Better late than never .... :-)
Since there weren't many posts about the show in Ottawa on Nov. 7th, I just wanted to send along my experience and impressions. I got tickets at almost the last minute, and although the whole family came along on the trip from Rochester, it was my 11-yr-old son who had the pleasure of attending the show with me (his first concert, and was he ever excited!). We both got even more excited when we discovered that our seats were practically the best in the house - directly behind EJ's piano, first row! We could see every move his fingers made on the keyboard, as well as a great view of the entire band.
The show started right on time and went for almost 2 hrs. 45 min. Elton appeared in a bright red suit with a black shirt, and remained in this one outfit throughout the entire show, including encores. He appeared to be in great spirits with no evidence of the cold he had reportedly had during some of the previous shows (his voice sounded great and there were no kleenex in sight :-) He and the band were in great form and you could tell they were having a great time and truly enjoying themselves, especially when during Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting about eight huge orange and purple (?) balloons were dropped on the crowd from above and everyone started batting them around and onto the stage. Davey and John J. were having a ball hitting them back into the crowd with the ends of their guitars or kicking them, and Elton even reached up to bat them once or twice, never missing a beat on the keyboard.
One thing that greatly surprised me was that the crowd was much more subdued (or perhaps controlled would be a better choice of words) than most I've seen before. By that I mean there were no mad rushes towards the stage, throwing flowers, etc. In fact, I don't believe I saw even one person with some type of gift for Elton, which is quite unusual. It was quite aways into the show before anyone even approached him with a program or other item to autograph - then there were several, most of which he took the time to oblige. That was the one true regret of where we were sitting - that we weren't physically accessible to getting our program signed or (and I'll *never* get over this!) that I didn't have my camera along, when I could have gotten absolutely the most fantastic shots in the place.
The set list was as follows:
Simple Life The One (what a joy to watch his fingers playing that one!) Grey Seal (yes!!) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (double yes!!) Honky Cat Can You Feel the Love Tonight Tiny Dancer I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues If the River Can Bend I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me The Last Song (which panicked my son when he thought it *was* the last song! :-) Daniel Love's Got a Lot to Answer For (nice, but I'd have preferred "Long Way from Happiness") Take Me to the Pilot (great intro, but as someone else said - this one's getting a little overdone by now) Something About the Way You Look Tonight Made In England (great fun; also the first piano bench kick of the evening, much to my son's delight!) Believe Someone Saved My Life Tonight (famous to my son for the "damn it!" line :-) Philadelphia Freedom Levon Bennie & the Jets (*awesome* view of EJ playing from beneath the piano; also second bench kick of the night!) Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (accompanied by attack of the giant balloons!) First Encore: Sand & Water (beautiful song, although I couldn't make out all the lyrics) The Bitch is Back Second Encore: Your Song
I didn't see an empty seat in the place, and they were filled all around the area behind the stage as well. Elton was very good about playing to all sides of the stage, and went out of his way to wave and mug with the folks sitting behind. Our most exciting moment at the conclusion of MIE, when EJ turned directly towards us and saw my son and I waving like crazy and yelling (we'd be hard to miss, since we were both sporting t-shirts from previous EJ shows - another thing I didn't see much of here, for some reason). He pointed to the shirts and gave us a big smile and thumbs-up. That was definitely one of the biggest moments of my son's (not to mention my) life!! :-)
All in all, a totally awesome night. Although I'm disappointed to learn Elton and Billy Joel won't be opening a joint US tour in Syracuse in January as previously reported, I'm glad on the other hand this will instead provide some more solo EJ tour dates for folks who haven't had the chance to see him yet. By all means, take the opportunity if you can! And never give up - there are plenty of us who didn't find our tickets until the last minute! (Guess you just gotta BELIEVE .... :-)
Lee Anne boswell@wrc.xerox.com
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