Billy Joel at Shea

It was the first of Mr. Joel’s two “Last Play at Shea” shows, which are to be the final concerts at Shea baseball stadium before it is demolished. Neither Jeremy or I has been to a concert of this size before. Shea seats 60,000, it was sold out in 40 minutes and our seats were somewhere in the middle.

That was one of the perks of living in NYC!

Jeremy's instant response and creativity with his answers to a trivia questions at work made it possible for us to enjoy a free night. Plus all thanks to Natalie who was willing to watch Sonia. Needless to say we got back a bit too late... around 1 am.

We kicked off our night with a dinner at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central... one of the best sea food places. I always struggle there to order because they've got more than 100 sea food choices that are excellent.

The metro ride was packed with Mr. Joel's fans. Most of them from Long Island.

Mr. Joel brought Tony Bennett out to join him in “New York State of Mind,” and they pushed each other toward flamboyantly jazzy vocal turns. There were lots of guest performers that night. Billy, Tony and Jeremy ;)Mr. Joel sang “A Hard Day’s Night” with John Lennon inflections in his voice... in August 1965 the Beatles played at Shea. It was a first rock concert at the baseball stadium and it showed the world that rock’s audience had grown by an order of magnitude.

By the way, the stadium will be torn down but Billy Joel is older than this stadium. He recalled that Shea was built while he was a teenager. “Now they’re going to tear it down,” he mused, “and I’m still playing.”