Your Favourite Elton Concert

[dougs]

Your favourite Elton concert:

OK, what is your all-time favourite Elton concert that you attended?  We'll also let you include one runner-up as well!  Put on your thinking caps and make your selections!

FAVOURITE:  Elton in Toronto on the JUMP UP! Tour in 1982.  
This one rocked the joint (Maple Leaf Gardens) with those crazy up-tempo versions.  We were drenched & exhausted as fans!  Elton, Nigel, Dee, and the return of Davey.  EJ included great versions of lesser played songs like "Ticking" & "Chloe" & "Where To Now St. Peter?"  The energy from the band and the audience went through the roof that night.

RUNNER-UP:  Elton in Boston at the end of the PEACHTREE ROAD Tour in 2005.
Incredible 3 1/2 hour show made so memorable by his playing 8 songs from the 30 year old CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY album.  He opened the concert with 8 songs from PEACHTREE ROAD as well and eventually performed the hits with power and zest.  "Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding" hit the "wow" factor.

Doug

[latitude]

Of course my favorite will always be the very first one I went to in Amhearst '93 w/Elton and Ray. Speaking of mind blowing!!!

But other then that I'd have to say the one in Worchester, Mass. in March of '11. We went on the spur of the moment and got row 11 in front of Elton (got the tx that morning for only $103.00 apiece!) and we could stand during most of it, and I could *really* get into it. It was one of the concerts that year where Leon Russell came out and did some Union songs with Elton. So that made it very unique.

And, a follow-up was the one in Providence '13. Had seats higher up and looking down on him, but I really let go. He did 'Diving Board' songs. And it's the first tour he ever did 'Your Sister Can't Twist...'. I jumped right up and down.

The last show I went to in Nov. of '17 was a superb show with terrific renditions of some of the songs, but a slight damper for me at that one was that it was just simply WAY too loud, and almost with a distorted sound. Did have fun, but that took away from it a little.

Oh, as you know I went to that same Boston show you went to in '05. One of the best shows, BUT I sat next to someone that annoyed me, plus a person next to her that was taping, so I couldn't be as loud as I might have wanted to be. Just tried to be polite. A drag. The show itself, though, was amazing. Esp. those CF songs.

Sometimes it's not always about the show, but other things have to come together too. Everything came together with the '11 and '13 shows. Other shows in the past also, I'm sure, but those stand out to me right now.

[rocketman]

I'll list them in order:

1. 2005 Peachtree Road Tour - Opening with 8 songs from an new but obscure album may have seemed risky, but the songs sounded very good live, and also created pent-up anticipation for the remainder of the songs, starting with Pinball Wizard and featuring hit after hit and some classics mixed in. The added backing vocalists gave the songs an extra layer of vocal treatment.

2. 2016 Wonderful Crazy Night Tour - Opened with Funeral For A Friend and then mixed in hits with classics, including Have Mercy On The Criminal and an extended, incredible rendition of Levon. Best yet, the arena was in my hometown, so it was ultra-convenient to attend.

3. 1986-87 World Tour - Opened with Tonight and One Horse Town, played Paris from Leather Jackets and This Town from Ice On Fire, plus classics and hits, accompanied by Onward International Horn section for added punch. Paris was deleted from the second show I saw a week later, and Elton's voice exhibited some of the issues that would lead to surgery.

4. 1976 Louder Than Concorde - My first Elton John concert. I think he opened with Grow Some Funk, and of course the band featured Caleb Quaye and Roger Pope, which made it interesting.

5. 1999 The Big Picture Tour - Jack Bruno subbed on drums, and otherwise, I don't recollect much about this concert for some reason, except that his solo rendition of Recover Your Soul was brilliant.

[dougs]

rocketman:

Good feedback!

I, too, really enjoyed all 4 US/Canada legs of THE BIG PICTURE tour through 1997-98.  EJ changed up the set list a lot throughout making the shows distinctive and exciting.  His playing and singing was superb.  The 1995 concert in Detroit (right after David Paton replaced injured Bob Birch) was incredible.  Maybe the best band (included Ray and John Jorgenson).  I also had a blast at the 1986 show in Toronto;  we were expecting the concert to be cancelled (it was delayed over an hour) because of a monstrous storm system which dumped a (then) record rainfall and we were cold & drenched on the outdoor stadium floor.  He came on and played a great show.  I wish wish wish that I had seen EJ on that "Louder Than Concorde" tour but I was too young and he didn't play near where I lived in Canada.  What do you remember from that concert?  Which city were you at?  What was the crowd reaction like?

Doug

[rocketman]

Thanks Doug,

I was in my teens; the concert was in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it except the opening song and Elton running on stage to start the show. I think he may have played guitar for a couple of songs, although that might have been the 1986 show - perhaps I'm conflating the two in my memory. I never did drugs or anything, but time does tend to diminish memories.

As Latitude mentioned, atmosphere plays a role too. In terms of pure musicality, I still think Peachtree Road was the best show I saw. But the atmosphere (also in Philadelphia) was very good too. Good acoustics, great crowd reactions, etc.

The reason I rank that one slightly ahead of the WCN show is because of the extra backing vocalists and also, the acoustics. There was an audible and somewhat disturbing distortion caused by reflections off the ceiling and back wall of the arena. Also, Elton seemed somewhat detached from the audience. He said nothing until about 5 or 6 songs into the gig, and did little to get the audience going. He said little until he introduced the band. Also, the concert featured 7 songs from GBYBR, which were all played well, but I would have like to have seen a little more from other albums, especially since some of the GBYBR songs are played seemingly all the time. He played two songs from WCN, which were actually quite good (A Good Heart, Looking Up).

[dougs]

rocketman:

Thanks for the info on the Philadelphia concert from 1976.  EJ and the band did play "Love Song" at the show but there was piano in it so maybe he didn't play guitar on that one like he did in 1986.  I love the high energy extended versions of the songs on that 1976 set list.  My favourite is the 15-minute version of "Empty Sky." Wish I had been at one of those 1976 concerts.  It was great seeing Elton play acoustic guitar for "Love Song" in 1986.  I also loved hearing the Motown classic - "Can I Get A Witness" done by EJ on that 1986 tour.  Great with the horns.  Lots of non-singles on that 1986 tour, also.  "Nikita" was played with the full band.  The 1986 highlights included "Tonight" and "One Horse Town" which was electrifying.

I managed to catch the WONDERFUL CRAZY NIGHT tour at the very end - November 2017 at Bangor and the fans were so into it that you could see EJ feed off the energy.  "Levon" and "Have Mercy on the Criminal" were the highlights.  We stood for all but 1 1/2 songs!  Everyone sat down for "A Good Heart" but we were back standing and swaying right after that.

I also liked the backing vocalists that Elton used for the PEACHTREE ROAD tour.  The energy in "Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding" may have made that a top 1, 2, or 3 best Elton songs that I have seen live over the 32 EJ concerts that I have been to.  I saw the tour with and without CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY songs.  Good to see "Are You Ready For Love?"  where he and the band did a noticeably more edgy upbeat version the second night in Toronto on that 2005 tour.

My first ever EJ concert was Elton and Ray Cooper in 1979 in Toronto.  The highlights were the extended version of "Rocket Man" plus "Sixty Years On" and "Tonight / Funeral For A Friend" and "Song For Guy" as first encore.  I would have preferred a band show but this was magical.  His falsetto was a joy to listen to.

Doug

[kissybissy]

From those I attended. The concert in Rio at HSBC arena in Feb 2014.

[dougs]

kissybissy:

What were the highlight songs for you at that Rio show?  Did he play "Skyline Pigeon"?

Doug