World's Top Piano Rockers: Check...Working Piano to Perform: Errrr...

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks Elton John's piano expired midway through the fourth song. The Rocket Man looked none too pleased.

With a reported $1.2 million payday per performance on their 45-city Face 2 Face tour, a lot was riding on superstar rockers Elton John and Billy Joel to play flawlessly Saturday night before a sell-out crowd of 39,000 fans at Nationals Stadium in the District.

On Thursday, LiveNation and the Washington Nationals press shops gave local media a tour of what was their first-ever live musical concert staged at the $650 million ballpark. "Months of planning have gone into preparing for this show," said Chartese Burnett, the Washington Nationals Vice President of Communications. "We're ready."  

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks "I can't think of a better place to see a show like this, " said Bob Jones of Alexandria (far left), who was accompanied to the concert by his wife Emily (second from left), Marie Martinez (second from right) and David Israelite (far right).

But, call it the curse of the Washington Nationals: Sir Elton's piano expired midway through the fourth song, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, after a syrupy dueling piano number alternating between Elton's Your Song and Joel's Just the Way You Are.

The Washington Nationals, who usually play center field Saturday evenings, had the night off. Perhaps a good thing, as they're now 26-61 on the season, the worst record in Major League Baseball. Nats General manager Manny Acta was fired on Monday.

The Rocket Man looked about as pleased as Acta did when he got the Monday morning boot.

"I can't do this," Sir Elton said, exasperated. "This is f---ing ridiculuous. We're going to get this right."

For his part, Joel removed his business-like blazer and climbed beneath the piano and attempted to un-jam the pedals of Elton's Limited Edition Signature Series Yamaha. He walked from piano to piano top, whispering into Elton's ear, before finally volunteering to the crowd, perhaps to diffuse the situation: "This is a king sized f--k up."

While the roadies attempted an onstage repair, Joel kept the crowd distracted for about 15 minutes with peppy sing-along tunes like Glory, Glory Hallelujah and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Joel vamped for the crowd and feigned knowing how to fix the problem.

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks The sell-out crowd was estimated at 39,000.

Eventually The Rocket Man had had enough and stormed off stage, leaving Joel alone with his band to roll into his next rousing classic, Angry Young Man, and about a dozen other classics, including Killing them in Classic Style, The Stranger, Always a Woman to Me and Allentown, to which Joel introduced by saying, "We're just happy to have a job."

Perhaps a good thing, as Joel told the crowd.

"Well discuss the lyrics later," he told the audience as he finished Always a Woman to Me. "That was written for my first ex-wife," he explained. "This is the first show I'm doing after my third divorce."  

Then, he added jokingly, "I've often thought of changing the lyrics to: 'She can kill with her smile...She can ruin your face with her powerful thighs.'"

After Elton's piano descended into the bowels of the stage for a lookie-loo by the real technicians, Joel held court for the next 90 minutes, playing his piano effortlessly, his eyes wandering aimlessly about the stadium while he played, swatting a fly swatter to and fro, spinning his mic stand into the air and shuffling his feet about like the Three Stooges.

Elton and Billy, the most successful and longest-running concert pairing in pop history, opened the concerts with a series of duets, playing twin pianos and trading vocals. Each then performed a set with his own band, with a grand finale bringing the two superstars and their supporting musicians back together for a closing encore.

Photo by Local Kicks Billy Joel crawls out from under Elton John’s piano after trying to help fix John’s stuck pedal.

"My wife and I make it a date to see Billy Joel in Las Vegas every six months," said Art Sagoskin, a physician from Frederick, MD. who was sitting in the fourth row. "Getting both together is a nice two-fer. They appeal to all ages and their songs from 20 years ago are just timeless. They obviously enjoy what they do."

Their sets included an assortment of their greatest hits (which apiece have sold more than 200 million records), along with an unpredictable selection of rock and roll classics  "It was all the songs that close down our bar at night," said Sharon Miller, a saloon owner who'd driven down from Secaucus, NJ. to catch the show. "Just spellbinding to see them played live."

Eventually, Sir Elton "Hercules" John triumphantly came back onstage, apologized to the crowd and gracefully thanked his piano techies.

"Well, I'm glad we got that fixed," Elton told the crowd. "Thank you, Billy, for coming out to rescue us, and thank you, Washington."

While Joel, 55, was dressed like it was a business meeting with his charcoal grey blazer, red tie and slacks, Sir Elton, 62, was all of the zany fashionplate that's his trademark, with a screaming pink shirt, pink-shaded sunglasses (complete with "EJ" etched in diamonds), black striped pants and a long black cape with frilly stitched images of wizards, rockets, musical notes and pianos.

The elaborate soundstage was a stunning set piece, with a four-story silkscreen to the right of Joel's piano of Manhattan images (Rockefeller Center, etc.), and an equally tall set of images to the left of Elton's piano of London streetscapes (the Underground, etc.)

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks "My wife and I make it a date to see Billy Joel in Las Vegas every six months," said Art Sagoskin (center), a physician from Frederick, MD. who sat in the fourth row with his wife Pauline Strano (far left) and friend Betsy Raithel, also of Frederick. "Getting both together is a nice two-fer. They appeal to all ages and their songs from 20 years ago are just timeless. They obviously enjoy what they do."

The light show was equally as stunning, with the colored kliegs timed appropriately and subtly to the music, and video images matched to the songs.

At times, the lights and images became a psychadelic explosion of British Union Jacks, American Stars and Stripes, 40's movies and dancing daffodils. The acoustics provided by Nationals Park were spot on for live music.

"I can't think of a better place to see a show like this," said Bob Jones of Alexandria, who was attending the show with his wife and two friends.  

After doing their joint act on and off since 1994 (this was their first time on the road together since 2003), the Rocket Man and the Piano Man had clearly mastered each other's songbooks, adding small nuances of their own to improve the live performance of each tune.

The crowd was loving every note of it.

Dr. Jeffrey Lovallo, 52, a sports medicine specialist from McLean, effused: "It was a perfect 10, an A plus plus."  Lovallo, who brought his wife Kelly and two friend, said he was undeterred by the $182.50 ticket price he paid.

"The music is so timeless," Lovallo said. "It was so beautiful...They hugged, they kissed. There was perfect interaction between the two of them. The technical malfunction turned into a masterpiece when they finally got their act together."

Watching as Joel and Sir Elton did their separate songbooks, then came together at the end, sports marketing executive Danielle Verbin of Potomac, Md. said she was especially moved by the moving performance of Tiny Dancer, a song she frequently sang to her mother, a professional dancer who danced with Disney's Mouseketeers in the 1970s and died in 1995.

"That was always my song to my mother," Verbin said. "She would have loved this."

Verbin, who now lives in Manhattan, bought her tickets on eBay, but when she arrived at the Nationals box office, the tickets turned out to be fake. LiveNation gracefully refunded her money and asked if she wanted to pay extra for the 13th row, the only seats available. For $210 per ticket, Verbin was able to see the show, and Tiny Dancer, with a roadie's eye view.

"It was worth every penny," she said.

Contact the writer at jarundel@localkicks.com

To View a FLICKR Slide Show of the Face2Face Concert and Fans who Enjoyed it, Click Here