Reviewed April 24, 2008
Billy Joel April 23rd 2008 Montreal, Qc
by Ron Hollywood

Article by Francois Perron

April 23rd 2008
Bell Centre, Montreal, Qc

Rock’n roll Hall of fame inductee Billy Joel was back in Montreal to play a very nostalgic concert. His last pop studio cd River of Dreams goes back to 1993 and only the title track was featured in the set. Every other song performed in the 2 hour concert came from the 80`s and more than half of the set came from the 70’s (Billy’s golden years). Production was pretty sober on this circular stage. There were screens on the side of the stage showing live images of the concert but nothing like pictures from the past which would have been cool to see. The only effect as he said himself to the crowd was his piano that was switching side of the stage from time to time.

Even if Billy started the set with three huge songs, The Angry Young Man, My Life and Just The Way You Are, it took another seven songs before the crowd woke up and sang with the band during She’s Always A Woman.

Mr..Joel is a living a jukebox. Try to imagine an artist who can afford in a concert to NOT play big songs like Big Shot, Honesty, Pressure, Goodnight Saigon, Uptown Girl, This Is The Time, I Go To Extremes“ and even a #1 hit like _Tell Her About It _. Even with those songs not being played, the almost entire show are songs that everybody knows.

During the concert, he made many funny comments like saying that one of his albums came out in 1904 and that nobody bought Streetlight Serenade which came out in reality in 1974, or when he said that Just The Way You Are was for his first of many ex-wifes… or even funnier was when he introduced the great Big Man On Mulberry Street as a non-hit song and that it is time for some people to go to the bathroom.

Even if he has a good bunch of musicians with him, Billy is always on the spotlight. Mark Rivera on sax is the second star on stage. This is the guy who played the horn arrangement on Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Big Time and he as played with artists as Foreigner and John Lennon. He really shined on songs like Just the way you are and New York State of Mind.

Billy is obviously on the piano for the almost entirety of the show but at one point it was time to rock for a couple of songs. At that point, Billy was center stage with an electric guitar for three songs starting with A Matter Of Trust, We Didn’t Start The Fire and a very unpredictable cover of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell which was not even sang by Billy but by a roadie nicknamed Chainsaw. He introduced that song as a religious song sang by somebody who auditioned for American Idol. One last song for him without the piano and even without his guitar was one of his three #1 songs in the US It’s Still Rock’n Roll To Me.

Montreal got a very enjoyable night with the Piano man himself. Let’s see if he will wait as long as last time to come back here.

Setlist :

1-Prelude/Angry Young Man
2-My Life
3-Just The Way You Are
4-The Entertainer
5-Big Man On Mulberry Street
6-New York State Of Mind
7-Allentown
8-Zanzibar
9-Don’t Ask Me Why
10-She’s Always A Woman
11-Movin’Out
12-Keeping The Faith
13-River Of Dreams
14-A Matter Of Trust
15-Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover)
16-We Didn’t Start The Fire
17-It’s Still Rock’n Roll To Me
18-You May Be Right
19-Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Encore 20-Only The Good Die Young
21-Piano Man

Make sure to check out another piano man’s concert review from Francois Perron, Joe Jackson.

Other reviews
Previously: The Cult Born Into This tour Montreal April 16th 2008
Next: Melanie C This Time Tour May 4th 2008

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