A pair of pianos emerged from beneath the stage. On the overhead screens, the Stars and Stripes and a Union Jack appeared and patriotic fanfare erupted as Billy Joel and Elton John walked out onto stage, saluted each other, and began a duet of John's \Your Song,"" in which the pair traded off verses. They continued with Joel's ""Just The Way You Are"" and John's ""Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me,"" where the backing band made its first powerful apperance.
This was the scene Sunday night at the Kohl Center as piano-pop legends Joel and John stopped in Madison for the first part of the Wisconsin leg of their ""Face to Face"" tour.
John mentioned early on that he had cancelled his Friday appearance in St. Louis due to illness, and the audience should excuse him if his voice gave out during the show. If he was not at full vocal strength, however, it was not readily apparent. The high falsetto vocals he belted out in the '70s are gone, but replaced with a deeper, richer voice making his songs all the more powerful.
John's solo set began with an a mindblowing full-album rendition of ""Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"" (complete with Davey Johnstone on guitar). He ran through the standard Elton favorites, including ""Tiny Dancer,"" ""Take Me To The Pilot"" and a bouncy rendition of ""Philadelphia Freedom"" that got at least two women on the floor dancing. Elton encouraged the audience to sing the ""la la's"" he could no longer hit in ""Crocodile Rock."" The highlight of the set, however, was his rendition of ""Rocket Man,"" including a wonderful piano outro that won him a standing ovation.
John's set was the better of the two, really by virtue of his arguably superior (and more crowd-pleasing) catalog. But Joel's set was a lot more friendly, relaxed and idiosyncratic. Joel took the stage beginning with ""Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,"" which he immediately followed up with an impromptu rendition of ""On Wisconsin."" Giving empathy to the seats affording the audience only a view of his back, he addressed them with a wide smile and easy apology.
Billy Joel pulled out his standards as well, the poignant ""New York State of Mind,"" ""Anthony's Song (Movin' Out),"" and ""The Angry Young Man."" The highlight of his set, however, was ""Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me,"" where he brandished his microphone like Jim Carrey's the Riddler did with his cane in ""Batman Forever.""
For an encore, the two regrouped for a surprisingly rocking rendition of Joel's ""My Life,"" and other duets. They finished off the set with covers of a ""Hard Day's Night"" and ""Great Balls of Fire,"" paving the way for the second and final encore of Joel's most famous song ""Piano Man.""
All in all, the concert proved that even decades later, Joel's and John's music is still rock 'n' roll to us.
