It was a chilly night there at Polaris (temps in the low 50's, I think) but that did nothing to quell the enthusiasm of the crowd here. Although I don't think we were officially sold-out, I don't see how even a shoe-horn could fit any more people. This time we were on the lawn (near the front, right-of-center), so my impressions were of course much different from his last tour (where we had 7th row seats). This posting is much more a set of rambling impressions than a review (per usual for me), so here goes...
Set list: identical to those posted (I won't repeat) with one glaring difference: Out with Roy Rodgers, and In with ... ... CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY!!! I couldn't believe my ears when he announced this song (it's one of those I always longed to see performed live, but never have before). He said he was adding it to the set-list starting that night, so we really were in for a special treat. Most of the crowd was pretty lukewarm to this, but got more into it when it started to rock. Their rendition was pretty faithful to the album version, though they did manage to get the whole band involved on this which made the "chorus" heavier than I'm used to. But still, the highlight of the show, for me.
Other comments about the set-list: Circle of Life worked wonderfully as a concert-opener (chants and all), and everyone in the audience was pleasantly surprised that he dragged this one out. EJ cut the length of Rocket Man down to about six minutes (doing away with that asinine "funky rocket man" stuff), which I really appreciated. I'm glad he finally dropped Take Me to the Pilot, but he needs to retire I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That as well -- this one seemed like they were just going through the motions (how about substituting Healing Hands once in a while?). I was uncool with how they only did two cuts from The Big Picture (Something About..., and Recover Your Soul), even though this is supposed to be the Big Picture Tour (remember, Elton -- the reason why Live Like Horses made it onto this album is that European audiences responded so well to seeing it live!!!). More surprising is nothing from Made in England (though Believe is one of his biggest hits of the decade). The percussive-only intro to Simple Life made for a great change-of-pace, but maybe it's about time this one was retired too (he doesn't need as a segue to The One). My last complaint here is that I don't think Benny and the Jets worked too well as a concert-closer -- it didn't leave the same sense of resolution as The Last Song did at his last Polaris appearance. Perhaps, he could have revived Harmony to close out the concert, after the Benny encore...
On the more positive side (enough of my bitching already), Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds was a great blast from the past, and it allowed Guy Babylon to show us what he's made of. I'm real happy he threw Tiny Dancer back in (this is the first time I've seen him do it, believe it or not -- since my first EJ concert was the Ray Cooper deal a few years back). Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters was another highlight for me, I was just blown away by the gorgeous, meticulous mandolin playing on that.
Sound-wise, this concert was a tremendous improvement over the Made In England tour in that the piano was much more prominent (and a lot of the songs did focus on piano). Unfortunately, the vocals did still get buried for the loud songs. EJ seemed to be having a lot of fun--he would stop to sign autographs after every few songs, and once he signed someone's shirt, whole bunches of people started throwing shirts on stage (he made some kind of comments like "don't you have any clothes besides shirts?").
All in all, a very intense, well-planned night. Columbus is much more of an Elton town than I had guessed.
--Jason E. Frank
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