Billy's fourth concert at Wrigley Field was worthy of some custom scoreboard configurations.
Last Thursday, J and I trekked to Chicago to meet up with Mary, John, and Cheryl. We converged at Wrigley Field, where Billy Joel was set to perform.
Before the show - the Wrigley outfield is now a sea of chairs.
Hey, I know these people!
We were talking and sharing family updates when Billy Joel band member Mark Rivera stopped in to say hi to John. They know each other from Ringo Starr’s tours – Mark is the music director for Ringo’s All-Star Band. He’s also the sax player for Billy Joel, as well as playing a few other instruments. He’s been around for a long time, and we recognized him immediately. I asked him to get a quick picture with J, who's a big fan of his.
Aren't these two lovebirds celebrating an anniversary soon?
This is Gavin DeGraw, the opening act, after venturing into the audience during one of his songs.
Now you can watch Billy play without having to be on the stage with him - a camera is capturing it all on video while he plays and showing it on the many giant screens.
During the song “Uptown Girl”, Billy brought out two of his famous friends, actress Jennifer Lawrence and actress/comedienne Amy Schumer, who danced with some others on the stage for a while, and climbed onto the piano for the big finale.
Most of the pictures in this blog posting are by J - she caught a lot of perfect shots, it was hard to pick just a few.
The show's about over, so everyone's playing their best at the front of the stage.
We took the subway to the stadium, but we didn’t take it back to the hotel – there were thousands of people stacked up waiting at the station next to Wrigley. We looked at a map, and headed for a different subway stop, farther up the line, hoping to find a relatively empty car to jump into. Instead, we saw a cab that wasn’t busy, so we waved him down and got a ride back that way. It wasn’t quite what we had planned, but we did get to see Lake Michigan at night and some of the lights of the city better than if we had taken the El.
Big thanks to John for arranging this and making sure we were taken care of as far as parking, directions, and other amenities. J and I had a great time and Billy put on his usual great show. A night we'll never forget!
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