Elton delivered an energetic show last Friday at the World Music Theatre. The show lasted from 8:14PM to nearly 11PM. It was spoiled only by this venue's poor acoustics, which cause the sound (other than the piano, which was very bright) to be muddy.
For most of the show, Elton wore a grey and beige plaid suit, with a purple shirt. The lower edge of the jacket had a band of silver sequins in the Versace design used on stage:
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Elton also wore a gold cross earring and purple-lensed rectangular glasses (the most flattering style I have seen him in for years). For Bennie and the Jets, he changed into a very light jogging outfit -- dark blue pants and matching blue jacket with white vertical bands on the arms and underarms.
Circle of Life was a mediocre choice of opening song, in my opinion, but the crowd at the venue was extremely enthusiastic for it, and stood cheering and applauding. The crowd appeared, in fact, starved for hearing any of Elton's songs, and was excited the entire night.
Grey Seal featured a rock and roll guitar ending. Jack Bruno was proficient on drums, but I did miss some of the chops Nigel Olsson used to do on GBYBR and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Even though Billy Trudel hit the very highest notes of the show for Elton, Elton still sang most of the high notes himself. On Honky Cat, Elton had a bright crisp piano sound, and he did a cool rock and roll piano ending on Levon. I also loved the horns John Jorgenson lent to Teenage Idol, which was a wonderful rarity to hear live. I Don't Wanna was energetically performed. Elton made a very gospelly piano intro to Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. On that particular song, Davey did the same guitar riffs as on the original recording. Rocket Man featured an extended piano and slide guitar ending. Despite Elton's dislike for Crocodile Rock, I had to smile when the crowd was more excited to hear it than any other song of the night.
One of my favorite songs of this tour has been Elton's performance of Recover Your Soul solo. It is a much stronger song performed this way, than with the embellishments of the band. It accentuates the comments made by Sting on the Two Rooms video about the song Come Down In Time, and how you can tell a great song when you strip it down to its bare elements and play it acoustically.
Philadelphia Freedom was a joy to hear, with everybody in the band "cooking" and grooving together. Elton did a funky piano solo on Sad Songs. John Jorgenson's sax on The Bitch is Back was one of the highlights of the show, and showed how much versitility he lends to the band. On this song, John Mahon played drums on Davey's guitar, which was cool to see. Great Balls of Fire was great fun -- Elton playing boogie woogie funk on the keyboard. John Jorgenson brought out the GBYBR designed guitar on Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting.
I very much enjoyed this show, but I must say I hope that Elton never chooses this venue to perform at again, because of the muddy wall-of-sound-coming-at-you acoustics. It is a shame that one of the best venues in the Chicago area acoustically, Poplar Creek, (at which Elton performed many times) was torn down a few years ago, and this place was put up instead.
---Ann
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