Billy Joel in Rotterdam: my review
Boy, it was hot in Ahoy Sport Palace last night! But that did not really matter of course. I had been waiting 12 years for this concert to happen. Billy Joel was finally back in Holland again. And what a performance it was!
Overall
Despite the enormous heat, both the 4000+ 7500 audience (from 5 to 75 years) and Billy & Band had a terrific night. The sound was great, as was the performance. This was not like dully playing a couple of songs in a row; this was a real show!
All in all 2 hours and 15 minutes, 24 songs, non-stop. A night to remember!
The obligatory Good and Bad
The Good:
- Billy!!!!!
- The band
- The sound (*edit*: at least for Ahoy it was quite decent)
- The great enthusiastic audience
- The humour in between the songs
The bad:
- Billy almost fell off the stage when, during his handshaking round, somebody from the audience apparently wanted to take him home. He really slipped, but luckily no injuries! (*edit*: Billy got stuck in someone’s ring, by accident)
- No local flavour in terms of invited artist.
- No accordion on “The Downeaster Alexa”
- I would have liked to hear “Vienna” (played in Austria and Germany if I am not wrong) and “Summer, Highlands Falls”!
- The temperature (who’s to blame here?)
From the performance
- Billy has special taste for history like I already wrote about in a post on his interest in the Coal Industry demise. Last night, between “New York State of Mind” and “The Downeaster “Alexa” he lectured about New York’s former name “Nieuw Amsterdam” (founded in 1625) and about the many Islands that make up the New York area (like Cooney Island, Staten Island, Rhode Island, Long Island) to end up with the fishermen of Oyster Bay, the subject of The Downeaster “Alexa”.
- The intro to “An Innocent Man” was really cool: on those nice intro beats he started out with “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand By Me”. And Billy provided some nice dance moves to it as well.
- Billy wore a Feyenoord cap (Feyenoord = the biggest soccer club in Rotterdam) during “You May Be Right” to show of knowing where he was playing last night.
- The sing-along in the encore “Piano Man” was one of my favorite and most emotional parts of the show!
Some quotes
- “It is fucking hot out here!”
- “This is from an album that came out in 1922“ (intentional)
- “Let´s sweat together!”
- “This album was bought by about – ahm – six people” (kindly added by commenter JeWeA)
The set list
Please visit the set list post.
Some trivia I would like to remember
- The grand piano was on a “turntable” to optimise the viewing experience.
- Although obvious to most of you, it was nice to see the lighting very aligned to the music: e.g. “Leningrad” (red), “Keeping The Faith” (red, yellow, green).
- Billy’s looks: “black jacket, black t-shirt over blue jeans”, lost his wild hairs (bold), but at 57 still very alive and kicking.
- Not fully booked (still tickets for Arena when I checked the night before) and 2nd ring in the Sport Palace was closed.
- A considerable number of fans from Belgium, Germany and the UK.
- Billy really enjoyed the audience enthusiasm and applauded for “our” sing-along in “Always A Woman”.
Our seats
- Me and my wife were on the 1st Ring, “Vak” Di, row 23, seats 13 and 14.
- I guess we were around 30 meters from the stage so we great view.
- There were some very enthusiastic people setting behind us. Although very good in terms of the atmosphere, it sometimes prevented us hearing Billy singing. That’s the way it is…
My (famous) last words…
Billy & Band: many thanks for this wonderful performance! Will we see you back some day (please do not let us wait 12 years again)?
Did I forget something? Please comment!!
Related: all my Billy Joel articles
Technorati tags: Billy Joel, Billy-Joel, Netherlands
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posted Jul 23, 01:03 PM on Jul 23, 2006 |
category: Billy Joel
/ Music
Well, I don’t agree completely.
The sound was crap. Like playing a 20s radio in a empty bathroom. Horrible. Got better after song 3 or 4, but still shit. Especially the vocals. Well, that’s probably the price they had to pay for not selling the venue completely.
Still, the show was great, but still much of a show. I would have liked to sacrifice Chainsaws performance (?) for Summer Highland Falls or….
All in all, great and worth the trip from DUS to Rotterdamn. ;-)
— Jay Jul 23, 02:03 PM #
Thanks for your review, it gives a nice idea of how the show was.
Being a huge Joelfan, i managed to survive 4 hrs of waiting in the burning sun so that i could stand in the front row. Just 2 meters away…:) When he was pulled into the audience, he wasn’t much into shaking another hand that night. But although skipping a lot of hands, he pointed at me, saying “I trust you!”, and shook my hand firmly. Wow! That’s the way to deal with your fans!
That’s what makes Joel a good performer too, he makes fun with his audience, he doesn’t ignore them (like Clapton did two months ago).
