Catching up, part 1: Billy Joel / Elton John concert, 5/19/09
I have a lot of catch-up to do that I've been steadily working on... I'll be starting with the Billy Joel / Elton John concert from May 19, which deserves its own entry.
---
The experience started a bit before getting to Conseco Fieldhouse (the Pacers' arena downtown where the concert was). Pennsylvania Street was a logjam, so it took almost 20 minutes just to get from my job (1600 N, 500 W) to the parking lot I was going to use for the concert (300 S, 300 E) I could have walked to downtown almost as fast using the canal, but whatever.
We were entertained on Pennsylvania Street, at least. I was caught in a backup because of an accident in front of the Indy Star's building, when I looked into my rearview mirror and saw a gigantic yellow chicken head. I deliberately went slow to allow it to pass me, and we saw the Chicken Limo in its full glory. If only Art were still around.
After cruising side-by-side with the Chicken Limo for a few blocks, we finally got near the fieldhouse and got to park. It was only about 5:30, and the concert wasn't scheduled to start until 7:30 (doors open at 6:30), so we decided to head down a couple blocks to South St. to hit up the Subway for supper.
On the way, we overheard a man exclaim something about grey squirrels out of the blue. I think that covered the "random small animal references" portion of our evening quite well.
Subway was DEAD empty. Half the speakers in the place were dead, too, though the mono-output-from-stereo-music actually improved two of the songs we listened to while we were there ("Ramblin' Man" and "Magic Man" - the latter especially).
About half an hour after we got there, we worked our way back up to the fieldhouse, where we stood in line and waited for the doors to open. There were quite a few people - at least a couple hundred - waiting when we got there. Many were having their last smokes. Most were older than we were, many significantly so, though I guess 60 and 62 year old musicians tend not to play well with the younger crowd.
The doors opened a tick late, but we still had tons of time. We scanned our tickets, went in, and immediately went up toward our second-deck seats to check out the "obstructed view". On the way, we saw merchandising going on; I decided not to buy anything, as the prices were insane ($35-$40 for T-shirts? $20 for a fabric bag?).
We got to our seats around 6:45 and took a look around. The obstructed view wasn't anywhere near as bad as we thought it would be. Conseco Fieldhouse is primarily a basketball arena, so the floor is rectangular, about twice as long as it is wide. The stage was set up in one of the long ends, like this:
--------------------
|xxx
|xxx
|xxx
|xxx
--------------------
...where the X marks indicate the stage.
We were sitting on a diagonal, pretty much at a 45 degree angle from the lower left corner. The only blockages were from a couple of the hanging speakers and from the monitor they had set up to face us, showing off the camerawork. All in all, we could see a good 90% of the stage, and the only bad part of the view was not being able to see much of the backup bands, as they were in the obstructed part of the stage for us.
When we approached our seats, I had a little trouble gauging one of the steps and half-tripped on it. During the course of the evening, I saw at least ten other people trip on the exact same step, one nearly sending his beer flying in the process. Note to Conseco Fieldhouse: might want to look at that step in section 229, row 6. It's a doozy.
Andrea and I sat and talked for a while as the place filled up. By 7:30, about 90% of the arena was full; by 7:40, when the concert actually started, there didn't appear to be an empty seat in the house.
As for the concert itself, it went like this...
---
Concert, part 1 - Piano Duets pt. 1
There were two large musical notes on the stage that slid open to reveal hydraulic lifts for the two pianos. John and Joel came up from backstage, played to the crowd a bit, then took their places (John on our side of the stage, Joel on the other), and began playing.
John was decked out in a black suit coat that was heavily studded with what I assume were rhinestones. The back of his coat read "MUSIC MAGIC" and included some artwork that I couldn't quite make out. His signature tinted glasses had an "EJ" in something shiny just below his right eye (the one facing the crowd), and the shoulders of his jacket were adorned with musical notes. Joel was in a simple black suit.
Their first two songs were nothing but the two singers trading verses and choruses as they played on piano:
John's "Your Song" (which drew a grimace from Andrea)
Joel's "She's Always a Woman"
After that, the backup bands came up to play along with the next two songs, while the singers traded verses again:
John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (I was disappointed this came up so early, but glad to hear Joel do a take on it)
Joel's "Just The Way You Are" (Joel's saxophone players got to show off here)
With those songs done, Joel left to let John do his solo stuff.
Concert, part 2 - Elton John solo
I don't remember the exact order of the songs John and his backup band played, but this is close to it.
