Last year I noticed some Billy Joel Stevie Nicks one-night concert announcements pop up on social media. My cousin Michelle and I chatted about going, but the shows were all on the east coast. Then the single west coast instance was announced. We discussed briefly, but the ticket price was a bit high for my budget.
One November day I decided to go! She’d invited our other cousin (and husband), so now we’d be a party of four. The morning that tickets went up for sale, I was driving to pick up my son from college, so I couldn’t really pull over to wait for my turn in a Ticketmaster queue. Fortunately, my cousin is also a trustworthy executive administrative assistant, so I rattled off my credit card number to her via hands-free CarPlay speaker phone, as you do. Michelle and I had gone to many concerts together as young adults, including Billy Joel, Elton John, Billy Joel & Elton John combined tour, Paul McCartney, Sting, Jonathan Cain, Journey, and Rob Thomas.
I had never seen Stevie Nicks nor Fleetwood Mac in concert. So, I started relistening to my favorites of hers, looking up her prior concert setlists, and listening to any songs on those lists that I didn’t already know. Part of the fun in a dual concert is imagining what the duets might be. I listened to my Billy Joel faves, of course, as well as his (temporary) SiriusXM Radio station.
As the concert date came nearer, we talked about flights, car rentals vs Uber, and hotels. And then we promptly changed all of these plans at the last minute. LOL.
Concert Day
Having taken the entire day off from work, I put on black jeans, a white scoop-neck tee shirt, black boots and this fabulous sapphire blue stretch-velveteen jacket– more like an open cardigan– high- low and trimmed with sheer tulle. Rockabilly in honor of Stevie. Then I don my piano scarf, in honor of Billy Joel. Because of the rain, I also don my cloak. This cloak has been with me for many, many years— lightweight and reversible to faux suede, it’s been great to become a classic witch, Hogwarts student, or even Kylo Ren. I thought it was appropriate for a Stevie Nicks concert #blameitonmywildheart ♪♫
It’s pouring rain @LAX upon arrival, unlike my home in the Bay Area. Michelle and I text each other and meet up at the car rental, arriving at the hotel right at check-in time. Our local cousin Eileen says she’ll pick us up from the hotel around 5:30pm. So we hang out in the hotel lobby and chat over snacks.
Eileen and Doug pick us up in her new orange car “I needed something happy after Covid lockdown!” I am grateful that the locals #waze us through L.A. neighborhoods, and that they pre-purchased stadium parking. SoFi is newly constructed, beautiful and glorious. We have VIP tickets and as such, access to exclusive food stands. The cola de la venue is Pepsi, my preference, and fitting for a stadium of hues of blue.
Stevie opens to a rousing crowd with Outside the Rain, synchronously. Her trademark long, golden hair cascades over a black velvet jacket and black ruffled raw silk skirt with platform boots, looking much younger than her 74 “and a half” years! She mostly stands and sings in place, excepting for several of her Stevie spins. Naturally, her boom mic is decorated with ribbons and strings of rhinestones. After Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, she launches If Anyone Falls, a favorite from The Wild Heart album. Then comes Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, with the large video screens displaying photos of the late Tom Petty. But guess who sings his part in the duet? Billy Joel! The crowd goes crazy.
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks, photo courtesy of Yahoo Entertainment
More amazing moments: Stevie sings For What It’s Worth so well- making it her own, and it is still so relevant today. She dons lace/fringe/silk shawls at different songs, showcasing her signature twirling. Then seven songs span Fleetwood Mac, Bella Donna, Wild Heart, Rock a Little, and some Tom Petty, too. Edge of Seventeen is the finale- the middle verse is skipped, so the song builds faster and guitar solos and Hammond organ solos are added. This former choir director notices that Stevie mostly hangs out in the alto range, altering the melodies, and leaving the higher notes for her back-up singers. But I can respect this, I mean, she is still singing! And when she chooses to really belt out a higher note, it is even more special. She really delivers!
Stevie’s encore set consists of Rhiannon, and Landslide. Landslide begins as several photos are shown of Christine McVie and the two women together– such an incredibly moving song choice and brave performance. I marvel at how she makes it through, Christine McVie’s death being only a couple of months ago. Stevie sings through, breaking only on the very last word, as she hangs her head for several moments, sobbing. There is not a dry eye in the stadium. The power of music: a song and shared emotions. Such amazing catharsis.
Stevie had performed almost 90 minutes. The lights come up, and the stagehands change the bands’ sets, adding Billy’s grand piano atop its own circular rotating platform, à la Hamilton and Les Miz.
Anticipation is palpable as Billy and his band approach their instruments on the stage. They begin playing this first song quite loudly, as one does at a rock concert. Billy pounds out an exuberant Ode To Joy à la Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which transforms into My Life. 70,000 spectators on our feet, clapping and singing along. When Billy sings the line “now he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.” the crowd bursts into voluminous acknowledgement— the energy given by the performers is received, transformed, and given back in glorious exchange.
Much of Billy’s band looks familiar, from prior concert tours and also having watched the VHS recording of Billy Joel Live from Long Island (1983) on repeat as a teen. The band now is even bigger, and there are more instruments. Crystal Taliefero is back, and I swear, I [still] want to be her when I grow up. Percussionist musician singer extraordinaire— she does everything, including stealing the stage in a powerful rendition of River Deep, Mountain High, right in the middle of the River of Dreams. (Click here for my waxing poetic on Crystal’s epic triangle solo.)
Billy jokes and sings the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up. Which is rockin’, but then he stops. Music humor. Vienna is performed early, a lovely lilting melody resurrected in the 2004 film 13 Going on 30.
Band member Mike DelGuidice astounds the crowd, as he performs a solo operatic aria by Puccini.
Stevie joins Billy for an acoustic duet version of his song And So It Goes. This should have been sweet, but the sound people mixed her alto harmony way too strong, even louder than Billy’s melody. And so it went. This was the first of these Two Icons— One Night shows, I sure hope the sound engineers remedy that imbalanced travesty for all subsequent performances. I would have preferred All About Soul, because we all know that Stevie plays a mean tambourine (beribboned, naturally).
I also missed I Go To Extremes, a favorite of mine. But it was great fun when cousin Michelle pulled Eileen and I up from our seats on either side of her, so we could all dance and sing along to Only the Good Die Young #Catholicgirls. I am delighted when the crowd bounces and audibly sings along with the fan favorite Scenes from an Italian Restaurant– performed complete with several instruments doing justice to the Dixieland section.
The “finale” is, of course, Piano Man. Delightful and quintessential. There is nothing like being among the seventy thousand people singing the chorus of Piano Man a capella. [And I’ve seen Paul McCartney perform Let It Be and Journey with Steve Perry perform Faithfully.]
A five-song encore includes We Didn’t Start the Fire, Uptown Girl, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, Big Shot, and You May Be Right. I only wish that our phones weren’t so bright- because the darkness of “Turn out the lights” wasn’t pitch black, as it had been before. I had seen Billy at least twice in Oakland, and once in San Jose, in the 90s. He’s still got it.
Braving the rain, I don my cloak again, and we easily find cousin Eileen’s happy orange car. So glad I came, so sad it’s already over. Now that my kids are growing up, I have more time and freedom to do this kind of thing. Catching these rock stars while they still rock has been amazing and so meaningful.
♪♫ I’m getting older, too. Every year’s a souvenir that slowly fades away♪♫
Click below for the setlists:
Cousin Michelle’s take is here.
Key of Dee 