On October 2nd I was surprised with a last minute ticket to an Elton John show. I gotta tell ya, I never thought I'd get to see Elton John...for two main reasons I realized. Firstly...it's SIR ELTON JOHN, I just never thought I'd be so lucky. I figured it would be like being in the presence of royalty, which is really was. And second, Elton John tickets aint cheap. Thankfully my friend won them, so he didn't have to shell out the money. I HEART winning concert tickets. I won my first concert tickets at the age of 15 (maybe 14) with front and center seats to see the Monkees. Anyhow, yesterday afternoon I found myself headed to San Jose. It felt like a mini vacation. The Silicon Valley is quite different from my East Bay Oakland-Berkeley nest. Thing is, I wasn't all that far from home.
San Jose's SAP arena was huge and the stage was fitted with something that looked like a moving chandelier. By the end of the night, Elton John made that huge arena feel small and personal...which I've never experienced before. The opening act was an indie band Elton supports and enjoys "Bright Light Bright Light." Being an old soul whose admittedly rock-centric, I had never heard of this band. This is mostly because most contemporary bands aren't my bag. They had a great sound and definitely made me think of how tough it can be to be the opening act. The audience of San Jose was warm, welcome and dancy from what I saw. Being the opening act your job is to break the people in. Take them away from the activities of the day and set them up for the headliner.
Before the opening act came on, Elton came on screen to introduce them which I thought was a nice touch...and something I rarely see. Little did I know there would be a LOT of nice touches that night, some more obvious than others. Once Bright Light exited the stage after only about a 30 minute set--it was quickly set up for Elton and his band. The lights went out, and fog quickly crept on the stage accompanied by blue lights and "Funeral for a friend/Love lies bleeding". It being the second of October, this fit perfectly. Elton entered the stage in what is literally the bluest, glitteriest thing I have ever seen in my life. That jacket was embedded with so many glitter studs, Elton looked like a glitter fire cracker was constantly going off on his suit.
Elton bowed and smiled generously and graciously before he sat down at the shiny black fancy piano. Our seats we behind Elton, but further up back. I missed some of the stage nuances due to the view, but it all came together in the end where even with a cropped view you could understand. When we walked in there door there were tons of notices that this would be filmed. So I'm assuming this will be on DVD or released somehow. The show went like a well oiled machine, which just spoke volumes to the level of professionalism Elton John and his band (and staff) have. The songs went seemlessly into the next with energy and talent tickling the ivories that I didn't even realize Elton had. I even felt the need to yell out at one point "He's tickled the ivories so hard they peed their pants." I dunno but that was my way of saying BOOM. I mean, I knew this guy could play, but wow.
Set list included "Candle in the wind","The Bitch is Back", "Your Song", "Tiny Dancer", "Crocodile Rock", "Philadelphia Freedom", "Levon", " Saturday Nights Alright", "I'm still standing", "Home Again", "Oceans Away", "Rocket Man" and for the encore "Circle of life" which seemed to surprise us all. Although a lot of famous tunes were played that night, the audience lost it the most for Lion King's "Circle of life" Admittedly I started to get emotional too because Lion King pulls on the heart strings of Disney movie watching kid Becca. That's when it really hit me. After years of listening to this musician, all the scores to soundtracks he did, all the groundbreaking things he did....he was playing on a stage before me. I was stoked to see it all come full circle, and it didn't hurt that the song was Circle of life. Everyone in the audience was singing to this song, it didn't matter what age they were. |
| Concert goodies: T-shirt, tour book, tote bag |
After Elton's encore he went to the stage front to sign autographs which was really rad. Many of the floor level people in the first several rows crammed forward to get a signature...and I don't blame them. Lucky people! As the evening was reaching and emotional climax, the camera was continually scanning the audience for reactions and dancing people. Out of the crowd emerged a familiar face wearing red plaid and a big concert high smile....Rob Lowe. The audience did a collective "Woaaa!" A bunch of thoughts whizzed through my head, like "Woa it's Rob Lowe!" and "I wonder if he's cool with the fact that the camera just spotted him and now everyone know where he is." (no-anonymity) At the end of nearly every song he played, Sir Elton John stood up from the piano, turned around all the way to the whole viewpoint of people watching, removed his sunglasses and bowed.
I can say that in my concert going experience I've never seen an entertainer as gracious as Elton John.
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