What a BILLY JOEL weekend I had! On Friday, November 15, 2019 I saw my 26th BILLY JOEL concert at New York's Madison Square Garden! Then the next night, Saturday November 16th, I saw 'The Lords of 52nd Street' in Wayne, New Jersey at the Shea Center for Performing Arts! 'The Lords of 52nd Street' consist of the 'Legends' of the BILLY JOEL band from the 1970's. Members, Richie Cannata (saxophone, clarinet, flute, keyboard), Liberty DeVitto (drums) and Russell Javors (lead, rhythm guitar), were spot-on AMAZING!
I attended these shows with my good friend and author Jon Brett, who wrote the book, 'BILLY JOEL: Tales of an Innocent Fan'. The first evening started out with a pre-concert dinner at the Irish Pub 'Stout', which is across the street from Madison Square Garden, with a group of like minded BILLY JOEL fans, who were truly accommodating and great people!
The BILLY JOEL pre-concert dinner group
Eric Fellen Edmund Woods Jon Brett
THE CONCERT
BILLY JOEL concert November 15, 2019 @ Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York.
  I gave Mike a shout-out before he went on stage! BILLY JOEL on stage!
   'Movin' Out' horns! BILLY JOEL wears a turkey hat! I spotted Eric with the JOEL FN plate!
As the concert ends, BILLY JOEL waves good-bye!
AFTER THE CONCERT
The concert was phenomenal, as always! And I'll go to BILLY JOEL concerts until there are no more! After the concert, the dinner group would meet to go out for drinks. Well, there's a few thousand bars in New York City, but we were told to go to one particular bar called BAR NINE, located at 807 Ninth Ave. between 53rd and 54th streets, for a reason. There might be some special guests showing up! (Seemingly, somebody in the dinner group knows somebody that knows somebody)
And sure enough, who strolls in? None other then Tommy Byrnes, BILLY JOEL's lead guitarist, who we just saw in concert! And then who comes in? Crystal Taliefero, BILLY JOEL's percussionist! I couldn't believe it, it was really them! