There are not many artists that could play Madison Square Garden once a month and sell it out with the sort of demand as if he hadn’t played in over a decade, but it’s what Billy Joel does every single month and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. Last Friday saw the legendary Joel give us this month’s show and it was somehow my first time seeing him perform.
Considering how many times Joel performs at MSG, I went into the show with impossible to reach expectations yet he delivered upon them with relative ease. At this point, he has the show down to a science, knowing all the beats of what makes the crowd tick and delivering every single song that you could reasonably expect from his catalog.
While there’s a ton of familiarity with the setlists each show, he also needs to find a way to keep things fresh and does that with some surprise guests. The first guest was Chinese pianist Lang Lang who joined Joel for “Root Beer Rag” and then the big show-stopping guest was nonother than Tony Bennett, whose appearance alone got a standing ovation from the crowd. Together they dove into “New York State of Mind,” and even at 92-years-old Bennett sounded great and tore down the house.
While one may think it would be cliche to hear all of the expected hits like “Only the Good Die Young,” “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire” or “Piano Man,” you can’t help but get caught up in hearing them with a passionate audience of Billy Joel devotees, who bring new life and dimension to such established essentials. Not only that, but it’s quite a feeling to sing “Only the Good Die Young” with a packed crowd who have all of MSG shaking while doing so.
It may have been my first time seeing Joel perform but it certainly won’t be my last. It only takes one show for you to begin to understand why he is able to keep selling out show after show, with many fans returning every single month.
Find a gallery of photos from Billy Joel’s performance below, along with the setlist.
Billy Joel setlist:
1. Big Shot
2. Pressure
3. Vienna
4. Root Beer Rag (with Lang Lang)
5. The Downeaster Alexa
6. The Entertainer
7. Say Goodbye to Hollywood
8. Don’t Ask Me Why
9. New York State of Mind (with Tony Bennett)
10. Allentown
11. Zanzibar
12. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
13. Sometimes a Fantasy
14. I Go to Extremes
15. My Life
16. Only the Good Die Young
17. The River of Dreams
18. Nessun dorma (Giacomo Puccini cover)
19. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
20. Piano Man
Encore:
21. We Didn’t Start the Fire
22. Uptown Girl
23. It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
24. You May Be Right
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