*something I didn't recognize*
"Burn Down the Mission" (which I had never heard before)
"Rocket Man" (super-extended dance remix)
"Levon" (extended dance remix)
"Crocodile Rock" (I-can't-sing-that-high-anymore-so-you-guys-do-the-la-la mix)
"Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
"Tiny Dancer"
Some general thoughts and notes from this section:
- My opinion, and the general sense I got from the crowd, is that people were getting kind of impatient by the end of Rocket Man. The crowd clapped at what they thought was the end twice, but John and his backup band kept on jamming. The first time, it was fine. The second time, it was a little too much. The song ended up running 12-13 minutes. At the beginning of "Levon", the next song, I turned to Andrea and said "at least he can't turn this into an extended dance mix, right?" I was wrong - it ran at least 8 minutes. (It was more tolerable than the original recording, and I actually kind of enjoyed it. I've always had an irrational hatred of the album cut of "Levon", though after listening to it live, I'm not sure it's so irrational anymore. I think it's the squeakiness John gets in the choruses as he sings Levon's name - since he doesn't have that kind of range now, the song is much less irritating.)
Anyway, the point is that after two songs that hardly anyone seemed to know, followed by an obnoxiously long jam session at the end of Rocket Man, the crowd was getting impatient and it seemed like John needed to do some work to get them back in.
- John never introduced his backup band, but I had a lot of fun watching two of them. The drummer constantly had a huge smile on his face, and looked like he was having the time of his life. I bet that if he'd been introduced by himself (as Joel did with his backups), the crowd would have gone nuts. I also enjoyed watching the guitarist; not so much for his mannerisms, but because he changed guitars in five consecutive songs. One was a guitar adorned with "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" art, one was a double-neck, one was a flying V, etc. It was neat to see him switch up so much.
- John did spend a little bit of time talking between two of his songs. He mentioned being glad to be in Indianapolis, which "helped set me on the straight and narrow", and gave a shout out to his friends Dario [Franchitti] and Scott [Dixon], both IndyCar drivers, as well as Franchitti's wife, Ashley [Judd], who were in the second row. He told the two of them he'd be watching the 500 from Toronto, the tour stop at that time.
I didn't quite get the "straight and narrow" portion of the program, but the Indy Star article on the concert was phenomenally useful for translating it into English from Mumble. I'd forgotten that John was heavily involved in the Ryan White situation from when I was a kid (essentially using his profile to pound home the point that hey, AIDS doesn't just happen to "people like me"), to the point that he was a pallbearer at White's funeral. Apparently that situation helped John get away from his addictions to drugs / alcohol / whatever.
- I hate "Crocodile Rock", but I liked how John didn't even try to hit the "laaaaaaaa la-la-la-la-la" portions, and just let the crowd handle it. The crowd wasn't great in handling that portion (it was probably out of a lot of people's ranges, really), but it was the first time that happened in the concert, so I thought it was neat.
After a good 70+ minutes, John left the stage and allowed Joel to do his solo portion.
Concert part 3: Billy Joel solo
Again, I don't remember the exact order, but this is close to it:
"Angry Young Man" (definitely the opener - I'd never heard it before)
"Movin' Out"
"Zanzibar"
"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"
"Allentown"
"River of Dreams"
"You May Be Right"
"Only the Good Die Young"
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
"It's Still Rock and Roll To Me"
Notes and thoughts on Billy Joel's performance:
- "Angry Young Man" was pretty good. I should track it down and listen to it again sometime.
- Joel stopped between every song and did a little talking to the audience, including taking the time to introduce his backup band one at a time. Highlights included the multi-instrumentalist young black lady from northern Indiana and the other backup player (sax?) from Muncie.
- Joel also tried to be a funnyman, which didn't work in some instances:
Joel: "Hey everybody, thanks for coming out here tonight!"
Crowd: *cheer* *whistle*
Joel: "I'm sorry, Billy couldn't be here tonight... he's getting his hair done."
Crowd: *chuckle*
Joel: "I'm his uncle [something], and I know all his shit anyway, so we'll still have a pretty good show, OK?"
Crowd: *headtilt*
...but worked well in others:
Joel: *turns to seats behind stage* "I assume you all paid a reduced rate for those seats... 'obstructed view' or some shit?"
Crowd: "Yeah."
Joel: "Ain't as bad as you thought, is it?"
Crowd: *cheer*
Joel: "I think you got a better deal than all those guys back in Valparaiso." *turns to far end of stadium* *cups hands and shouts through them* "HELLO OUT THERE. THANK YOU FOR COMING. I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE SHOW!"
