i love me some piano rock

last night we went to see billy joel + elton john IN CONCERT. this was a long time in the making as we bought tickets to originally see them back in november, but they both got swine flu and had to reschedule.

i was so so excited for this; i LOVE billy joel. the 2-disc billy joel greatest hits album was one of my first CD purchases, and i clearly remember being the only person in our 13-year-old sunday school class to applaud when our teacher saw him in concert. i've been a fan for a while obviously, and no one can argue that mr. elton john doesn't have some swingin hits himself -- so the prospect of seeing these two piano men together was just a fantastic proposition. lucky for me, b is a big fan too, so getting tickets was a no-brainer.

we headed up to slc after work and had dinner at a cute japanese place, koko kitchen. yum! then we went to the gateway to kill some time [and get some cookies], and ended up at energy solutions arena.

getting exciiiiited for the show...



no opening act, nothing -- just the two guys at dueling pianos to start the show off. they sang each other's songs and played along and it was great...and then we got over an hour of each man by himself before they reunited again for a double-piano finale. they ROCKED. by the end of the show i was so tired i could barely keep my eyes open [at 11 p.m....haha], but i was so amazed by both of them and their incredible piano skills.

the dueling pianos:



one thing i did NOT like was that there was no giant screen to watch closeups. there was an electric-light screen as part of the stage setup, but from our seat in the nosebleeds we could barely see it due to the giant speakers -- and it didn't just show them the whole time anyway. boo.

a little elton john...



he wasn't as entertaining as anticipated...barely talked to the audience at all, just ran through his set. he did play all my faves though -- don't let the sun go down on me and levon in particular.

and THEN it was billy. ohhh he did not disappoint. he was so funny and personable and amazing. he'd just rattle off songs one-handed on the piano while he talked to us. that man is 60 years old and he still got it.



he even whipped out the guitar for we didn't start the fire. be still my heart.



nothing like hearing all your favorite songs live and in person -- it's still rock & roll to me, allentown, you may be right, always a woman, only the good die young. love. sorry elton, but billy was the best part of the night.

for the finale they came back out with both their pianos and their separate bands -- ending with piano man, my very favorite billy joel song. we almost left before they got to it but b talked me into staying. and it was sooo worth it.



there you have it. best date night of 2010.

and btw baby dub is more of a billy fan himself, judging by the kicks i got during his set. he'll fit right in around here :)