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BUFFALO NY HSBC ARENA
TUESDAY APRIL 10 2007
Buffalo News Review
Joel brings ‘A’ game to HSBC
By Jeff Miers NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
Updated: 04/11/07 6:32 AM
He never really wanted to be a rock star, necessarily. He knew he would be a
musician, from a young age, as it was “in the blood,” as they say, and the
kid from Hicksville, Long Island, had it, and bad.
But Billy Joel always thought he would write music for others to perform,
songs for others to sing. Fate, though, has a way of working its will, and
Joel ended up having to sing his own songs, mostly just because he couldn’t
get anyone else to sing them for him. And so the world’s most unlikely rock
star was born.
Tuesday, Joel came back to HSBC Arena for the first time since sharing that
stage with Elton John some five years back. On that night, he stole the
stage from John, who had an off night.
Tuesday, he made sure every performer who mans that stage from here on out
will have to deal with the echoes of his show, which was an inspired tour
through some of the finest music to emerge from the rock era — which, for
our purposes here, will be narrowed to the time between 1956 and, oh, 1985,
when the business end of the music industry fully took over.
Joel has not released a new album of rock songs since the fine “River of
Dreams” album in 1993. To be sure, his particular slant on things both
melodic and “textual” is sorely missed. (No comment on the Bush years?
C’mon, Billy!)
That said, Joel has never lost the spark that lit his path from the Long
Island rock scene of the late ’60s to the stages of the world through the
late ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s.
Taking his love for (and understanding of) the Beatles, blending it with a
penchant for memorable classical-based melodies, and throwing in a bit of
“whatever” — the good side of “show tunes,” some hard rock, some prog-rock,
and more Aaron Copeland than most people probably noticed — Joel made pop
music that mattered and became a huge commercial force in the process. (That
used to happen, folks, I swear.)
Tuesday’s show was not about surprising any of us, though there were some
deep cuts, and some impromptu moments.
Rather, it was about a few different things for different sectors of the
audience, which was huge — just about a sellout, I’m told — and full of
energy.
For some, it was a wonderful chance to hear Joel, still (at age 57) in
possession of one of the finer rock vocal instruments, lay into tunes like
“Everybody Loves You Now,” “Zanzibar” and “Vienna” — none of them “hits,”
per se.
For others, it was about having a good old time, with Joel as the
soundtrack.
Still others probably sought to relive their days listening to “Piano Man”
in college.
All of this seemed to be fine with Joel, who is one of the more entertaining
“emcees” in rock.
The set list was exactly what it should have been, with Joel grabbing the
“88s” and blasting out the metallic arpeggio announcing “Prelude/ Young
Man,” and then easing into a warm, grooving “My Life.” (That tune remains as
“punk” to me as the Sex Pistols’ “Holiday In the Sun,” and I’ll stand on
John Lydon’s coffee table in my New York Dolls T-shirt and exclaim as much.)
“The Entertainer” showed the young Joel to be much more prescient than he
probably would’ve liked to be, but here, 33 years later, it just sounded
like a smokin’ tune, with the Copeland overtones making themselves heard
again. Shall I run them all down, these tunes that ripped from the fabric of
our pop (in the good sense) consciousness?
“Allentown” did Bruce Springsteen with much more sophisticated chord
voicings, while “Vienna” spoke of Joel’s musical home with grace. “New York
State of Mind” is a jazz standard, clearly, and fell beautifully into the
Scott Joplinesque “Root Beer Rag.”
“Don’t Ask Me Why” wore its Paul McCartney influence proudly, but still came
off like pure Joel.
It was all rollicking, inspired, touching, and butt-kicking, by turns.
Kind of like Joel’s recorded body of work itself.
The Set List
Click on any song to play it
and see the lyrics
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The
Entertainer
Vienna
Allentown
Zanzibar
Miami 2017
New York State of Mind
Root Beer
Rag
Movin' Out
An
Innocent Man
Don't
Ask Me Why
She's Always A Woman
Keepin'
The Faith
River
of Dreams
Highway
to Hell (Bootleg copy)
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me
You May
Be Right
-Encores-
Only the Good Die Young
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man
Check out the
Billy Joel Home Page
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