Crowd: *laugh*
- Joel introduced most of his songs before performing them - the exceptions were the last two. But, for every song he was actually sitting at the piano for, he took a minute to name what he was about to play and give a little information on it (or, in the case of Zanzibar, explain why he was playing it, since no one knew it).
- "Movin' Out" also involved audience participation that was pretty bold on Joel's part. If you've heard the song, you're familiar with the repeated syllables at a couple points, i.e. "workin' too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack". When Joel came up to that point in the song, he dropped out after singing "heart attack" and let the audience take the rest - and I was astonished at how many people were singing along. He gave a wry smile before he came back in with the chorus, and the audience was even louder on the other two repeated syllables, now that they knew it was coming. The audience was really into this song.
- "Zanzibar" was probably played to let the trumpet backup guy show off. It was decent, but not that memorable.
- Andrea was kinda lost after "Zanzibar" and "Scenes...", but got excited when Joel played "Allentown" next. She even started singing along.
- The performance of "River of Dreams" was underwhelming. This is where I started to really notice the bass being way too loud on the hanging speakers.
- After "Only the Good Die Young", Joel ditched the piano for a guitar for "We Didn't Start the Fire". Unsurprisingly, the backup singers had a monitor with the lyrics on this one. Can't say I blame them.
- For "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", Joel traded back and forth with the audience, which worked great except for the "you could really be a Beau Brummel baby if you just give it half a chance" line, which the audience totally bombed. Still, a great performance, and the Joel spent the whole song running around the stage doing tricks with the mic stand. I want that kind of hand-eye coordination and energy when I'm 60.
- All in all, I thought Joel was a much better event host than John. I think John was still on a Vegas hangover - he'd just finished a 70-something show contract with a Vegas hotel, so he was probably still in a particular mode of performance.
At this point, John, who was decked out in a completely different outfit, came back up from offstage to renew the duets...
Concert, part 4: Duets w/backup bands
I believe this is the right order. Once again, they were trading verses and such.
John's "The Bitch is Back" (I didn't recognize it, but that's a fantastic way for him to re-enter the show)
Joel's "My Life"
John's "Bennie and the Jets"
Joel's "Uptown Girl"
John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (Andrea, by this point, was afraid they weren't going to play it)
- In general, these went really well. The sound mix was off, though, and it was really hard to understand any of the singing. :\
- John's new outfit had artwork mainly consisting of a caricature of himself riding a dragon.
The singers looked to the backup bands and "asked them if they wanted to play anything", which led to the following portion of the concert, which may or may not have been a hallucination:
Concert part 5: ???
The Beatles - "Birthday"
The Beatles - "Back in the USSR"
I have no idea what was going on in this portion of the concert, and frankly, I didn't enjoy it at all. The concert had run well past 3 hours already, I had no interest in these songs, the balance of the audio was getting worse, and I kinda wanted them to just get to the last two songs. After "Back in the USSR", the backup bands went away, leading to the finale:
Concert part 6: Piano duets pt. 2
John's "Candle in the Wind"
Joel's "Piano Man"
Pretty much what everyone expected. "Candle" was OK; "Piano Man" brought the house down. I was surprised that Joel didn't even have a backup band member come back up for the harmonica part; he had a neck-mounted bar similar to tooth-aligning headgear, and played the harmonica himself. John changed the lyrics a bit ("It's a pretty good crowd for a Tuesday", which it was), and the two of them dropped out entirely to let the crowd take the second to last chorus.
There was a long standing ovation after "Piano Man" ended; Joel and John both took their bows and left. The ovation continued until the house lights came back up, signaling that there would be no encore. Considering that it was already 11:15 by the time the concert ended - a full 3:30 after it had begun - it was quite all right that they didn't have one.
---
We made a beeline for the restroom, which Andrea navigated before all of the women's restrooms mysteriously sprouted 30-person lines. We took a few minutes to get to the nearest staircase, but once we did, it was smooth sailing out of the arena... except for the part where the drunk 5'10"-ish woman tripped over herself and fell down a few stairs despite the best efforts of her shorter male escort to catch her. We managed to avoid tripping over her, and were able to get to our truck quickly.
The drive home was uneventful. It took us about 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot, but once we were able to turn south, the traffic disappeared. I stopped at Rally's and got us a chocolate shake to split (we were both really thirsty), then we zipped home to feed our rather hungry and distraught rabbit. Finally rolled into bed around 1, after Jess had some run time.
