Right after Billy Joel finished "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)," his opening song at PNC Park on Friday, he took a quick glance around the stadium. A wry smile crossed his face, as if he was saying "I got this."
Boy, did he.
Joel and his stellar band wowed the nearly packed crowd at the park with an evening that featured a cross-section of his best work. As he said, "I don't have any new (stuff) for you," and that was fine. His catalog includes some of the best American songs from the last 50 years, and he nailed almost everything he tried.
"Pressure," the second tune, was merely a warm-up for the first high point of the night, a rollicking version of "The Entertainer." Dressed in a black suit, and a times wielding a flyswatter mid-song to fend off the gnats and bugs dive-bombing the stage, Joel often introduced the songs with stories.
Before "Just the Way You Are," he reminisced about playing the Syria Mosque in Oakland in 1977 as the opening act for the Doobie Brothers. "Pittsburgh was the first place we found out anybody knew about (the song)," he said.
The sultry "Zanzibar" was dedicated to the late Muhammad Ali, and then Joel gave the audience a choice: he'd play either "An Innocent Man" or "The Longest Time." The latter was the rousing choice, thankfully, since it was introduced by a stunning a cappella version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and also gave Pittsburgh's own Pete Hewlett (who toured with Joel in the mid-1980s) a chance to sing backing vocals.
The song selections fit Joel's still fine mid-range; at one point he admitted the high notes now elude him. "The Downeaster Alexa" and "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" were well-received, but "New York State of Mind" — preceded by a snippet of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was the highlight, views of Manhattan playing on the high-def screens behind the stage. The song also gave sax player Mark Rivera, who was stellar all night, a well-earned opportunity to step into the spotlight.
"She's Always a Woman to Me" was perhaps the night's one misstep, not in its musical execution (it was fine) but the cliched use of shots of women in the audience on the screens. Of course, the women who got some screen time would disagree.
Joel picked up the pace with a stirring version of "Allentown," it's elegiac lyrics of a city past its prime still biting and pertinent. Other highlight's included "Moving Out (Anthony's Song)", always a crowd favorite, and a riff on Beethhoven's "Ode to Joy" that led into "My Life."
As part of the encore, Joel was joined on "You May Be Right" by country star Kenny Chesney, who is playing a show Saturday night at Heinz Field.
