As a Christmas gift, our kids gave my wife and me tickets to see Billy Joel in concert Friday night at Madison Square Garden in NY ... had great seats 11 rows back behind the band ... I love that vantage point, and, WOW, what a GREAT show !!! ... He started at 8:25 and did 2 hours straight ... he and the band left the stage for about 3 minutes and then they came back and did a 5 song encore ! ...
During the show he had Felix Cavaliere and Gene Cornish of the "Young Rascals" come on stage to sing "Good Lovin'", and later had John Mellencamp on stage for "Authority Song" ... during that song they went into Pickett's "Land of 1,000 Dances" and really revved the audience up with a 'call and answer' bit ...
I have seen some concerts where the star's voice is really raspy at the end, but I was amazed at how strong his voice was even during 5 high powered encore songs ...
If anyone in the area has a chance to see this show I highly recommend it ...
For those interested, here is a link to the set list ...
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/billy-joel/2017/madison-square-garden-new-york-ny-4bf98372.html

PS: With all the talk we often have on this board about memorizing songs, there were 4 monitors on stage scrolling the lyrics - one right in front of BJ's piano ...

Tony,

Sounded like a fantastic show and what better place than Madison Square Garden! Thanks for sharing and posting the set list!

Curious as to whether an album will be released from the show?

As a kid I saw the Rascles at the Action House in Brooklyn in the 60's awesome show....
another time I met Gene Cornish in an elevator in the NY Times building in NYC.....

BJ said that he saw the Young Rascals in Brooklyn - "the best band I ever seen" - after their show he was ready to quit music because he thought he would never be good enough ...

Along with his 'surprise' guests, he does a "fielders choice" bit a couple of times during the show where he has the audience decide between two songs, based on the reaction when he calls out the names of the songs ... just a very relaxed guy, performing his own music in front of well over 18,000 people ...

Did he ask for your autograph??

Jerry

Sounds like you caught a great show. Its a shame Billy Joel stopped writing, what a talent.

I knew he was a big fan of the Rascals because he was in a copy band called the "Hassels" where he played B3.
One of the best shows I've seen was the Rascals Reunion tour at the NJ Garden State Arts Center. They can still kick a**.
Wish I could of caught them in their early days in a small club like Donny did.

Felix was supposed to play with John Sebastian and the guitar player from the Conan show 4 NAMM's back. It was for a boutique amplifier client of mine. I was going to work the job, too. Felix was delayed at the airport. I decided to listen, not work. The rest of it wasn't that great.

OH WELL...

R.

Jimmy Vivino Conan O'brien band guitar player and Incidentally, Max Weinberg, American drummer, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

I have done many shows with Jimmy's famous comedian brother Floyd Vivino (Uncle Floyd ) also,.....and know their family as well.

Russ ... You should have sat in for Felix ... I'm sure you would have done a great job ...

Tony, Felix was going to do a favor for Jimmy. He was a friend of John's. I was also demoing for another boutique amplifier manufacturer in another part of the convention hall.

John Sebastian was running the show. He is the main endorser of the amplifier line (Burris amplifiers).

Without the B-3, the show was more concentrated on the amplifier(s). Since everyone was doing favors for each other, it was sort of a last minute jam in a private suite.

I didn't want to get in the way.

Russ