But the one hit from that period he did perform was his most recent, the 2021 Dua Lipa and PNAU collab “Cold Heart,” and it was quite a testament to the 75-year-old’s career longevity that he could save a song for his encore that was still subsiding in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, making some of the teenagers in attendance screech with recognition from its opening bass thumps. You wouldn’t have called it a career-spanning set, exactly - only one song performed on the night came from after 1984, a somewhat surprising dismissal of a long portion of his career where John continually proved more relevant than 99% of his ’70s and early ’80s peers, with dozens of hit singles and even one RIAA Diamond-certified soundtrack album. Given a long intro of thunderstorms - which sounded worryingly plausible on the humid July night - FM favorite “Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” made for both an appropriate mid-set costume-change break and then an absolutely riotous second act opener, starting a run of classics that proved stunningly sustainable for John, right up to the three-song encore.
“Rocket Man” was stretched out to prog-rock lengths by an extended outro of Sir Elton and longtime sideman David Johnstone seemingly talking to each other, Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style, via piano, warped vocals and slide guitar transmissions. It was just one highlight of many across a night that hewed to the crowd-pleasers without making them feel stale. (This writer probably won’t be the only one checking John’s future FYBR setlists to see if he makes good on his promise.) “I wanted to play it for you.” The song, which would be a career-defining signature number for nearly any other performer, hasn’t lost a bit of its wide-eyed, platonically romantic wonder over half a century - and the idea of getting to hear its words of finding one’s place in the big city (“I thank the lord for the people I have found”) live for the final time after no doubt thousands of lifetime performances was incredibly moving. “This is the last time I’m ever going to play this song,” John vowed to the East Rutherford crowd. Perhaps the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s most touching display of gratitude for his tri-state fanbase came with his performance of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” his Honky Chateau highlight inspired by New York City. As John paced the stage to huge ovations between songs, he pointed each time at various pockets of the stadium crowd, either encouraging them with an inaudible “ all right!” or “ come on!” or thanking them for their support, tonight and through the decades.
Those bows came nearly after every song, from first to last - in a way that not only allowed the tens of thousands of generations-spanning fans in attendance to express proper appreciation for both his superlative performance that night and the lifetime’s worth of entertainment the Rocket Man had provided for them, but also allowed him to return the favor. But his unmistakable baritone sounds as mighty and resonant as ever, and his energy at the ivories remains positively infectious - even if, after a workout like a gospel double-time finish to Madman Across the Water staple “Levon,” he collapsed on his piano in exaggerated exhaustion while taking his bows. At age 75, he’s certainly aware of his vocal limits - six-minute mega-ballad “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was pitched down to a less trying key, and he let the audience fill in the falsetto’d “ laaaaa la-la-la-la-laaaa…” refrain to “Crocodile Rock” - and he’s obviously dialed back the physicality and performative gaudiness that once made a live signature, with only some sparkly jackets and a go-to move of picking up and slamming down his piano lid really nodding to the ostentatiousness of his early years. (It was flanked on both sides by timeless classic rock standards “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man,” just to be on the safe side.)Īnd even after over a half a century of touring and 247 dates on this trek alone, Sir Elton still sounds and feels very much like Sir Elton. 2s to boot) and have their absence barely be noticeable by the time he got to the evening’s one true deep cut (a thunderous “Have Mercy on the Criminal,” from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player) it almost felt shocking to hear a song without a chorus that was already intimately familiar. 1 hits completely off his set list (and another couple No. John’s catalogue of smash hits and fan favorites is so vast that he can afford to leave as many as four of his nine Billboard Hot 100 No.
“So let’s make it a good one, eh?” John suggested, to roaring crowd agreement.Ī good one was indeed made on Sunday, as John’s 23-song set satisfied exactly as a final engagement should, right from the opening piano pounds of “Bennie and the Jets” - repeatedly bringing the entire stadium crowd to their feet, despite the sweltering 90-plus degree July heat.
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