I’m Still Standing

November 28, 2018

Elton John

 

I’m Still Standing

Elton John just might be Kathy’s favorite artist and we have taken just about every opportunity to go see him whenever he tours and visits South Florida. We have also seen two of his residency shows in Las Vegas including his Million Dollar Piano show most recently and the first one called the Red Piano back in 2004. He always puts on an amazing show that basically encompasses the soundtrack to our lives. When he announced that he was going on an extended farewell tour, “Farewell Yellow Brick Road”, which is purportedly his last major tour ever, I immediately got seats to the two shows in South Florida.

Elton John in Concert

I think I first saw Elton John in 1982 during his “Jump Up” tour, it was back at the old outdoor tennis facility in downtown Indianapolis where the summer tours were held prior to the construction of Deer Creek Amphitheatre. Over the years since then, I have probably seen him maybe fifteen times including his tour with Billy Joel and any number of his solo tours, I saw him play at an early Farm Aid show where he memorialized the late Ryan White and had previously been at a show where he brought Ryan onstage near the end of his life.

He is a brilliant showman and his shows always combine the best entertainment as well as his amazing singing talent and a host of iconic, classic songs that span most of our lives. The show at BB&T was no different, there was no opening act and Elton appeared onstage just after the scheduled 8 PM start time. He would play mostly continuously for almost three hours, a 24 song set that covered every era of his career, but seemed to focus a bit on the “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road” album.

 

The show opened with a mintage of footage covering John’s storied career, before he and his legendary band launched in to the classic “Bennie and the Jets” to the delight of the sold out crowd. The set was heavy with his hits from the early 1970s which was fine with us, it included classics like “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Rocket Man” and many more.

It was just a wonderful evening of amazing music and John remains a tour de force as his voice is a s strong as ever. He may not be quite as active as he once was, mostly remaining seated at the piano, which itself was rigged to glide across the stage as he was playing. There were only three costume changes, which is also down a little from some past shows, but the lack of flamboyance was more than made up for by the sheer quality of the presentation.

 

His band, most who have been playing with him for decades was in top form as well and overall it was just another stellar concert experience. The second night moved over to the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami, and it was pretty much an exact duplicate of the previous night. The setlist, staging and even crowd banter was pretty much the exact same. Normally this would bother me, but it wasn’t bad with Elton John as the show was just so spot on.

 

Our friends Matt and Deb, who we frequently see at concerts in Miami were on hand as well. I think they enjoy attending concerts almost as much as we do and it is always fun to run into them at a show. John’s farewell tour is scheduled to continue on for at least a couple of more years, they have already booked a return gig in Miami next year, so you should have plenty of chance to check it out. If you are a fan at all, it is well worth seeing.