Elton delivered a wonderful birthday present to me at the Kohl Center last Friday night. The acoustics at the center were wonderful, and the band gave an energetic show. This was the first time Elton had played Madison in 18 years, and the crowd's reaction displayed how appreciative they were to have him there. Security at the venue was practically nonexistent, which allowed my husband and I to come up to the front for the last 4 songs.
The set list was the same as I listed before for the Tinley Park concert, but Elton surprised me by replacing Roy Rogers with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy -- a much better song. It was a perfect choice for using the talents of Davey and John Jorgenson together on mandolin and guitar, and musically it held pretty close to the original album recording, except for playing double time starting with "For cheap easy meals . . ."
Having seen Elton twice on this leg of the tour, I am reversing my opinion on opening with Circle of Life. Although not as strong as other potential opening songs, it still sounded powerful and delighted the crowd. Also, just in the past two weeks I feel a significant improvement in Jack Bruno's drums, and that he fits in well with the rest of the band. I still cannot see what John Mahon adds to the sound. I tried intentionally to listen to him playing and could not hear him in the mix.
Because his piano technician was from Wisconsin, he introduced him, saying that he works with big instruments, "and you know how I love a big instrument!" Because the rest of the members wore black, Elton introducted them as "the men in black."
Elton wore a pale mint-colored suit with silver sequins in a swirl pattern and solitary ones and oval wire glasses with grey lenses and no earring. For the encore, it was a dark blue jogging suit and black tennis shoes. His hand must have been tired for all the autographs he gave, even signing to the last seconds before he was to come in for Bennie & the Jets.
A couple miscellaneous observations for those into gear: The band uses Matchless amps and one of the keyboards Guy plays on is a Kurzweil.
Definitely an outstanding concert--one of the best I have ever seen him at.
--Ann
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