BILLY JOEL @ Miller Park – Milwaukee, WI

April 26, 2019

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As his only stop in the Midwest on this tour and 11 years since his last visit to Milwaukee, 69-year-old Billy Joel performed to 40,000-plus fans Friday evening at the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park, for one of the most highly-anticipated concerts of the year. Setting himself up for a welcoming round of applause, Billy announced at the beginning of his set, “I don’t have any new stuff… I am gonna play the same old shit.”

That was obviously not a problem as the crowd sang to their heart’s content in unison one song after another to all of Billy’s greatest hits as well as several cover tracks to include the fitting “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” as well as his rendition of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”, the Eagles “Take It Easy”, AC/DC’s “Highwell to Hell” and his own “You Might Be Right” followed by Led Zeppelin’s chaser “Rock & Roll” to finish off the set.

All in all, Billy performed all of the nostalgic hits right down to the note for two hours and reiterated why he will immortally be known as the Piano Man. Let’s not wait another 11 years before your next show Billy. Wisconsin loves you and will always welcome you with open arms. Don’t ask me why, we didn’t start the fire but it’s still rock and roll to me!

BAND BIOGRAPHY: BILLY JOEL
Having sold more than 100 million records over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years, Billy Joel ranks as one of most popular recording artists and respected entertainers in the world. Billy Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1972. He received the Recording Industry Association of America Diamond Award, presented for albums that have sold more than 10 million copies, for his “Greatest Hits Volume I and Volume II.”

Taking its name from a key track on The Stranger, “Movin’ Out,” a Broadway musical based on Joel’s music, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp, was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and took home two including Best Orchestrations–Billy’s first Tony Award win–and Best Choreography. Billy Joel received Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1978 for his song “Just the Way You Are”; Album of the Year in 1979 for “52nd Street”; and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1979 for “52nd Street” and in 1980 for “Glass Houses” In 1990, he was presented with a Grammy Legend Award. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, he was also presented with the Johnny Mercer Award in 2001. In 1999 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in 2004 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His other awards include the ASCAP Founders Award, the BMI Career Achievement Award, the American Music Awards Award of Merit, and the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal.

Billy Joel has donated his time and resources to a variety of charitable causes, and he has recently launched an ongoing educational initiative to provide seed money, musical scholarships, and endowments to a variety of East Coast colleges, universities, and music schools. For his accomplishments as a musician and as a humanitarian, he was honored as the 2002 MusiCares Person of the Year by the MusiCares Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences; he has also received a humanitarian award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The net proceeds of Billy Joel’s latest composition, “Christmas in Fallujah,” inspired by soldiers’ letters from Iraq, are being donated to Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds specially adapted homes for disabled service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

SET LIST:
Big Shot
Pressure
The Entertainer
Vienna
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Zanzibar
New York State of Mind
The Downeaster Alexa
Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel cover)
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
Don’t Ask Me Why
Allentown
She’s Always A Woman
My Life
Highway to Hell (AC/DC cover)
Only the Good Die Young
The River of Dreams (w/ Eagles’ “Take it Easy”)
Nessun Dorma (Giacomo Puccini cover)
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
Piano Man