Billy Joel @ Members Equity23/12/08

Wed 26th Nov, 2008 in Gig Reviews

If you take a trawl through the internet these days, you’ll find yourself inundated with a new and interesting phenomenon: lists. Specifically, top ten lists; about everything, from “Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West is a Douche” to “Top Ten Shirts to Get Arrested in”. So in the spirit of following an on-line trend, based on Billy Joel’s recent show in Perth, we give you:

The Top Ten Reasons Why Billy Joel is Awesome

1 He doesn’t take himself too seriously.
At 59 there is a very real possibility that Billy Joel could be embarrassing to watch; a guy whose music career has lasted longer than some of us have been alive has every right to be just a tad washed up by this point. Somehow though, Joel manages to still look cool whilst busting out Elvis moves and doing funky tricks with the microphone stand, (even if he did drop it when he threw it too high,) and You May Be Right – he might be crazy, but it just might be a lunatic we’re looking for. From the moment he came on stage and pounded the opening to Prelude/Angry Young Man, everyone knew they were about to witness something pretty special.

2 He is completely at ease on stage.
The wind was enough to make the massive TV screens swing wildly about and the rain was pouring sideways onto the stage and his beautiful, grand piano. Joel calmly motioned to a roadie, who returned with a giant, black and white umbrella, which Joel proceeded to hold in one hand whilst continuing to sing a song and play the piano with one hand until the rain stopped, (miraculously, at the same time as the song ended.)

3 He’s not afraid to push the boundaries.
After a quick prelude that that went something like “You may be familiar with this hymn; you may have heard it at church (or synagogue)…” Joel picked up a guitar and invited his roadie of 30 years up on stage to sing the ACDC classic, Highway to Hell.

4 His stage comes complete with a revolving platform for his piano.
And his piano also sinks beneath the stage when he wants to play guitar instead.

5 He acknowledged the people waaaaaay up the back, in the “family stand”
They paid a lot of money for really crappy seats; suggesting (much to the horror of security and the people in “Platinum Class” who paid something around the $350 mark for their seats), that they come forward and fill up whatever seats they can find.

6 He somehow managed to make Waltzing Matilda sound like a beautiful piece of music.
This caused the crowd to spontaneously join in and sing along before cleverly shifting straight into the crowd favourite: Pianoman.

7 There was a story with almost every song;
With one dedicated to each of his (two) ex-wives. One was the ironically titled hit Innocent Man. The other, was a beautiful and moving rendition of Always a Woman, dedicated to Elizabeth Weber, who, as his business manager, stood by whilst her brother embezzled almost all of Joel’s savings. While the song in itself sounded lovely, the lyrics told a very different story.

8 He spent the whole evening with a coffee cup casually resting on his grand piano;
it’s questionable what may have actually been in the cup, as he was getting a tad boisterous as the show progressed

9 He literally thumbed his nose at the noise restrictions.
He was sure to save all his more colourful language for the end of the show, when it would be the most offensive to people trying to sleep on a school-night.

10 He was able to hold a stadium of around 15 000, young and old, in thrall for over 2 hours;
With everything from the intimate sounds of a piano bar, to the tribal drums and choral vocals of River of Dreams, to some serious rock in his new song, (which he had never performed before,) Christmas in Fallujah. Anyone who can create a rocking “Nanna Mosh” complete with thrown panties, has definitely still got it. But as the man himself says – “Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout the new sound – funny, but It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me.”