Hail, Mother Nature!
Thanks to unseasonably rainy April weather during Billy Joel’s sold-out concert with Sting at Petco Park Saturday night, the popular pop music pianist earned an elite, if not entirely coveted, distinction. He now joins the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis and Tony Bennett on the very short list of legendary musicians whose open-air concerts in San Diego saw them advance in a noble quest to rule in the rain.
Fortunately, no rush spoiled Sting’s superb 83-minute opening set, which included a propulsive version of his 1993 funk set, “Heavy Cloud No Rain.” Alas, the song includes a verse that proved all too prescient Saturday night at the downtown ballpark: The clouds won’t disappear until their work is done / Every morning you’ll hear me pray / If only it rained today.
The clouds began their work at 9:10 p.m., halfway through “Movin’ Out,” the second selection from Joel and his brassy one-woman, seven-man band. The light but steady rain continued through his next seven tracks, including “Vienna,” “An Innocent Man,” “Don’t Ask Me Why,” a truncated version of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” and the jazzy , the finger-snapping “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” in which Joel traded vocal lines with an umbrella-twirling Sting.
“Bring your raincoat!” Joel joked as Sting walked toward the massive stage, which spanned much of right and center fields at Petco Park.
Many fans wore rain gear to Billy Joel and Sting’s sold-out concert Saturday at Petco Park. Few participants seemed discouraged by the rainy weather.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Before “Start Me Up,” Joel told the audience, “Don’t get upset; I’m not Mick Jagger. Indeed, at 74, Joel is six years younger than the hyperkinetic and anti-aging Jagger (the Rolling Stones, incidentally, were the first rock group to perform at the brand new Petco Park in 2005, a year after its opening.
When “Start Me Up” ended, Joel and his well-practiced band playfully launched into a few verses of the Riveras’ 1964 chestnut, “California Sun,” which was memorably covered in 1977 by the Ramones. Raindrops were visible on parts of his grand piano, but Joel was not intimidated.
“We’re from New York, it’s nothing!” he told the enthusiastic crowd. Despite this, Joel’s stage outfit was completed with a black zipped jacket, cap and wool scarf. The drizzle was so constant that several of this reporter’s pens stopped working because of the humidity on the pages of my notebook.
The rain let up – for a while – shortly after Joel launched into his ninth selection, “New York State of Mind,” his signature song and one of the highlights of his set.
Despite the rainy weather, Billy Joel was in good spirits during his concert at Petco Park on Saturday evening.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The air was alternately dry and humid during the 13 numbers that followed Joel’s concert. It all culminated with five assured encore numbers: “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, “Uptown Girl”, “It’s Still Rock and ‘Roll To Me”, “Big Shot” and “You May be Right”, which included a charged sample of Led Zeppelin’s 1971 classic, “Rock and Roll,” sung by Joel’s band guitarist Mike DelGuidice.
The show ended at 10:55 p.m., five minutes before Petco Park’s curfew. This was Joel’s second appearance at the stadium, where he delivered a memorable 26-song performance in 2016 to a packed house.
Then, like Saturday, Joel’s grand piano rotated periodically across the stage to give the audience on either side of the packed stadium a better vantage point. Saturday’s concert was five songs shorter than 2016. What’s also different is Joel’s singing voice, which has lost some of its range and impact.
He acknowledged as much while introducing “An Innocent Man,” the title track from his 1983 album. “I didn’t realize when I was recording this that I was saying goodbye to a lot of my high notes,” Joel said. “If I hit a lot of flat notes, you’re allowed to moan.”
He was fully engaged and his singing was warm and resonant on winning renditions of “Vienna,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and “Piano Man.” And his keyboard work was rarely less than sparkling. But on other tracks, he repeatedly strained to hit the notes, even though he sang them in lower tones than originally recorded.
Four large video screens gave spectators an up-close view of Saturday’s Billy Joel and Prince concert at Petco Park.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Of course, the rain and cool night air could have been factors for the veteran troubadour, who tonight at 9 p.m. will be featured on CBS TV’s concert special, “Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden.
But inside and out, his crowd-pleasing Petco Park concert was marred by an inconsistent beat, no more so than when “The River of Dreams” followed “River Deep, Mountain High.” by Ike & Tina Turner – a good, but not great, showcase for singer and multi-instrumentalist Crystal Talifero. This was followed by guitarist DelGuidice’s vocal rendition of Puccini’s famous opera aria, “Nessun dorma” – which translates to “Nobody Sleeps” – as the introduction to “Piano Man”.
Say what? Even if it was an inside joke, it’s clear that no one was sleeping on such a damp and chilly evening. And the enthusiastic audience, who sang and danced en masse, left no doubt about their dedication to Joel and the songs many in attendance grew up hearing.
Pace and vocal power were no problem for Sting, whose 16-song opening set was a masterclass in how to structure, balance and deliver a concert that soared from the start. beginning (a fiery duet with Joel on “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”) and ending (“Every Breath You Take”, probably the most memorable rock song ever made about bullying).
Sting, who performed with similar elan in October at his SDSU concert here, was in excellent voice throughout Saturday. No matter how many times he has already sung “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” So Lonely,” and “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” he has made every sound wonderfully fresh and vital. Sting’s songs are enduring and flexible, allowing him to alter their tones, time signatures, and arrangements in a way that simultaneously salutes and extends them.
His exemplary bass playing was also a marvel of taste, conciseness and musicality which added a welcome dimension to the songs on offer. He was matched, note for note, by his very talented group of one woman and five men. It included Ben Butler, very ably replacing Sting’s long-time guitarist Dominic Miller (who has now embarked on a solo tour of Europe).
Sting has consistently injected new vigor into favorites like “Message in a Bottle,” Brand New Day,” “Fields of Gold” and “King of Pain,” adding welcome new twists while remaining true to the essence of every song. Rather than rushing through songs, he extended a number of them — including “Walking on the Moon,” which lasted 12 minutes but not a second too long — to better create dynamic tension and release.
Sting’s bass playing during his Saturday concert at Petco Park was just as memorable as his evocative singing.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
No stranger to stadium concerts, Sting commanded the stage with an inviting combination of authority, wit and good-natured good-naturedness. Even more than Joel, he repeatedly engaged the audience in lively call-and-response vocal exchanges. Sting also delivered some well-timed asides. (Introducing The Police’s 1981 gem, “Spirits in the Material World,” he deadpanned: “I can assure you it’s not a Madonna song,” a tongue-in-cheek allusion to her 1984 hit, “Material Girl.”)
After the harmonica-led “Brand New Day,” Sting commented on the bad weather, saying, “Man, it’s cold! I’m from England, where it’s (now) sunny and warm. You can’t trust the weather anymore, that’s what the next song is about. He and his band then delivered a carefully calibrated version of “Heavy Weather No Rain,” during which he added a few more lyrics: “You’re in San Diego — my ship just came in!” »
Sting wisely let his music speak for itself, especially on “Desert Rose.” Its serpentine, Arabic-inspired melody seemed all the more poignant at a time when, sadly, war rages once again in the Middle East.
At 72, Sting remains a striking musical force. The bar he set for Joel to follow on Saturday was, ultimately, a bridge too far — although that may reflect the fact that Sting is constantly touring, while Joel currently only averages two concerts a month. Regardless, on Saturday, neither of them let the rain dampen their musical parade.
