Billy Joel

Never is Billy Joel so fine as when he's in front of an audience, applying his crowd-pleasing nuances and abrasive personality to maximum effect. He's in rare form here, when he headlined at Madison Square Garden on the cusp of the millennium. He pairs his chestnut "Big Shot" with a classy snippet of "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony," then applies a gossamer sheen to his cinematic paean to the West, "The Ballad of Billy the Kid." The surprises here are the touching reworks of early tunes such as "Summer, Highland Falls" and the dance-o-matic thump of his cover of Sly Stone's "Dance to the Music."

The first concert my friends and I went to on our own was Billy Joel at Rockland
Community College -- a great night out, except for when that guy behind me threw up on
my Turnstiles tour shirt during "Captain Jack." I like to think a kinder, gentler, more sober
version of that fine fellow made it to Billy Joel's big-ticket millennium blowout at Madison
Square Garden. The concert documented here is a lively reminder of Joel's mas... More >