The other night I attended my first live concert since Covid-19 hit in March of 2020. For a little reference, the last concert I had been to was the Chris Webby Black Friday Show where I saw Spose, Mike Squires, and Aaron Cohen, so this was a change of pace.
I had seen Billy Joel one time prior I think at the end of my sophomore year in high school. We saw him on his home court at Madison Square Garden and it was unreal.
Day of the show, me, my parents, and family friends drove up to Boston for the show and shuttled over to Fenway. Once in the park, we milled around with other fans while also buying twelve dollar Bud Lights. The show started at around 7:30 and started with a BANG.
Joel burst onto the stage and took a seat at his covered piano while the rest of us battled the elements. Rain and wind didn’t stop me from having a good time when he opened with My Life and followed it with my second favorite Billy Joel song of all time, Pressure. “YOU TURNED THE TAP DANCE INTO YOUR, CRUSADE!”
The rain persisted as Billy Joel sat nice and dry at the piano while he sipped his coffee in between songs. He followed Pressure up with a small snippet of Singing In the Rain and the crowd ate it up.
Billy Joel rattled off The Entertainer, Vienna, and Zanzibar which was pretty funny because before he played Zanzibar, he said “This next song was never a hit, and now I guess people dance to it on Tik Tok. Whatever that is.” When Zanzibar concluded, he gave another short snippet, this time of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Song six and seven were The Longest Time and Don’t Ask Me Why. After that, my dad and I turned and said “He has to play Downeaster Alexa in the next two or three songs.” After we said that, Joel said “This next song was one I made for the fishing community in the Long Island and Vineyard area.” My dad and I turned back to each other and were fist pumping away.
Downeaster Alexa is the GREATEST Billy Joel song ever, EVER. “There ain't much future for a man who works the sea, But there ain't no island left for Islanders like me”. And the background he uses is of boat on the choppy waters and red and blue lights. It’s amazing.
Movin Out and And So It Goes followed the greatest Billy Joel song ever and then another one of my favorites came up, Allentown. Another song that has an awesome back drop of trains and a worn down train engineer in the back. I love it.
The twelfth song was A Room of Our Own and then for song thirteen, Joel played She’s Always a Women after a man in the first row proposed to his girlfriend. Awesome moment.
A few more songs passed and he ended his first set with Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. Great song that just gets the people going right before the encore.
Joel sprinted off stage and then returned a minute later with a guitar to play another one of my favorites, We Didn’t Start The Fire. A song that I know all the words too, subtle flex, no big deal. The background for that one was fire emojis for the chorus and when Joel was singing the events and people, the pictures would pop up on the screen behind.
Joel played the hits for the encore with Uptown Girl, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, Big Shot, You Maybe Right, and capped the night off with Piano Man. It was just an unreal show.
Here’s where my night went a little south, just a little.
While we were outside of Fenway, we were searching for a place to grab dinner and at the time the concert ended, every place we looked was in full bar mode so you had to flash an ID to get into these places.
We went up to the Lansdowne Pub and I flashed my ID that has worked everywhere for me up to this point, except for a package store in Amherst, but maybe had I not grabbed three pints of Maddog I would have still had one copy of it.
The bouncer flashed a blacklight on it and then just slid it in his pocket. Didn’t even say a word to me. I really wasn’t even mad, I was just shocked. I had always heard that bouncers in Boston were good but this dude had quicker reflexes than Jose Reyes.
Well, I still have two copies until I turn twenty one so I should be set, at least I hope.
Other than that, the concert was unreal and I still have two more fake IDs in the holster.