DETROIT – Billy Joel is an old pro. His ribs are second nature, his routines are so well rehearsed they almost seem spontaneous, and his catalog of music so extensive that Saturday night’s concert could have been a four-hour marathon with extra songs.
According to Comerica Park’s evidence, he ended up fielding one of the most anticipated concert dates postponed by the pandemic, and he still got a real kick out of it.
So did the multigenerational fans who filled the 37,000-seat audience for a delightful show that was filled with Las Vegas Polish and Long Island moxie from the master of piano pop.
Joel took the stage with his eight-piece band and headed to his Steinway grand piano for an energetic rendition of “My Life,” launching a 135-minute set that echoed pop music from the concrete of downtown Detroit with one of America’s most successful productions.
As it turned out, he had a surprise fit for a major league stadium event. An hour into the concert, Joel suddenly welcomed Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, and confused whispers from the crowd quickly turned into roars of approval. The British singer jumped on stage and lit up “Pour Some Sugar on Me” as Joel and his band backed him up with a skilled arena rock fizz.
The show, originally scheduled for July 10, 2020, is one of the longest-booked shows on the Detroit concert calendar, postponed several times as COVID-19 exploded.
Joel thanked the fans who have held tickets throughout the long wait.
“Who knew this was going to happen?” He spoke of the epidemic.
For half a century, Joel has been fine-tuning his crowd work, and there’s an easy, winking familiarity to his approach, a sense that he’s engaging his audience like an old friend. There’s plenty of banter and good-natured flowery language – like the ubiquitous fly swatter at his fingertips – that’s part of his outdoor dating routine.
In recent years, a serious edge has emerged in Joel’s singing, and he loses control in places (especially on the high notes of “She’ll Always Be a Woman” on Saturday). But he brings a familiarly pleasing tone that still reliably calls out his falsetto and is embedded in numbers such as “Just the Way You Are,” “Vienna” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. from an Italian Restaurant” among other numbers.
Joel digs deeper into his catalog while providing enduring hits.
Included are several ’80s hits that have barely made it to the stage in recent years: the galloping “I Go to Extremes,” the upbeat “Keeping the Faith,” the raging “An Innocent Man”. Before his last hit in 1983, Joel warned the crowd that it contained a harder-than-ever high note to hit. When he got to the chorus, he more or less did, eliciting cheers – though because he dropped the keys to the song in concert, the bass notes now presented their own challenges.
He tapped into something less played also including the Barrelhouse Beatles’ frolic “Our Own Room,” a 1982 album cut that he barely performed live at the time.
It wouldn’t be the Joel Show in Detroit without some heartfelt Motor City covers. Those Motor City classics include Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street,” the latter with support The latter joined Joel’s “River of Dreams” with support singer Crystal Taliefero.
He toyed with the opening piano riff of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll,” then told the band he was dropping it and moving on to his own “Only the Good Die Young.
“There’s a lot of great music coming out of this town,” Joel told the crowd. “We all grew up in bands that played these songs. So we’re happy to be here.”
Later in the show, powerfully voiced band member Mike DelGuidice got his star turn with “Nessun Dorma,” and Joel played piano accompaniment for the famous aria.
“Piano Man,” which ran out of cell phones and lighters, ended its regular set before the hit five-song encore, which Joel found on “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and the mic-spinning “Still Rockin’ to Me. ” and found it.” He returned to the piano and brought the blasts of “Big Man” and “You Might Be Right” all to a close.