My friends Billy and Elton

Billy Joel and Elton John

We had to wait a while for this concert, since it was originally scheduled for November, but this date was actually much better for us, so I’m not complaining.

When I won my tickets back in the fall, our friend and neighbor heard that I was going, and mentioned that he was so jealous. He had thought about going, but didn’t see the point in paying so much for the bad seats that were left. So, when I won another set of tickets later, I decided to give them to him. He and his wife were very appreciative, and offered to buy us dinner. Win-win!

So, Friday night, they picked us up and we were off on a double date! We went to the Gateway to eat dinner, but found that every restaurant was crowded and had long waits. We put our names on the list at Applebees (you know, “30 minutes”) and then went to find something else that might be faster. No such luck. So, 10 minutes later we were back at Applebees, waiting. I think they got us in at 6:45, which was cutting it close. We asked our server what would be fast to order, and then we all ordered off the sandwich page, to expedite things. To their credit, the service was quite quick, and we were out of there a few minutes before the concert was scheduled to start, at 7:30. We walked over to the Energy Solutions Arena, and there was a BIG LINE to get in. I’ve never really had to wait in line to get in. I wondered if there had been a problem with ticketing or security or something. Or maybe everyone else was also late from waiting for Applebees. I don’t know.

Once we got in, we parted ways with our friends, since our tickets were in AA, and theirs were in VV. We climbed up to our seats, and discovered that while we were facing the stage, we were VERY far away.

See that section 101? Well, go up 15 rows, and there we were. I think there were about 6 rows behind us, so I feel bad for those guys. Our friends were closer, but had to see the concert from the side, so they couldn’t see all the jumbo screens and stuff.

With two great artists and a WHOLE bunch of songs, the concert was great. Here’s a pretty honest review of it here, in case you are interested. Billy Joel was a lot more personable than Elton, talking to the crowd and such. He actually said, “I’m not Billy Joel, I’m his old man.” The songs were great, and we did some singing along.

I noticed a correlation between how close your seats were and how much dancing was going on. Way back in our section, there were only one or two people dancing, including the lady two down from me who looked to be in her 60’s and was wearing her leather pant. I think she was there with her mom. She did a lot of dancing, singing and shouting out. She got her groove on. But really, she was only one of 3 people in our section who were dancing. Down on the floor, however, there was a LOT of dancing going on. I don’t know how much they paid for those seats, but they must be the die hard fans, because they were all crowding the stage to shake hands with the artists, dancing in the isles, having a party. Of course, it from the look of it there was also a lot more beer consumed down there than way up in the cheap (or in our case–free) seats.

I’ll admit that I’m kind of an old fogey when it comes to concerts, and I think they are just too darn loud. Why must they turn up the amps to defcon 12? I put in my earplugs for the last four songs (yes, I did bring ear plugs. What’s your point?) and thought the songs sounded better through the earplugs.

As they were wrapping up the concert, I turned to my husband and yelled over the noise, “But he hasn’t done Piano Man yet,” and then, what do you know, they BOTH played and sang piano man. I took out my earplugs for that one.

Overall, it was a really fun night!