I drove up to Milwaukee to see Of Mice And Men at the university. I knew most of the crew and had never seen or read it before, so I thought it was a good idea. Free ticket, and they were having a Leap Year Party after, so it was sort of a no-brainer. E, J, & I went to La Perla pre-show for chimichangas(!), the show was good (I could write more, but it's not as excited as what happened later in the weekend, so I'll leave it at that), and the party was fun. The next morning I went out for pancakes with E, J, and 6 other fun people some of whom live with E. Good times were had by all, and then I drove back to Chicago and had a pretty quiet night--Wayne's World was on Comedy Central and the part where they drive from Chicago to Milwaukee to see Alice Cooper was pretty familiar. And Ellen Page hosted SNL, parts of which were pretty funny.
Sunday morning I met Neil for brunch at Grand Lux, one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. We had talked about trying for rush tickets to Jersey Boys for the Sunday matinee, but I forgot and got comps to see the Joffrey Tudor program, which was fortunate because Neil wasn't able to get comps so he came to the ballet with me. I'd seen Lilac Garden and parts of Dark Elegies in video, but never live, and I'd never seen any part of Offenbach in the Underworld. I've stage managed a Tudor Ballet before (Echoing of Trumpets at Louisville Ballet in 2004), so I thought I knew what I was in for, but Offenbach totally caught me off guard. It was surprisingly funny and light for Tudor, and I actually caught myself giggling when the overture began and the can-can started slow and soft (much like that scene in Moulin Rouge). I kept picturing Jim Broadbent, and Neil and I whispered to each other "Spectacular, Spectacular. No words in the vernacular can describe this great event. You'll be dumb with wonderment," etc. I love hearing live orchestras play music that I know, so it was additionally thrilling to recognize the music while watching my friends dance. And I was not the least bit surprised when the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann started and Stacia crept back onstage from the SR door; in fact, I'd been waiting all afternoon for "Belle nuit, o nuit d'amore," though of course without the vocal.
The performance ended around 4:17, and Neil and I quickly ran around to the stage door where I was able to say hi to Suzanne, Jen, Jessie, and Michael C. before I had to run. I dropped Neil off near the Mag Mile and headed to I-94 and back to Milwaukee. I made pretty good time, considering there was a traffic accident before the Lake Forest Oasis, and it blocked 2 out of 3 lanes of traffic. I met Justin, John, and Eva at Kenilworth and ate my Qdoba burrito in the car while Justin drove us to the Bradley Center. It was about 7:15 after we got our tickets, when we were making our way to our seats. We were absolutely shocked when we found our seats. We were in the 5th row on the house right side of the thrust. It was more like -1st row than 5th row. We're talking about a venue that can seat up to 20,000, and we were in the -1st row. That's unheard of in my book. So we watched the 13 followspot operators climb up their rope ladders and onto the trusses over stage and over the first 10 rows or so of audience. We chatted with our neighbors (who got their tickets because the daughter met the band at the bar she worked at and one of the other bartenders mentioned it was her parents' anniversary). We got our tickets in a very roundabout way. Justin and I worked with Yvonne last summer, and she is friends with one of the roadies, Larry. Larry got us our tickets.
At this point, you might be wondering exactly what we were going to see. Or perhaps you might have guessed it is a concert, but you're wondering whose. And it is at this point, that I need to give a small amount of backstory in order for you to fully understand the momentousness that is this concert. When I was a small child, my family drove a lot of places, and in the age before portable DVD players and even before we had our own walkmans, we listened to tapes together in the car. I'm sure we had a wider range, but in my memory of it, we listened to a handful of broadway soundtracks and Billy Joel tapes. We also listened to the other albums a fair amount on the turntable, and I have Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 on CD. So now you know that we were sitting in the 5th row, house right, about to experience a Billy Joel concert in a 20,000 seat arena. We were the people that everyone else hates when they go to concerts. Two of my friends took home set lists, and when they get around to emailing me the list, I'll post it, but in the meantime, I'll relay a few anecdotes and moments that made it a night I won't soon forget:
After the first song ("Angry Young Man"), he welcomed us and thanked us for coming. "I'm Billy's dad," he said, and we all laughed. "Billy couldn't be here tonight because he's at home combing his hair." He thanked the people sitting all the way in the back on the far side of the arena and hoped they hadn't paid too much for their tickets. "But I really need the money. I have car insurance like you would not believe." :) I guess about 2/3 through, Billy came DS of the piano trap and the piano went away, he introduced one of his roadies who he said was going to sing a religious song. This guy, he said, had auditioned for American Idol but "didn't fit the format" so he was giving him a go here, and we were allowed to boo him off the stage if he was bad. So Billy is playing guitar and this guy (I wish I could remember his name properly--I think it was Sledge or something) delivered a rocking cover of "Highway To Hell." It was unbelievable! Soon after that, while the piano was still down, he passed off his guitar to another roadie and during "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me," he attempted some cool tricks with his mic stand. Some of them worked, but others did not so much, and the mic actually fell once and came close a couple of times. I found it endearing that his attempts to be cool were hit or miss, and I was glad when the piano came back. At the end of that song, he threw the mic stand in an arc from SR to SL on the thrust, and the same roadie who had caught his guitar when he almost dropped that one, caught this flying mic stand. It was cool.
At the end of his set, he got up and thanked us for coming. His band wandered off, and he hung out a little longer and ended up walking the curve of the stage and shaking hands with everyone within reach. I wasn't so fortunate to get a full-on handshake, but I did get to touch the magic hands of that Piano Man. If you had told me when I was 5 years old singing "Uptown Girl" at the top of my lungs in the car to help my ears pop that I was going to touch that man someday, I would not have believed you.
So he exited stage left, somehow in that time we got a set list, so we knew he was coming back and we knew what he was going to play. So he came back out and sat down (by this point, the piano was back up and the keys were SL). Oh! Did I mention that the piano was on a turntable? After the first time it turned, he said, "That's it for the tricks--the piano goes this way, the piano goes that way. Trying to keep the ticket prices down..." Anyway, his first encore was "Scenes from An Italian Restaurant" which was followed by "Only The Good Die Young" and he closed with "Piano Man."
He let us sing a few lines of the chorus on our own. Almost 20,000 people singing a 35-year-old song. I knew Justin was a huge Billy Joel fan, and I knew I liked his music, but it wasn't until that moment, when I turned around and heard the entire arena singing (a song that I used to sing before plays in high school for good luck) that I realized I am a big fan and in some tiny way, I was waiting my whole life for a chance to see him in concert. I think, though, I'd put him on a songwriting pedestal with Lennon/McCartney, and since I obviously can't see the Beatles in concert, I never dreamed I would get to see Billy Joel. So thanks Yvonne for knowing Larry. Thanks Larry for the tickets. Thanks Justin for giving me one of the tickets. Thanks Eva and Justin and John for being there and being awesome.
So that's it. A Steinbeck play, 3 Tudor ballets, and a Billy Joel concert all for free in the same weekend. Best Weekend Ever. No offense to those involved in the play or the ballet, but Billy Joel trumps you. He just does because he's the Piano Man.
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