Billy Joel
Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium
2.5 stars
My first thought upon being assigned to review Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium was, “What exactly can you say about a Billy Joel concert DVD?” The man has been performing for close to fifty years now, so it’s probably safe to say that he has shows down pat.
At 151 minutes long, Live at Shea Stadium is almost the length of a “Lord of the Rings” movie — and with aerial shots from a helicopter, a rotating-disappearing-reappearing piano platform and an absolutely massive LED backdrop — probably on par with the budget.
The spectacle continues as Joel hosts a parade of guest performers: Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, John Mayer and Paul McCartney. McCartney shines on “I Saw Her Standing There,” and poignantly closes the show with “Let it Be,” but the rest feels gimmicky. John Mayer can go “weedly-wee” on his guitar all he wants, but does nothing for the show but elicit a few more girly shrieks.
Notably absent are some of Joel’s most well-known tunes. Missing is “Uptown Girl,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” and “Big Shot.” Perhaps it’s because I’m an excruciatingly indifferent Joel fan on a good day, but if I pay Ticketmaster through the nose for tickets to a show, I want to hear the hits, damn it (note: should I actually do this, please institutionalize me immediately).
It isn’t explicitly bad and no music listener can actively hate Billy Joel, who is, in his right, a music legend. Joel’s music is characteristically inoffensive — hating it would be like trying to revolt against beige wallpaper.
The DVD is not something for people who really couldn’t care less about Billy Joel. It’s for those who have a much deeper connection to Joel and his music. It’s nostalgic, in a way. We may have moved into the “next phase, new wave, dance craze” of the twenty-first century, but there will always be Billy Joel, one of the last bastions of our parents’ pop rock.
But whatever. Ultimately, it’s just a Billy Joel concert DVD. It’s probably what you think it is.
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