Elton John & Billy Joel

It started with a birthday wish. My dad turned 70 this month and in honor of his birthday he took his three kids and my mom to the Elton John & Billy Joel concert this past week. First of all "Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you a lot." AND "Thank you so much for such a fun concert!" Am I a lucky girl or what?!?

I met my parents and brothers in down town. We all took the Light Rail down from our respective ends of town. It almost made me feel like I was in New York again. I highly recommend it.

It was like getting 2 concerts in one. They played for 3 1/2 hours...first together, then Elton alone, then Billy alone and then they finally ended the concert together with "Piano Man".

You can't even imagine the roar of the crowd when these two music legends walked out on stage. It was deafening. They were each incredible on the piano. Each song brought back memories of my growing up years. Billy Joel dedicated the song, "Zanzibar" to one of his heros who happened to be there that night, Mohammed Ali.

I brought my camera, unsure if they would let it in. They checked my bag and told me I couldn't bring in a water bottle...said nothing about my camera. Yeah! I hurried and drank my water and went in before they changed their mind.

Here are some photos from the concert:

As you can see, the concert was sold out.

Our seats were about 2/3 back on stage left side of the Center, about 1/2 way up the bottom section. All of these photos were taken from our seats with my 18-200mm lens and then cropped. I sat there wondering if I could get a little closer. Finally I decided to go for it. I walked with purpose to the first entrance and marched right down the stairs as if I belonged down there. I found myself on the floor very close to the sound boards to the right of the stage. I balanced my elbows on the rail and snapped about 8 quick photos before the security guard told me I couldn't do that. It was worth it. On the way back, 3 more security guards stopped me and asked me which entrance I came in from. They had their eye on me now. This was one of my shots from down front.

Can't wait until my dad turns 75! :-)