---
The tickets were a birthday present from Andrea - thanks, sweetheart. I wouldn't have gone without you, and it wouldn't have been the same experience without you.
---
The experience started a bit before getting to Conseco Fieldhouse (the Pacers' arena downtown where the concert was). Pennsylvania Street was a logjam, so it took almost 20 minutes just to get from my job (1600 N, 500 W) to the parking lot I was going to use for the concert (300 S, 300 E) I could have walked to downtown almost as fast using the canal, but whatever.
We were entertained on Pennsylvania Street, at least. I was caught in a backup because of an accident in front of the Indy Star's building, when I looked into my rearview mirror and saw a gigantic yellow chicken head. I deliberately went slow to allow it to pass me, and we saw the Chicken Limo in its full glory. If only Art were still around.
After cruising side-by-side with the Chicken Limo for a few blocks, we finally got near the fieldhouse and got to park. It was only about 5:30, and the concert wasn't scheduled to start until 7:30 (doors open at 6:30), so we decided to head down a couple blocks to South St. to hit up the Subway for supper.
On the way, we overheard a man exclaim something about grey squirrels out of the blue. I think that covered the "random small animal references" portion of our evening quite well.
Subway was DEAD empty. Half the speakers in the place were dead, too, though the mono-output-from-stereo-music actually improved two of the songs we listened to while we were there ("Ramblin' Man" and "Magic Man" - the latter especially).
About half an hour after we got there, we worked our way back up to the fieldhouse, where we stood in line and waited for the doors to open. There were quite a few people - at least a couple hundred - waiting when we got there. Many were having their last smokes. Most were older than we were, many significantly so, though I guess 60 and 62 year old musicians tend not to play well with the younger crowd.
The doors opened a tick late, but we still had tons of time. We scanned our tickets, went in, and immediately went up toward our second-deck seats to check out the "obstructed view". On the way, we saw merchandising going on; I decided not to buy anything, as the prices were insane ($35-$40 for T-shirts? $20 for a fabric bag?).
We got to our seats around 6:45 and took a look around. The obstructed view wasn't anywhere near as bad as we thought it would be. Conseco Fieldhouse is primarily a basketball arena, so the floor is rectangular, about twice as long as it is wide. The stage was set up in one of the long ends, like this:
--------------------
|xxx
|xxx
|xxx
|xxx
--------------------
...where the X marks indicate the stage.
We were sitting on a diagonal, pretty much at a 45 degree angle from the lower left corner. The only blockages were from a couple of the hanging speakers and from the monitor they had set up to face us, showing off the camerawork. All in all, we could see a good 90% of the stage, and the only bad part of the view was not being able to see much of the backup bands, as they were in the obstructed part of the stage for us.
When we approached our seats, I had a little trouble gauging one of the steps and half-tripped on it. During the course of the evening, I saw at least ten other people trip on the exact same step, one nearly sending his beer flying in the process. Note to Conseco Fieldhouse: might want to look at that step in section 229, row 6. It's a doozy.
Andrea and I sat and talked for a while as the place filled up. By 7:30, about 90% of the arena was full; by 7:40, when the concert actually started, there didn't appear to be an empty seat in the house.
As for the concert itself, it went like this...
---
Concert, part 1 - Piano Duets pt. 1
There were two large musical notes on the stage that slid open to reveal hydraulic lifts for the two pianos. John and Joel came up from backstage, played to the crowd a bit, then took their places (John on our side of the stage, Joel on the other), and began playing.
John was decked out in a black suit coat that was heavily studded with what I assume were rhinestones. The back of his coat read "MUSIC MAGIC" and included some artwork that I couldn't quite make out. His signature tinted glasses had an "EJ" in something shiny just below his right eye (the one facing the crowd), and the shoulders of his jacket were adorned with musical notes. Joel was in a simple black suit.
Their first two songs were nothing but the two singers trading verses and choruses as they played on piano:
John's "Your Song" (which drew a grimace from Andrea)
Joel's "She's Always a Woman"
After that, the backup bands came up to play along with the next two songs, while the singers traded verses again:
John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (I was disappointed this came up so early, but glad to hear Joel do a take on it)
Joel's "Just The Way You Are" (Joel's saxophone players got to show off here)
With those songs done, Joel left to let John do his solo stuff.
Concert, part 2 - Elton John solo
I don't remember the exact order of the songs John and his backup band played, but this is close to it.
