Elton John and Billy Joel

Elton John and Billy Joel are performing together in a series of concerts this year, called their "Face 2 Face" tour. We saw their concert in Gillette Stadium (where the Patriots play) in Foxboro, MA on July 18th. They have toured together before; Billy Joel said it was 15 years ago to the day that they last performed together in Foxboro Stadium (it was a different stadium then).

The wild tailgate party before the concert:

The weather was perfect, and the crowd was enthusiastic but well behaved. The stadium holds 68,000 people. While there were no people in the sections behind the stage, the rest of the stadium appeared full and there were many people seated on the field. So I'd say there were close to 68,000 people there.

The rest of the photos are from Nancy's cell phone. I didn't take my camera into the stadium (should have, everybody else did). We had seats in the 105 section. Binoculars were useful (good idea, Nancy). I figured we were about 150 yards away from the stage:

The stage had elaborate lighting effects:

The audience danced and sang along with many of the songs. The photo below is looking away from the stage, and is illuminated only by the lights from the stage. It's late in the show, and everyone is on their feet:

The concert ran from a little before 8:00 to around 11:00. No warmup, and no breaks. Grand pianos and other band members went up and down through the stage floor as needed. When Elton John and Billy Joel played together, their two grand pianos were "face to face." It was a good performance. See below for the setlist.

We were lucky. EJ and BJ played at Wrigley Field in Chicago both before and after their performance at Gillette Stadium (7/16 and 7/21). But since then Billy Joel has become sick with flu-like symptoms and two performances in New York have been canceled (Buffalo on 7/24 and tomorrow--7/27--in Albany).

Here is the setlist from the concert:

Elton John/Billy Joel (solo)
Your Song
Just The Way You Are

Elton John/Billy Joel (bands)
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
My Life

Elton John set
Funeral For A Friend
Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
Levon
Madman Across The Water
Tiny Dancer
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
Philadelphia Freedom
I'm Still Standing
Crocodile Rock

Billy Joel set
Prelude
Angry Young Man
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Allentown
Zanzibar
Don't Ask Me Why
She's Always A Woman
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
River Of Dreams
We Didn't Start The Fire
It's Still Rock'n'Roll To Me
Only The Good Die Young

Elton John/Billy Joel (bands)
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
Uptown Girl
The Bitch Is Back
You May Be Right
Bennie And The Jets

Elton John/Billy Joel (solo)
Candle in the Wind (original version)
Piano Man

Many in the audience left the stadium after the concert singing Piano Man.