"Piano Man"
Billy Joel
thrills crowd in last tour
By Patrice Raplee
Banks of automated lights cascading down in rhythm illuminate the bent
over figure of Billy Joel feverishly pounding out the intro to Angry
Young Man.
A sold out crowd lavished their enthusiastic energy on the "Piano
Man," Monday, March 29, at the Rose Quarter. Reputed to be the
last of his big concert tours, Joel has decided to concentrate on writing
classical music and broadway shows. The aggregate of Joel's concert
consisted of songs ranging from his '72 Cold Spring Habor album
to '93 River Of Dreams CD.
Even though Joel and his band started the tour back in January of '98,
there was no evidence of boredem or strain generally associated with
an exceptionally long engagement. Between tunes, Joel broke up the audience
with humorous banter commenting on the history of his relationships
with notorious ex-wives. Although likely the same dialogue is probably
used in all of his shows, there remains a rousing sincerity in this
New Yorker. The sound, while not at an ear splitting volume, tended
to have a bottom heavy mix, as well as inherent distortions emanating
from Joel's piano.
During the course of the program, the over-all mix was consistent and
vocal friendly. Coordinating the daunting task of synchronizing manual
and automated lights to Joel's music is an impressive feat. Lighting
and stage designer Steve Cohen, who has been with Joel for the past
28 years, created an amazing arrangement of lighting set to music. Smoke-enhanced
colored lights set the mood for Summer Highland Falls with a
transition to a soft white spot encircling Joel through his beautiful
melancholy version of And So It Goes. Gearing up the energy of
the performance, Joel's tune Pressure was set to manic pulsing
lights, conveying the level of modern day stress.
The direction of the show changed as Joel sang his heart out with the
crowd on My Life, while bounding around the stage with the verve
indicative of most 20-year-olds. The highlight of the show came with
the sound of chopper blades resounding in the air set against a red
solemn background, while the opening cords of Good Night Saigon
rippled eerily from the speakers. Joel's intense look ended abruptly
when he screwed up the song, stopped, looked out at the audience and
said "I don't want to kill the mood, but that was f!" Breaking
into gales of laughter, the crowd tried to quickly recover their composure
as Joel and his band started the song over.
Powerful lyrics punctuated with drumming chords brought out a strikingly
touching moment as Joel sang a lullaby about his daughter entitled Good
Night My Angel. The performance of Joel's band was fantastic; all
the members are incredible musicians with the ability to technically
stand out on their own while maintaining unification.
The solid backbone to Joel's music derives from drummer Liberty Devitto
who has been with Joel since '75. The rest of the band members are fairly
new; however, they are a perfect blend for Joel's concert tour.
The final portion of the evening's event focused on audience participation.
We Didn't Start The Fire heralded a sea of voices singing in
chorus to the popular tune; with the kick drum so loud it penetrated
this writer's bone marrow!
Two encores ended the show with a floor-stomping hand-slamming rendition
of Catholic Girls, followed by Joel's signature tune Piano
Man. The apparent consensus of the audience is that Joel has definitely
not lost his touch, or his charisma. This writer felt it an honor to
see Billy Joel and forget about life for awhile...
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