Complex Numbers

Concert Review

When you're Elton John, and you and the band open the show (pretty close to on time, mind you, which even Bruce doesn't seem to be able to do) with "Love Lies Bleeding," with its extended, orchestral intro... you've got our attention.

The tickets, being free, weren't the best seats in the house, but we had little reason to complain: we were at stage right, all the way up in the nosebleeds, but we had a perfect, unobstructed view of the entire stage. We couldn't see the video screens, and had only a foreshortened, angular view of the backdrop screen - which meant I concentrated on the music, not the pretty lights.

I think my biggest hesitation with actually, you know, paying for Elton John tickets was that he'd play mostly newer stuff. I should have known better. The vast majority of the concert was songs from the 70s: Levon, Tiny Dancer, Madman Across the Water (one of my personal favorite songs of all time - originally about Richard Nixon, but just as appropriate today), Yellow Brick Road, Honky Cat, Philadelphia Freedom (a song that means exactly what you think it means), a 12-minute version of Rocket Man... basically, every one of the songs that made me like his music in the first place.

And yes, of course they played "Crocodile Rock" - with the audience doing the bridges.

Sadly, his voice isn't quite what it used to be - the higher notes that were signatures on many of his older songs elude him now, more due to the excesses of youth than age itself. But hey, he still sings better than I do (my CAT sings better than I do), and there is maybe one power on this Earth greater than Elton John on the piano - I will always give Billy Joel primacy there. And the DUDE can STILL ROCK.

For an encore, he started with his version of "Pinball Wizard" - a truly great rendition of the Who classic. And then, after dedicating the final song to "each and every one of you," he ended with the song that began his career: "Your Song."

All in all, the concert was one big tower of awesome. Not, mind you, as awesome as the Bruce show I saw in Richmond - no one can top that - but would have been worth every penny if I'd, you know, paid for it.

Oh, yes, and his actual middle name is "Hercules." Don't ask me why. That's what Wikipedia is for.

...But the years went by and the rock just died
Suzie went and left us for some foreign guy
Long nights crying by the record machine
dreaming of my Chevy and my old blue jeans
But they'll never kill the thrills we've got
burning up to the Crocodile Rock
Learning fast as the weeks went past
we really thought the Crocodile Rock would last...