Elton John Rocks!
Last night I picked up Greg from the airport -- he'd been in California for meetings all week. We then headed straight to the Sullivan Arena for the Elton John concert. I can't even begin to tell you just how much fun we had. There's nothing like going to a rock concert to make you feel young and carefree. I usually play the role of "responsible mother of two" quite well -- that doesn't leave much time for "rock concert mom" to come out of hiding, but it sure is fun when she does. Even my kids thought I was cool for a brief shining moment knowing I was heading off for some rock and roll.

First, we got our backstage tour from Greg's contact, the piano tuner, Dale. He was such a sweet guy -- a good midwestern boy who still returns home to his wife and kids in Madison between shows. Just having that chance to talk to someone about the ups and downs of constant touring with a band was really insightful. I went into "dad" mode (he's great at searching for interesting questions to draw out information from people). He talked about the fact that the crew was really tired out from just coming in from Hong Kong, the difficulties of jet lag with the constant travel, the trouble falling asleep on a tour bus when they're touring the U.S., the fact that the tour company becomes like a second family. He kept telling us how unglamorous the job is, but then would regale us with interesting stories of concerts with 300,000 people in attendance, or concerts in the White House or Kremlin, or fundraisers for the Clintons, or personal wedding performances for the world's wealthiest individuals (cost for a private concert -- $1.5 million minimum). He talked about the difficulties of getting the concert equipment into bull rings in Spain, with the dirt floors and the narrow cobblestone pathways that aren't big enough to allow the giant semi-trucks to get through. He talked about close-calls with the piano after it has been shipped to various locales and sometimes isn't better off for the journey. He talked about the fact that Elton John is a consummate professional who arrives at the arenas about 5 hours before the concert begins to take a nap and get comfortable -- the wardrobe guy always makes sure that his comforter is there in the dressing room so he can sleep (certainly that is not what we've become accustomed to seeing backstage before a concert. Just watch any episode of VH1's "behind the music" and you're taught that all rock bands are partying it up with hot women and illicit substances before each show, not napping with their same comfortable comforter. Dale laughed and told us that he's been told that "back in the day" Elton wasn't quite so focused prior to concerts. Apparently Elton told him that if he was still acting that way he was quite sure he'd be dead or just so mean that nobody would want to see him).

Dale told us about how he himself never tires of listening to the concerts (he is there to work at about 4 concerts a week and his been touring with Elton since 1992 -- that is well over 3000 Elton John concerts). He told us that he has become more and more convinced of the genius of Elton since working with him and seeing how he changes songs every night to make them better and mix it up. Fascinating backstage tour.

And the concert itself? Awesome. The sound acoustics in the Sullivan isn't awesome so it was a bit muddy at times, but who cares? It's Elton John singing some of my favorite songs. Just Elton John without a warm up act, sitting and playing songs for two and a half hours without an intermission. Not bad for a guy who is probably in his late 50's. He astounded us. He changed up his songs just enough so that they weren't indistinguishable from the hits we're used to, but had just enough change to make them new and different and fresh. And can the man play piano! He probably would have been a great concert pianist if he hadn't hit it big in rock and roll.

A highlight was the fact that Dale (the piano tuner) told us when security would allow us to rush the stage. At the end of the song "Tonight" they would let people up to the front of the stage to form a mosh-pit. He told us exactly when in hte roster to start making our way forward. Security tried to stop us from joining, but when we showed them our backstage pass, they let us through. We were about 7 feet from Elton John as he sange his encores. I swear he was looking right at me while singing "Bennie and the Jets." So, so, cool. It was a truly unique and awesome experience.