The Metal Files

Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve posted a review.  I’ve been busy working out of town and haven’t been able to see as much in the last 2 months.

I had never seen Billy Joel before but have loved him since I was a kid, especially The Stranger album.  Great one from front to back.  I was surprised whe I read up on his current band lineup that he has both Chuck Burgi and David Rosenthal playing drums and keyboards, respectively.  They were both on my favorite Rainbow album, Bent Out of Shape. I sent a message to Chuck a week before the show to see if maybe we could meet and have him sign my Rainbow stuff, but never heard back.  Worth a shot, eh?

We had seats behind the stage and while we had a great view of Billy, I could only see Chuck’s cymbals, which was a bummer.  He sounded great though.  The entire band was great and especially Billy’s vocals.  I didn’t expect him to hit some of the notes he hit and to still sing so clearly.

He was pretty jovial with the crowd and in three spots, the crowd would get to decide on which song would be played next.  He’d offer up 2 songs and the one with the loudest applause got played.  He also played a bunch of snippets of Texas artists like ZZ Top, Buddy Holly and Janis Joplin.  They also did Highway to Hell with one of the roadies on vocals and Billy played rhythm guitar.  He played it in a couple of songs.

Overall the show was great and highlights were all 5 songs from The Stranger (unfortunately he didn’t play the title track), Sometimes a Fantasy which I hadn’t though about in 20 years, Vienna, Miami 2017, and The Ballad of Billy the Kid.