Roberts Stadium was packed for Elton's first-ever appearance in Evansville, IN. There was good PR both before and after the concert, including a van from a radio station in Ft. Wayne, IN looking for fans from that city, only about 6 hours away.
One important thing to note is that 80 tickets were sold the day of the concert, as the stage was slightly smaller than expected which allowed a few extra rows to be placed on the floor of the auditorium. There were also many resellers in evidence--a legal practice in the state of Indiana. A small section behind the stage and away from Elton was not sold, but those behind the piano obviously had a good view of EJ.
Elton appeared at about 8:05, wearing an orange/salmon colored suit and black shirt -- perhaps a Halloween themed outfit. He did not change clothes as all in the concert, and was battling a cold. The guzzled cans of pop -- Diet Coke? -- between songs, and stood up to blow his nose several times. He apologized for the cold, but I thought his voice was unaffected.
The play list as best as I can make out my notes is as follows:
Simple Life The One Grey Seal Honky Cat Can You Feel the Love Tonight Tiny Dancer That's Why They Call It the Blues If the River Can Bend I Don't Want To Go On With You Like That (Long) Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me The Last Song Daniel Loves Got a Lot to Answer For (Long piano intro) Take Me To the Pilot Something About the Way You Look Tonight Made in England (Band intro) Believe Someone Saved My Life Last Night Philadelphia Freedom Levon Benny and the Jets (Long) Saturday Night's All Right ---------------- Sand and Water The Bitch is Back --------------- Your Song
As a person who has never attended hardly any rock concerts, certainly none of the magnitude of Elton's, I was overwhelmed by the volume and power of the music, especially Elton's long piano solo/introduction to Take Me.... This song was also surprising in that there was not a natural introduction from the piano to the song, as it seemed like he just paused for a second and started singing. This song and others had a lot of string and synthesizer effects added, and John Jorsenson's sax work added a lot to the show.
Most of the people around me were very quiet as they concentrated on the music, except for one lady who kept talking through most of the concert and earned a number of dirty glances from me. She acted very enthusiastic, but her level of knowledge was questioned when she said "I like this one already" when she heard the first bars of If The River Can Bend -- it didn't sound like she had heard it previously. (40 years she has to talk, shut up for three hours.)
I also found the light effects very interesting. Foolish me did not purchase a tour program nor t-shirt -- felt like we had already spent enough -- and had purchased a souvenir edition of the Evansville paper and stolen an advertising card for the paper from a sold-out vending machine. There should be an article on the concert on the Evansville courier website, at www.evansville.net/webcourier--please check the URL. The paper mentioned the tour had just been in Fargo where they got into the early fall storm, and contains pictures from the 10/18 Louisville, KY show.
Altogether a night I will never forget.
Cindy
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