It’s October and for the better part of the last decade that’s meant post-season baseball in Houston and New York City. The Houston Astros and New York Yankees have been forging a fun playoffs rivalry filled with dramatic wins, baseball heroics, cheating allegations and, mostly, Astros’ series wins. As of this writing, the teams are headed for yet another American League Championship Series meet-up, another chance for the Bronx Bombers to try to keep the Astros from launching into yet another World Series.
Whether that happens or not, we’ve already had a thrilling Houston vs. New York series thanks to the quintessential New Yorker, Billy Joel. Joel performed in Houston a few short weeks ago at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. A couple of weeks later, he was back home at Madison Square Garden for the 84th show of his now legendary residency at the fabled arena. The residency began in 2013 and continues with monthly shows, including the most recent on October 9.
As much as anyone, I love a good contest, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And, even more, I love Billy Joel. As music artists go – my own musician kids notwithstanding – he is my all-time favorite and, just like Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS, it’s not even close (Astros 8, Yankees 3). So, I decided to take in both shows and report on Joel’s home and away games. Where did he hit homers? Were there any strikeouts? Like Robert Ford and Steve Sparks, I’ll give you my best play-by-play and color commentary of two special nights of music in two special cities in this recap. Did Houston edge New York for yet another title? Cue that SportsCenter music:
BATTING PRACTICE
Every good contest begins with a warm-up. In baseball, it’s playing pepper or fielding balls from a fungo bat. In concertgoing, it’s choosing the right company for the show and the proper pre-game activities. My company for the New York show was Mrs. Sendejas. We took a long weekend to enjoy the city but we were there for one reason, to see Billy Joel for a tenth time together. Her first ever concert was a Billy Joel show at The Summit in Houston, his An Innocent Man tour stop in 1984. We were going to the 84th installment at the Garden. Like a snug batting glove, it just felt right.
Our company for the Houston show was our adult kids, who’ve had to listen to Joel’s music over 30 years now, whether they’ve wanted to or not. They’ve actually covered their parents’ favorite artist a time or two. My daughter-in-law and a family friend who is like a daughter rounded out our crew, just another group of folks who know and love the Piano Man. Both venues were filled with groups like us, fans of a Hall of Fame great with too many records and accolades to list here.
In Houston, our group met for dinner, a nice meal together at Thai Café over on Congress, within walking distance of the ballpark. In NYC, the wife and I created a few memorable scenes from an Italian restaurant with dinner at L’Amico, chef Laurent Tourondel’s spot on 6th Avenue. We took sidewalk seating on a gorgeous fall evening and had one of the best meals of our lives. Bottle of white? Bottle of red? We chose a bottle of white.
Wherever you go, eat a hearty meal ahead of a Billy Joel concert. There’s no opening act, just Joel for two to three hours delivering hit after hit like the heart of the ‘Stros’ batting order. He might even go into extra innings, so make sure you’re sated and comfortable for an incredible night of music, whatever the venue.
THE LINEUPS
In Houston and at Madison Square Garden, Joel penciled more than two dozen songs into the lineup. In Houston, the songs were pulled from 10 of Joel’s 13 studio albums and in New York City only two studio albums weren’t represented, the bookend albums Cold Spring Harbor (1971) and 2001’s classical compositions album Fantasies & Delusions.
At both shows, Joel included songs meant to showcase his remarkable band. Highlights shared on both nights included multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Crystal Taliefero getting people to their feet for “Dancing in the Street;” Mike DelGuidice bringing down both houses with powerful vocals on “Nessun Dorma;” and, Carl Fischer slaying on trumpet for “Zanzibar.”
AWAY GAME: HOUSTON
A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, six-time Grammy winner, Kennedy Centers honoree and sixth best-selling recording artist of all-time can call his shots like Babe Ruth did that one time. For Joel in these recent years, that’s meant playing ball parks. In the 50 years he’s played Houston, going back to shows at Liberty Hall on Chenevert Street, he’s mostly done arena shows. This was his first show at Minute Maid Park.
There are better, more traditional reviews of the concert available to you, reader. I’d suggest starting with Pete Vonder Haar’s recap of the night. You’ll get more objective notions of the show from him than you’re likely to read over these next several sentences.
