A fun night at the Oracle Arena.....
Had a blast....here's a "review" and the setlist......Enjoy!!
Billy Joel has more than 30 Top 40 hit singles to his credit. None of those smashes, however, turned out to be the one that evoked the wildest response from the capacity crowd at the Piano Man's concert on Saturday night in Oakland.
In fact, it wasn't a Joel tune at all and the star of the evening didn't even handle the vocals on it. He simply played rhythm guitar and turned the microphone over to his guitar tech Ricky "Chainsaw" LaPointe, who proceeded to belt out a Bon Scott-worthy version of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." The result nearly brought the house down.
That says a lot about Mr. Joel. While some stars can't bear to lose the spotlight for a single moment, this 58-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is perfectly comfortable letting his guitar tech basically steal the show.
That's because Joel's primary concern, it seems, is to show fans a good time. He's also interested in having fun himself. On this current tour - his second solo trek in two years, after spending the better part of a decade working the road with Elton John - Joel is accomplishing both of those feats.
At Oracle Arena, Joel delivered a wonderfully good 2-hour-plus show that balanced his fan-friendly hits with lesser-known tracks that he says helps to keep him motivated to perform. The mix was slanted heavily to the sing-along classics - tunes like "We Didn't Start the Fire," "An Innocent Man" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" - but there were enough relative obscurities to keep things interesting, both for the Billy Joel aficionado and, apparently, the star himself.
Wearing his usual attire of blue jeans and a sports coat over a simple T-shirt, Joel was in fine voice as he opened the show with two straight crowd-pleasers, "Angry Young Man" and "My Life," and then headed back to his 1971 debut, "Cold Spring Harbor," for a nice take on "Everybody Loves You Now."
He was also in fine spirits and full of jokes - mostly ones told at his own expense.
"By the way, I'm Billy's dad," quipped the balding, round-faced entertainer, who barely resembles the kid pictured on his early albums. "Billy couldn't make it tonight."
While his looks have changed, Joel's uncanny ability to entertain a crowd hasn't budged an inch over the years. He proved that as he led his seven-piece band through killer versions of the hits "Allentown" and "The Entertainer" as well as the more-obscure album cuts "The Downeaster 'Alexa' " and "Zanzibar."
Working a circular stage placed at one end of the arena, without the usual security-patrolled barricade separating the star from the crowd, Joel went out of his way to make people believe that Oakland was an important stop on the tour schedule. He performed bits of several Bay Area-related tunes, including Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and the golden oldie "San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gates)."
Nine songs into the set, Joel stopped trying to entertain himself (and us) with lesser-known tracks and set forth down the greatest-hits road. That translated to big renditions of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "An Innocent Man" and "The River of Dreams," which served to properly prep the crowd for the surprisingly great (cowbell-rockin') cover of "Highway to Hell."
From that highlight, which is surely what concert-goers are still talking about today, Joel proceeded to serve up a combination of hits that was even more powerful than what Muhammad Ali could dish out in his prime.
He closed the main set with the upbeat foursome of "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Big Shot, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" and "You May Be Right," and then returned for an encore of "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "Only the Good Die Young," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and, of course, "Piano Man."
The audience - indeed, "a pretty good crowd for a Saturday" - sang along to "Piano Man" as if it was the single most important song in existence. The lyrics to the tune include a request, "Son, can you play me a memory?" Yet, in this case, Joel did more than just play a memory - he created a new one for these fans to cherish.
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Reach Jim Harrington at jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Setlist: "Angry Young Man" "My Life" "Everybody Loves You Now" "The Entertainer" "White Rabbit" (partial version) "The Downeaster 'Alexa' " "Allentown" "Zanzibar" "New York State of Mind" "Root Beer Rag" "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" "An Innocent Man" "Don't Ask Me Why" "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" Encore: "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" "Only the Good Die Young" "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" (partial) "Piano Man"
Billy Joel has more than 30 Top 40 hit singles to his credit. None of those smashes, however, turned out to be the one that evoked the wildest response from the capacity crowd at the Piano Man's concert on Saturday night in Oakland.
In fact, it wasn't a Joel tune at all and the star of the evening didn't even handle the vocals on it. He simply played rhythm guitar and turned the microphone over to his guitar tech Ricky "Chainsaw" LaPointe, who proceeded to belt out a Bon Scott-worthy version of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." The result nearly brought the house down.
That says a lot about Mr. Joel. While some stars can't bear to lose the spotlight for a single moment, this 58-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is perfectly comfortable letting his guitar tech basically steal the show.
That's because Joel's primary concern, it seems, is to show fans a good time. He's also interested in having fun himself. On this current tour - his second solo trek in two years, after spending the better part of a decade working the road with Elton John - Joel is accomplishing both of those feats.
At Oracle Arena, Joel delivered a wonderfully good 2-hour-plus show that balanced his fan-friendly hits with lesser-known tracks that he says helps to keep him motivated to perform. The mix was slanted heavily to the sing-along classics - tunes like "We Didn't Start the Fire," "An Innocent Man" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" - but there were enough relative obscurities to keep things interesting, both for the Billy Joel aficionado and, apparently, the star himself.
Wearing his usual attire of blue jeans and a sports coat over a simple T-shirt, Joel was in fine voice as he opened the show with two straight crowd-pleasers, "Angry Young Man" and "My Life," and then headed back to his 1971 debut, "Cold Spring Harbor," for a nice take on "Everybody Loves You Now."
He was also in fine spirits and full of jokes - mostly ones told at his own expense.
"By the way, I'm Billy's dad," quipped the balding, round-faced entertainer, who barely resembles the kid pictured on his early albums. "Billy couldn't make it tonight."
While his looks have changed, Joel's uncanny ability to entertain a crowd hasn't budged an inch over the years. He proved that as he led his seven-piece band through killer versions of the hits "Allentown" and "The Entertainer" as well as the more-obscure album cuts "The Downeaster 'Alexa' " and "Zanzibar."
Working a circular stage placed at one end of the arena, without the usual security-patrolled barricade separating the star from the crowd, Joel went out of his way to make people believe that Oakland was an important stop on the tour schedule. He performed bits of several Bay Area-related tunes, including Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and the golden oldie "San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gates)."
Nine songs into the set, Joel stopped trying to entertain himself (and us) with lesser-known tracks and set forth down the greatest-hits road. That translated to big renditions of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "An Innocent Man" and "The River of Dreams," which served to properly prep the crowd for the surprisingly great (cowbell-rockin') cover of "Highway to Hell."
From that highlight, which is surely what concert-goers are still talking about today, Joel proceeded to serve up a combination of hits that was even more powerful than what Muhammad Ali could dish out in his prime.
He closed the main set with the upbeat foursome of "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Big Shot, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" and "You May Be Right," and then returned for an encore of "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "Only the Good Die Young," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and, of course, "Piano Man."
The audience - indeed, "a pretty good crowd for a Saturday" - sang along to "Piano Man" as if it was the single most important song in existence. The lyrics to the tune include a request, "Son, can you play me a memory?" Yet, in this case, Joel did more than just play a memory - he created a new one for these fans to cherish.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Jim Harrington at jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Setlist: "Angry Young Man" "My Life" "Everybody Loves You Now" "The Entertainer" "White Rabbit" (partial version) "The Downeaster 'Alexa' " "Allentown" "Zanzibar" "New York State of Mind" "Root Beer Rag" "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" "An Innocent Man" "Don't Ask Me Why" "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" Encore: "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" "Only the Good Die Young" "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" (partial) "Piano Man"