[Be sure to see also Kristy's spoiler on this show in a previous issue.]
Touchdown brings the Rocket Man 'round to the Rocket City! Elton wrapped up the first leg of his solo tour here in Huntsville, AL, on Friday, March 19, and a mighty fine finale it was. This was his first show here ever, and it was billed as the biggest thing to hit town since Elvis played to some sold-out crowds in the seventies. For every person who managed to get tickets the day they went on sale, there were ten left in line with nothing but a worthless wristband and a battery-dead cell-phone. Did EJ live up to the hype? You know he did!
He performed the same 28-song set reported from Carbondale and the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, EXCEPT Rocket Man took over Come Down In Time's slot. Although he didn't elaborate as to why, I might guess that was his tribute to Huntsville and its nickname. Perhaps, enroute to the arena, he spotted the rockets on display here outside the Space Museum and decided to make the change? "Holy cow! My eyes never saw a rocket that was quite that size!"
For folks who didn't get through the TicketLink phone lines until five minutes before it sold out, we had fantastic seats! Upper level behind the stage. And being in that front row meant there was no one blocking our view of the piano, except for a few confused stragglers during the first songs. Only the guardrails that prevent patrons from plunging into the box seats below crisscrossed our line-of-sight, and they weren't *that* annoying.
Our vantage point gave us a clear view of the entire stage floor, so we enjoyed the full effect of all the various geometric light-show patterns swirling across it. Of course, seats behind the stage also meant we saw the flip side of the big rear-projection screens. It was interesting, if a bit disorienting, to watch the wrong eyebrow dance, or Elton's left hand cavort through intricate melodies while his right pounded out the bass, all on the reversed keyboard of an AHAMAY piano. Even Pride Rock pointed the wrong way!
Yet another fun (?) thing about being behind the stage is we got to see each time Elton spit into the bucket. During one of the breaks when he was signing autographs, someone hoisted up a little girl for him to kiss. Right after he kissed her, he returned to the piano bench and spit! Could he have had a touch of hay fever? His nose obviously itched, as once or twice he even had to remove a hand from the piano during a song to scratch it. Huntsville, btw, is notorious for being one of the worst locations in the country for allergies.
The crowd pretty much settled into this pattern: there'd be some applause at the beginning of each song, then a healthy ovation at its conclusion. The duration of the ovations and the percentage of the audience standing was about as you'd expect -- directly proportional to the song's hit status. The biggest audience participation came during Crocodile Rock and Bennie. And after almost every song, Elton stood and strolled around the stage, soaking up the applause, while waving, saluting, and bowing in all directions. I thought he seemed especially attentive to all us fans behind the stage in this respect. By the end of the show, he was having to massage his arms a bit between numbers. He even hunched over once with them dangling loosely at his sides, to pantomime how tired they were.
Some assorted details... Elton wore a black, spangle-trimmed suit, just as described for other shows on this tour. I noticed the voice-echo effect on several tunes; see Kristy's spoiler in the previous issue for which ones. In introducing The Greatest Discovery, he even mentioned Bernie's baby brother's name: Kit. On Better Off Dead, he changed up the line a little: "If you ask how I am then I'll just say <pause> inspired." He said Ticking was probably even more relevant now than it was twenty years ago. He took long breaks to sign autographs after IDWGOWYLT and when he reentered the stage for the first encore, before Circle Of Life. He changed into a black, red and white warm-up suit just before coming back out for The Last Song, and then he was also carrying a letter from the director of the local AIDS Action Coalition. He spoke about it briefly and laid it atop the piano before performing that final encore.
One of the things I've always enjoyed most about EJ in concert is all those extras he throws in: the seemingly improvised riffs and multi-themed piano jams that don't appear in the studio recordings. The extended intro and jamming finish to TMTTP, e.g., blow me away every time. And without the band present, every single piano note came through loud and clear, to be savored without interference. A review in the local paper said that "occasional miscues were evident," but they admit "Who needs an orchestra? Not Elton."
Certainly I detected no miscues. But I'll concede I'm no piano teacher either: all of Elton's ivory tickling sounds inspired to me. The closest thing to a mistake I caught was in Ticking, when Elton sang, "As you *walked* out the door," rather than stepped out. (On the first chorus of Better Off Dead, he *might* have said, "Cause the steam's in the coaler the boil's in the fire," but that was so fast I can't be sure. Is that what you were talking about, Kristy?)
I know of a couple of other rowers that were behind the stage -- the two ladies with the cardboard cutout of the Big Picture portrait. Am I leaving out anything important, you two? Kristy has already reported from in front of the stage. All I have left to say is to reiterate something that others here have already emphasized: Get yourself to this show!
From "half a mile of Alabama mud bed ground," Jerry B.
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