I was one of the lucky folks who were at Madison Square Garden this week to see Billy Joel begin his residency at that venue in New York City. As you can see from my cell phone photo above, we were not exactly in the front row. But it did not matter, Joel put on a great show.
Other writers will review the show, but there is not much to say. If you are a Billy Joel fan, you will love the show no matter what anyone says. Joel’s voice, aided by some occasional throat sprays throughout the concert, sounds just as good as it ever did. The New York venue suits him well, and he seemed sharper and more engaged than when I last saw him around two decades ago. The backing band, full of folks from the New York area, are in top form, with the instrumentalists doing double-duty as great backup singers on songs like “The Longest Time.”
Few artists have as many pop hits as Billy Joel. No matter what you thought of the songs at the time, if you lived through the time when his songs were a staple of pop radio, those songs are a part of your life. During the show, Joel mixed the hits with some deeper cuts to give a good balance to the performance. He talked to the audience and made jokes throughout the night while sitting at his piano, introducing several of the songs by citing the album and the year. From the New York appropriate opener “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” through the songs like “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” the crowd loved every minute.
Here is the full set list: “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)”; “Pressure”; “Summer, Highland Falls”; “The Longest Time”; “Blonde Over Blue”; “Everybody Loves You Now”; “All for Leyna”; “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”; “Where’s the Orchestra?”; “Allentown”; “Big Man on Mulberry Street”; “New York State of Mind”; “Zanzibar”; “The Entertainer”; “She’s Always a Woman”; “Don’t Ask Me Why”; “The River of Dreams”; “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”; “Layla (Piano Coda)”; “Piano Man”. Encore: “Big Shot”; “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”; “You May Be Right”; “Only the Good Die Young”. For a further show review, check out the article at Rolling Stone. To compare this setlist to his New Year’s Eve performance, check out that Brooklyn setlist.
At the start of the show, Joel said he had no idea how long his once-a-month residency would last. But with shows already sold out for the next seven months and other shows booking up, it is clear that fans will fill the seats as long as the Piano Man plays.
What is your favorite Billy Joel song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
