting, all-encompassing highlight was the percussionist/saxophonist/singer that was really into the music. She was all over the place and did just about everything. Here she is with the two other saxophonists:

Another highlight was “Highway to Hell.” Billy brought out one of his roadies to sing a “Holy song about life hereafter.” He was at least 45 years old and completely out of shape, but did an amazing cover of AC/DC. Kristy thought the whole thing was hilarious, especially as he sang it well and paced the stage and threw his cup of beer on the audience at the end.

The concert was amazing. It ended with “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and “Piano Man.” Both of these songs are amazing and really capped the night in a memorable way. After the concert, Kristy and I went back to sleep for a few hours before she had to catch a train in downtown Chicago at 8:45. The concert was a nice break from school and a nice time to see each other. I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything in the world. I give it a 5/5, because the concert nor the weekend could have been any better.

PS: For anyone interested, here is the set list:
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Captain Jack
Allentown
Zanzibar
New York State of Mind
The Ballad of Billy The Kid
Root Beer Rag
An Innocent Man
Don't Ask Me Why
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
She's Always A Woman
Keeping The Faith
The River of Dreams
Highway To Hell
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
You May Be Right
Only The Good Die Young
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man

*Green indicates the songs when people mistakenly sat down.