*something I didn't recognize*
"Burn Down the Mission" (which I had never heard before)
"Rocket Man" (super-extended dance remix)
"Levon" (extended dance remix)
"Crocodile Rock" (I-can't-sing-that-high-anymore-so-you-guys-do-the-la-la mix)
"Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
"Tiny Dancer"
Some general thoughts and notes from this section:
- My opinion, and the general sense I got from the crowd, is that people were getting kind of impatient by the end of Rocket Man. The crowd clapped at what they thought was the end twice, but John and his backup band kept on jamming. The first time, it was fine. The second time, it was a little too much. The song ended up running 12-13 minutes. At the beginning of "Levon", the next song, I turned to Andrea and said "at least he can't turn this into an extended dance mix, right?" I was wrong - it ran at least 8 minutes. (It was more tolerable than the original recording, and I actually kind of enjoyed it. I've always had an irrational hatred of the album cut of "Levon", though after listening to it live, I'm not sure it's so irrational anymore. I think it's the squeakiness John gets in the choruses as he sings Levon's name - since he doesn't have that kind of range now, the song is much less irritating.)
Anyway, the point is that after two songs that hardly anyone seemed to know, followed by an obnoxiously long jam session at the end of Rocket Man, the crowd was getting impatient and it seemed like John needed to do some work to get them back in.
- John never introduced his backup band, but I had a lot of fun watching two of them. The drummer constantly had a huge smile on his face, and looked like he was having the time of his life. I bet that if he'd been introduced by himself (as Joel did with his backups), the crowd would have gone nuts. I also enjoyed watching the guitarist; not so much for his mannerisms, but because he changed guitars in five consecutive songs. One was a guitar adorned with "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" art, one was a double-neck, one was a flying V, etc. It was neat to see him switch up so much.
- John did spend a little bit of time talking between two of his songs. He mentioned being glad to be in Indianapolis, which "helped set me on the straight and narrow", and gave a shout out to his friends Dario [Franchitti] and Scott [Dixon], both IndyCar drivers, as well as Franchitti's wife, Ashley [Judd], who were in the second row. He told the two of them he'd be watching the 500 from Toronto, the tour stop at that time.
I didn't quite get the "straight and narrow" portion of the program, but the Indy Star article on the concert was phenomenally useful for translating it into English from Mumble. I'd forgotten that John was heavily involved in the Ryan White situation from when I was a kid (essentially using his profile to pound home the point that hey, AIDS doesn't just happen to "people like me"), to the point that he was a pallbearer at White's funeral. Apparently that situation helped John get away from his addictions to drugs / alcohol / whatever.
- I hate "Crocodile Rock", but I liked how John didn't even try to hit the "laaaaaaaa la-la-la-la-la" portions, and just let the crowd handle it. The crowd wasn't great in handling that portion (it was probably out of a lot of people's ranges, really), but it was the first time that happened in the concert, so I thought it was neat.
After a good 70+ minutes, John left the stage and allowed Joel to do his solo portion.
Concert part 3: Billy Joel solo
Again, I don't remember the exact order, but this is close to it:
"Angry Young Man" (definitely the opener - I'd never heard it before)
"Movin' Out"
"Zanzibar"
"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"
"Allentown"
"River of Dreams"
"You May Be Right"
"Only the Good Die Young"
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
"It's Still Rock and Roll To Me"
Notes and thoughts on Billy Joel's performance:
- "Angry Young Man" was pretty good. I should track it down and listen to it again sometime.
- Joel stopped between every song and did a little talking to the audience, including taking the time to introduce his backup band one at a time. Highlights included the multi-instrumentalist young black lady from northern Indiana and the other backup player (sax?) from Muncie.
- Joel also tried to be a funnyman, which didn't work in some instances:
Joel: "Hey everybody, thanks for coming out here tonight!"
Crowd: *cheer* *whistle*
Joel: "I'm sorry, Billy couldn't be here tonight... he's getting his hair done."
Crowd: *chuckle*
Joel: "I'm his uncle [something], and I know all his shit anyway, so we'll still have a pretty good show, OK?"
Crowd: *headtilt*
...but worked well in others:
Joel: *turns to seats behind stage* "I assume you all paid a reduced rate for those seats... 'obstructed view' or some shit?"
Crowd: "Yeah."
Joel: "Ain't as bad as you thought, is it?"
Crowd: *cheer*
Joel: "I think you got a better deal than all those guys back in Valparaiso." *turns to far end of stadium* *cups hands and shouts through them* "HELLO OUT THERE. THANK YOU FOR COMING. I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE SHOW!"
