Sunday, July 19, 2009

Elton and Billy

Hubby and I went on another exciting adventure this weekend. We should write a book called, "Karen and Tag's Excellent Adventures". We went to see Billy Joel and Elton John in their "Face 2 Face" tour. The concert was at Gillette Stadium - home of our New England Patriots! (Only 11 more days until Patriots training camp!!)
We weren't sure if they allowed cameras in the stadium, so we left ours behind. Turns out we could have brought it in. So instead of real pictures, I am accenting today's blog post with pictures stolen borrowed from the internet.
We left home on Saturday for the 1 1/2 hour drive down to Foxborough. We had rented a room at the Marriott Residence Inn. Despite working for AAA I was unaware that, since it's a residence inn, we would have a full kitchen. We didn't bring any drinks or food with us, which was a shame. That nice kitchen went to waste.
We ate out at Picadilly Pub, which was delicious. Then we left, around 6pm, to drive the five miles to the stadium. Since I want this to be a happy blog, I will refrain from describing the traffic nightmare situation that surrounds Gillette Stadium on a game or concert day. I will save that long rambling rant for another post. Suffice to say we got to the stadium sometime after 7 pm.
It was really cool to be in Gillette Stadium. You see it so many times on TV but don't really think about what it'll be like in real life. We had fabulous seats. They were just about facing the stage, first balcony, FRONT ROW.
The first set, Billy and Elton played together, face to face at their respective grand pianos. They looked pretty small from where we were sitting, but we got close-up views of their faces on the jumbo-tron.
They had the place hopping. We marveled at how amazing it must be to have 50,000 people show up in one place just to hear you sing. (We're lucky if we get 10 people at an open mic, and they're not neccessarily there to see us!)
Many times the audience was singing along. Again we marveled at how cool that must be to hear that many people singing your songs.
After they sang together, Billy left the stage and Elton sang some of his classic favorites.
Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Night, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Rocket Man - the list goes on and on. He has so many hits it must have been hard for him to choose which ones to sing. Then Billy came on and drove the croud wild again.
Uptown Girl, In the Middle of the Night, Allentown, Anthony's Song, Italian Restaurant and so many more.
We sang along and bopped in our seats and had to get up to dance for my favorites.
At the end, they came back on together. For the final song, Billy put the harmonica around his neck and everyone knew it was Piano Man. The crowd sang so loud my ears were ringing.
It was a beautiful, exciting , fun concert. The music and lights were phenomenal. A memory we'll never forget.

3 comments:

RoeH said...

Next time, remember me on the other side on the continent. I hope they come to Phoenix. I'm as good as there.

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear how it was suppose to go. We saw them in D.C. a week ago and Elton John's piano pedal stuck during the first set. After two songs, he declared no concert until it was fixed and left the stage, leaving Billy Joel to ad lib. then go on with his set while Elton's piano was fixed, so he went second. Still they finished together with the songs missing from the start and I agree, an amazing concert!

Debbie said...

I bet that was incredible! I would have loved to have been there.