Review: Billy Joel At Fenway Delivers More Than Just The Hits

BOSTON, MA — Billy Joel has nothing left to prove. He hasn't released an album in 25 years, he openly admitted that he has nothing new for his fifth straight year at Fenway Park, and all that was left for the 69-year-old were the story songs that we already knew.

And when you have a catalog of songs as extensive as the Piano Man's, that's alright.

Joel took a bit of a deep dive Friday night at Fenway Park, mixing album tracks from the 70s with the hits that everyone paid to see. The 25-song, 2 hour, 15 minute-set started calming enough with Joel taking the stage to end title of "The Natural" before launching into "Big Shot" and "My Life."

Joel mainly strayed from songs after the early 80s, save for much of his encore and "River of Dreams," and was well aware that he was performing songs that not everyone may know.

"Everyone remembers the hits, but I work just as hard on the album tracks," Joel said right after "Summer Highland Falls" and before "Zanzibar," which he recommended as a good bathroom break in his signature self-deprecating style. He added before "Vienna," "Look, I wrote more non-hits than hits."

Joel has a quiet confidence to him. He doesn't do much but play on a piano that occasionally rotates but that's all he needs to do since the music speaks for himself. He took his time going from song to song while giving himself a hard time in the process, joking that he hasn't had a hit in 25 years while noting as mentioned above, he has not released an album in that time period.

That time was needed for the lengthy "Italian Restaurant" and "River of Dreams" which featured "Shout" in the middle because, why not?

Joel's show was the second of three consecutive concerts at Fenway Park from Thursday to Saturday. As the bridge of sorts between shows, he surprised the crowd with Peter Wolf, who performed "Centerfold" with Joel's band, also an added bonus for anyone who went to both shows considering that Wolf didn't play that song when opening for Jimmy Buffett Thursday night. That was followed with Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, who sang "Pour Some Sugar On Me," in advance of his band's double bill with Journey Saturday night.

The last song of the set and the four-song encore that followed was the time for his most known hits. "Piano Man" ended the initial set, with the encore starting with "We Didn't Start the Fire," which was accompanied by a slideshow that probably looked better than the one fans of a certain age may have seen in their U.S. history class. That was followed by a mic-stand swinging Joel for "Uptown Girl" and "Still Rock and Roll To Ne." The 1980 hit "You May Be Right" closed the night.

While he may have nothing new, Joel can still entertain a crowd, making a sixth straight year at Fenway a reasonable possibility.

Image Credit: Dan Libon/Patch