Crowd: *laugh*
- Joel introduced most of his songs before performing them - the exceptions were the last two. But, for every song he was actually sitting at the piano for, he took a minute to name what he was about to play and give a little information on it (or, in the case of Zanzibar, explain why he was playing it, since no one knew it).
- "Movin' Out" also involved audience participation that was pretty bold on Joel's part. If you've heard the song, you're familiar with the repeated syllables at a couple points, i.e. "workin' too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack". When Joel came up to that point in the song, he dropped out after singing "heart attack" and let the audience take the rest - and I was astonished at how many people were singing along. He gave a wry smile before he came back in with the chorus, and the audience was even louder on the other two repeated syllables, now that they knew it was coming. The audience was really into this song.
- "Zanzibar" was probably played to let the trumpet backup guy show off. It was decent, but not that memorable.
- Andrea was kinda lost after "Zanzibar" and "Scenes...", but got excited when Joel played "Allentown" next. She even started singing along.
- The performance of "River of Dreams" was underwhelming. This is where I started to really notice the bass being way too loud on the hanging speakers.
- After "Only the Good Die Young", Joel ditched the piano for a guitar for "We Didn't Start the Fire". Unsurprisingly, the backup singers had a monitor with the lyrics on this one. Can't say I blame them.
- For "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", Joel traded back and forth with the audience, which worked great except for the "you could really be a Beau Brummel baby if you just give it half a chance" line, which the audience totally bombed. Still, a great performance, and the Joel spent the whole song running around the stage doing tricks with the mic stand. I want that kind of hand-eye coordination and energy when I'm 60.
- All in all, I thought Joel was a much better event host than John. I think John was still on a Vegas hangover - he'd just finished a 70-something show contract with a Vegas hotel, so he was probably still in a particular mode of performance.
At this point, John, who was decked out in a completely different outfit, came back up from offstage to renew the duets...
Concert, part 4: Duets w/backup bands
I believe this is the right order. Once again, they were trading verses and such.
John's "The Bitch is Back" (I didn't recognize it, but that's a fantastic way for him to re-enter the show)
Joel's "My Life"
John's "Bennie and the Jets"
Joel's "Uptown Girl"
John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (Andrea, by this point, was afraid they weren't going to play it)
- In general, these went really well. The sound mix was off, though, and it was really hard to understand any of the singing. :\
- John's new outfit had artwork mainly consisting of a caricature of himself riding a dragon.
The singers looked to the backup bands and "asked them if they wanted to play anything", which led to the following portion of the concert, which may or may not have been a hallucination:
Concert part 5: ???
The Beatles - "Birthday"
The Beatles - "Back in the USSR"
I have no idea what was going on in this portion of the concert, and frankly, I didn't enjoy it at all. The concert had run well past 3 hours already, I had no interest in these songs, the balance of the audio was getting worse, and I kinda wanted them to just get to the last two songs. After "Back in the USSR", the backup bands went away, leading to the finale:
Concert part 6: Piano duets pt. 2
John's "Candle in the Wind"
Joel's "Piano Man"
Pretty much what everyone expected. "Candle" was OK; "Piano Man" brought the house down. I was surprised that Joel didn't even have a backup band member come back up for the harmonica part; he had a neck-mounted bar similar to tooth-aligning headgear, and played the harmonica himself. John changed the lyrics a bit ("It's a pretty good crowd for a Tuesday", which it was), and the two of them dropped out entirely to let the crowd take the second to last chorus.
There was a long standing ovation after "Piano Man" ended; Joel and John both took their bows and left. The ovation continued until the house lights came back up, signaling that there would be no encore. Considering that it was already 11:15 by the time the concert ended - a full 3:30 after it had begun - it was quite all right that they didn't have one.
---
We made a beeline for the restroom, which Andrea navigated before all of the women's restrooms mysteriously sprouted 30-person lines. We took a few minutes to get to the nearest staircase, but once we did, it was smooth sailing out of the arena... except for the part where the drunk 5'10"-ish woman tripped over herself and fell down a few stairs despite the best efforts of her shorter male escort to catch her. We managed to avoid tripping over her, and were able to get to our truck quickly.
The drive home was uneventful. It took us about 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot, but once we were able to turn south, the traffic disappeared. I stopped at Rally's and got us a chocolate shake to split (we were both really thirsty), then we zipped home to feed our rather hungry and distraught rabbit. Finally rolled into bed around 1, after Jess had some run time.
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The tickets were a birthday present from Andrea - thanks, sweetheart. I wouldn't have gone without you, and it wouldn't have been the same experience without you.