— Guido Jul 23, 02:55 PM #
Hi Marcel,
thanks for your comments. I’ve seen so many things last night during the concert that I almost forgot Billy Joels applause for the audience singing along with “She’s a woman”...
I’m looking for dutch newspaper articles (de Volkskrant, AD, ...) which I’d like to translate for the german and english speaking fans who’d been in Rotterdam. Can you contact me via mail isara@gmx.de?
Thanks
Isabell
— Isabell Jul 23, 04:22 PM #
He got stuck at a guy’s ring, there was absolute no attention to do this ;-) I stood next to the guy so saw what happened :-)
— Cindy Jul 23, 05:40 PM #
Hi Billy fans,
Thanks for the comments so far. Keep them coming, for the pleasure of the next visitor!
@Isabell: I will look for the articles, scan and have them mailed to you as soon as I can!
Best regards,
Marcel
— Marcel Jul 23, 09:02 PM #
Hey there Marcel,
You did a great job on this review, I agree with all you said. But I also want to mention that I missed Just The Way You Are and She’s Got A Way, and I would have loved to hear songs like “I’ve Loved These Days” and “James”, but hey, if it was up to me we still would have been sitting in Ahoy’ listening to Billy ;-)
But it was a wonderful performance, no idea where Jay was seated, but I had no trouble hearing the vocals or anything else, only “Chainsaw”, but that must have been because of the audience singing along ;-)
Marcel, you can send me an email if you’re interested in any photos or short videos. I was able to capture your favorite part of Piano Man on video (no sharp images, but still great to hear and see for a fan who’s been there).
Cheers,
Daniel
— Daniel Jul 23, 10:15 PM #
A quote to add; “This album was bought by about – ahm – six people”
One to skip; Feijenoord the largest soccesclub in Holland? Duh…
Had a fantastic night also. The fact that you could easily walk from stage to the back of the Arena was nice, but also is a sign that Ahoy wasn’t fully booked (with the 2nd ring closed).
— JeWeA Jul 24, 12:05 AM #
It was FRIKKIN hot!
Sat down and thought it was too much.
When the show got going though, got into it so well that I didn’t even mind the heat!
Great show
— Ken Jul 24, 01:09 AM #
We were in the same row I see! We liked the concert also very much. I’d never seen him live before but sure hope he does this more often.
— steven Jul 24, 02:55 PM #
I have been to the last three concerts in Ahoy, but this one was the absolute best, both in sound, setlist as in the way the band was overwhelmed by the audience. I was sitting way back (the guys that were ripped off….) but that was forgotten wery quickly. As soon as Billy started playing goosebumps all over… The best thing was the surprise of the band (incl Billy) by the response of the audience by singing along, applauding for solo’s. It must have been like coming home for them.
I was hooked, now my wife is as wel. She only knew Billy from the albums, but life is always better. In this case: the best!
— Arjan Jul 25, 09:31 AM #
Hi there,
We were three rows in front of you!
DI, row 20, seats 17 & 18.
Enjoyed the show tremendously!
It was awesome.
Highlights for me: Prelude & Angry young man( had goose bumps in spite of the temperature…)
Miami 2017, Always a woman (it moved me to tears), Allentown, Goodnight Saigon (good lightshow)and the enchore.
Saw Billy in Ahoy in 1994 en 1990 (?)but this one was the best!!!
— thebe Jul 25, 10:32 AM #
I travelled over from the UK to see Billy. He has never toured South Africa and I really thought I would never get to see him live especially with his interest in classical music. My own opinions of the night were:
Stood near the front door waiting to be let in I saw what a great crowd of people the early arrivals were. The fact that I speak Afrikaans did seem to confuse some people but once we were chatting in English they were great people to chat to. That is all part of the experience for me – good music and good people.
It was hot! Maybe Ahoy need better aircon systems?
The sound. I was stood right at the front slightly to the left of centre. The first couple of songs we could not hear Billy’s voice due to the lead guitar levels being too high. It later improved but at times we again ahd Billy drowned out by the guitar.
The set list….... fucking good! The only song I dont like is River of Dreams and I suppose he had to play it! :) The highpoints of the set being Piano Man, Miami 2017, Downeaster Alexa, We Didnt Start The Fire.
The dissapointments? The sexy chick that played violin on some of his 90’s concerts (in particular on Downeaster Alexa)wasnt there. Also the sexy black lady percussionist from the same era would have just done it for me – especially on We Didnt Start The Fire.
Other than that all I can say is Thank You Billy for the awesome night and thank you Holland for the amazing weekend!
PS And I think him letting Chainsaw have a bit of fun on stage was great!
— Jon Jul 25, 11:40 PM #