Elton John and Billy Joel, Face2Face Concert

Elton John and Billy Joel Face2Face Tour
Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 7:30 PM at Nationals Park, Washington, DC

This was their fourth Face2Face tour; the first one was in 1994, and their most recent one was in 2003. I had never before attended a rock concert, and when this concert was advertised, I decided to get tickets. I paid about $200 each for tickets; I felt that if I were going to attend only one concert, I would get good seats. The traffic was far, far worse than traffic to a Washington Nationals baseball game, but at last I was able to find a parking lot for $40, and by the time I found it, I was happy to pay the price.

Here are some of my impressions of the concert:

o Seeing the two of them together, it was clear to me why Elton John has sold 250 million albums, and Billy Joel 100 million (according to Wikipedia). Elton John's voice was powerful and resonant, and his on-stage performance was completely engaging, completely connecting with the crowd. Billy Joel's voice was weak (he had to shout into the microphone), and his on-stage performance was scattered and distracting, almost frantic at times. The crowd sat through much of Billy Joel's performance, unengaged, and stood through Elton John's performance with roars of approval for his music.

o Adding to the difference in the power of their voices was the difference in the back-up musicians. Elton John had five musicians in his group, including no brass, and Billy Joel had eight musicians in his group, including a great sax player and other horns. Still, Elton John's musicians seemed more powerful. It seemed that the additional musicians, especially the sax player, were needed to add power to Billy Joel's performance.

o Having gone to many baseball games over the years, I was surprised at the difference in the behavior of the crowd at the concert. At baseball games, the crowd does not move about very much. They go to their seats and stay there for the most part, watching the game. One is not distracted by crowd movement. However, at the concert, the crowd was like an ant hill throughout the entire performance -- constantly in motion, with streams of people, like ant streams, never ceasing. I was surprised that people paid a lot of money to attend the concert, but then moved about constantly, not watching the performers much. Indeed, the music seemed almost like background noise against all the motion.

o At baseball games, almost everyone eats food, particularly hot dogs. A lot of beer is sold, but the food is the most important thing. At the concert, almost no one was eating food, but an incredible amount of beer was consumed. It seemed that almost everyone drank beer throughout the entire concert. I have no idea how the people got home from the concert; they could not possibly have driven safely.

o Because of the age of the performers, a lot of the crowd was middle aged (50s and 60s), although a substantial portion of the crowd was younger -- 40s and 30s and even a few 20s.

o I was surprised that the two performers wore heavy clothes (as shown in the photo). The evening was not oppressively hot, but it was very humid. Yet, both of them wore jackets. By the end of his set, Billy Joel was soaked in perspiration, although I could not tell about Elton John. There is a YouTube clip of their performance in Toronto, and they wore the same clothes at the performance on Saturday night.

o The performance was about three hours in length -- one hour for Billy Joel, one hour for Elton John, and one hour together with all back-up musicians on stage together except the final four numbers, which were performed with no one on stage except Elton John and Billy Joel. The Toronto site shows the set list for the performance, with the changes shown in the comment at the bottom. The performers knew that the crowd paid to see them perform their greatest hits, and they did not disappoint.

o At first, I was very distracted and annoyed by the crowd. I had gone to watch the concert, but it became clear that the crowd would not permit anyone to sit and watch the concert. The constant movement of the crowd, and the constant standing of some people, directly in front of those wanting to sit, would not permit simple enjoyment of the performance. After a time, I realized that the situation would not change, so I decided to become an observer of the scene, rather than trying to enjoy the performance. I became a scientist again, an observer. I saw very little of the performance directly, instead contenting myself with watching it on the huge screens. I would have heard better and seen better if I were watching it on TV at home.

o A word about the dress of the crowd. Men wore comfortable slacks and shirts. I saw no more than a handful of men who were "smartly" dressed. Although most women also wore comfortable clothes, many of the women were stylishly dressed. Many women wore "smart casual" clothing -- stylish fashions. Some wore very sexy clothes (like a see-through outfit with lacy underwear), and many wore party dresses or party tops with stylish pants. The women were much better dressed than the men.

I felt that the Washington Post review of the concert did not adequately describe the event. The Baltimore Sun review was a much better description of the concert. In addition, Paul from EltonJohnNews Blog wrote this review of the performance.