On one matter we both agree – Billy Joel can still sing the hell out of these songs. Artists his age sometimes can’t, it’s okay and just a fact that we who attend shows by older performers must accept. But Joel sounded great this night, even under the closed roof of MMP, which was built for baseball and not concerts. One of the best songs of the night was “Zanzibar,” during which, up in the nosebleeds, my daughter and her friend did the viral TikTok dance attached to the song from the 1978 album 52nd Street. Yup, Joel is TikTok famous in 2022. “Zanzibar” sounds as fresh as ever and Joel even changed a few of the Pete Rose lyrics to update the tune. After the show, my son, who has covered it, said it was surreal singing “Piano Man” with tens of thousands of people surrounding and figuratively embracing the song’s namesake, the patron saint of piano men.
My son and his wife swayed to “The Longest Time” the way his mother and I did when we wore down the vinyl of An Innocent Man back in 1983. My daughter, wife and I hit the high notes on that song together and when Joel got to “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” it was yet another opportunity for me to remind the kids about the time my wife and I had front row seats for The Bridge tour stop at the Summit in 1987. During that song, Joel was twirling the mic stand the way he still does (albeit with more youthful vigor) when it slipped and bonked Mrs. Sendejas on the head. Joel looked right into her face and mouthed an apology and we two were too stunned at him speaking to her to respond.
A concert can’t and shouldn’t be only about the technical delivery of the songs. If you want the full experience, you have to turn part of your heart over to the night, especially for a treasured artist. Joel won this away game by winning our hearts as a young couple all those years ago and giving us a point on the graph to return to full-circle as a family.
HOME GAME: NYC
There were some similarities to the Houston show at Madison Square Garden. The opening songs and the encores matched one another. Joel used the same humorous patter after singing “Just the Way You Are,” which I won’t share here so it’ll sound fresh to listeners at Joel’s November 23 show at the Garden.
There were some big differences, of course, and those differences create a good argument for the truest of fans to someday make the trek to see Joel at Madison Square Garden while they can. On his home turf, he seemed more comfortable sending some pinch hitters to the plate, worthy songs that have been riding the pine for a while but still delivered. On our show those songs were, “No Man’s Land,” the snarling opener from River of Dreams and Storm Front’s “The Downeaster ‘Alexa,’” which I hadn’t heard live in at least 30 years.
Joel covered “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” that night, on what would have been the 82nd birthday of one of his music idols, John Lennon. Hearing it just two miles from Central Park’s Strawberry Fields was moving. In the Garden, Joel’s had special guests appear during the residency. Paul Simon, Miley Cyrus, his daughter Alexa, Bruce Springsteen (who got a nod with “Born to Run” at the recent Houston show), Sting, John Mayer and recent pop phenom Olivia Rodrigo are just some of the artists who’ve dropped in to join Joel on stage.
At our show, the special guest was David Brown, the longtime, former guitarist of Joel’s band. He was featured on “This is the Time,” a ballad from The Bridge and a song that holds a special place in many couples’ relationships. I’m not ashamed to say the wild boys were my friends and I’m also not ashamed to say I shed a few tears hearing this song live on a special trip with my wife nearly 40 years into our partnership. It was a highlight of 41 years of concert-going memories.
Joel obviously played “New York State of Mind” in NYC, a song missing from the Houston set. If you’ve taken a holiday from the neighborhood to see the show, you’re gonna feel that song so much stronger than any time you’ve heard Joel sing it in your own hometown. I once wrote how Joel was an honorary Texan based on his song selections from a 2015 show at Toyota Center. Hearing and singing along to “New York State of Mind” live in the heart of Manhattan was almost like being sworn in as an honorary New Yorker.
SERIES SUMMARY: TIED AT 1 APIECE
It should have been clear early on this was going to be a 1-1 series tie. There are no losers when it comes to hearing Billy Joel live in 2022. His vocals are solid, he charms the crowds, his band is impeccable, the songs are beloved. We said “Let’s play two!” a la Ernie Banks and Joel did everything right over both shows. In Houston, although he was positioned in centerfield of the stadium associated with the cheating scandal, Joel – a New Yorker and avid baseball fan – made no mention of that stain on baseball history. Classy. In New York, he did ask for the score of the Mets playoff game a time or two. Sadly, they were on their way out of the 2022 post-season that same evening.
Joel just announced the 88th show of the Madison Square Garden residency, a Valentine’s Day date in 2023 that almost sounds too enticing to pass on for fans of romance and Billy Joel. Whether you get to that show or not, I strongly advocate for seeing Joel live in that arena. Take a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line and get in a New York state of mind.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
