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Watching Elton John take his verse in Uptown Girl last night at the ACC, you had to wonder how much the royal Brit was getting paid for the gig. Not that he seems to mind all that much, after all, sharing a stage with Billy Joel means the 62-year-old Rocket Man only has to play a 20-minute duet at the start of the show, then an 80-minute solo performance, which all gets capped off by a final run through the biggies, you know, Benny and the Jets, the Bitch is Back and, finally, Candle in the Wind. No wonder he sings Uptown Girl with a smile. The tour is averaging more than a per-city US$2-million in sales with an average ticket price of US$112.18 -- last week, the Joel and John super show even walloped Britney Spears and the Eagles for best-selling concert. Sir Elton would sing Marylin Manson in a duck suit for that kind of green.
The performance in Toronto began with the two titans opposite each other on twin black pianos, trading verses and songwriting credits on Your Song, Just the Way You Are and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Elton wearing a purple shirt and sequined jacket, Billy looking like Mel Brooks meets George Carlin in a baggy tan suit. Each pianist had their own five-piece band and when the two singers played together, the stage swelled with more than a baseball team worth of musicians. The stage often looked like the grand finale of a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame ceremony induction and the sound was big, brassy and just this side of Vegas shtick.
However, and this must be said, that even if neither musician is perhaps pushing themselves musically anymore, their songbooks have padded them from criticism with a mountain of hits. Standing ovations greeted much of the music, especially when Elton John began his solo part of the evening and brought a Little Richard-esque climax to Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting). Of the two singers, John is the more operatic and his boogie-woogie style of piano gave Madman Across the Water a fun and swinging almost New Orleans-style funk. Not much for rejoinders with the crowd, John's go-to move after a number was to point at the audience. Trust me, after delivering the string of hits Tiny Dancer, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Daniel's Song and Rocket Man, with almost no interruption between songs except the crowd's standing ovations, the pointing thing was enough. I thought Lil Wayne knew how to write hooks.
The crowd, mostly middle-aged, white and comfortable in their sport coats, although many arrived sans tie, almost needed a breather before Billy Joel took the stage. But the pairing is nearly perfect: If Elton John provided a flourish, Billy Joel endeared himself to the crowd with bits that seemed straight out of the Catskills. After opening with a drawn-out Angry Young Man, Joel launched into Movin' Out, which was enlivened with three guitarists and three people blowing horns ("Trust me, you wouldn't want the horns to blow you," is the kind of joke Joel would make). To his credit, Joel introduced his band (which John did not do), but he hardly needed to tell us they were from Bensonhurst or New Jersey — it was all in their Alan Thicke hair.
"Billy couldn't make it tonight," Joel said. "Instead, he sent me. His dad."
The impressive thing about Billy Joel is, no matter how much he joked between numbers (and he joked a lot), he still delivered his straight-ahead numbers and they still packed considerable force. Allentown, a tale of unemployment written in 1982, sounds perfectly timely today and Zanzibar, which was introduced as "an album cut," was brought into the 21st-century with congo drums. The crowd simply could not get enough, especially when Joel talked of playing Massey Hall, Maple Leaf Gardens and Gordon Lightfoot, which drew screams, and then played She's Always a Woman and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, which translates into a terrific live song with its time changes and nifty guitars. By the time he strapped on a guitar for We Didn't Start This Fire and then finished with It's Still Rock and Roll To Me, nearly everyone was dancing under the full house lights.
This would have been enough for most crowds. After all, 10:30 p.m. is about five hours after dinner and two hours later than most looked like they usually went to bed. But then Elton returned for his swing at Uptown Girl and enthusiasm only spread through You May Be Right and Benny and the Jets. It's been talked about that this show is Billy Joel vs. Elton John, but the two performers actually compliment each other beautifully. The Rocket Man and Piano Man actually occupy different spheres: Elton John is the dandified British peacock performer while Billy Joel is the greasy American blues man. While neither pianist allows much room for irony, they've both kicked around as many substance abuse problems as they have hit singles and avoid preciousness like it's an ex-wife (oh yeah, John has one, too).
The last song of the night was a duet of Piano Man, with many more than just Billy Joel and Elton John tuning in. When the lights came up for the song's final chorus, much of the ACC was swaying and nearly everyone in the crowd was singing along. For one night in Toronto, the ACC had become the city's biggest karaoke bar. Both musicians (nearly) earning every dollar they'd see.
[Photo by J.P. Moczulski for the National Post]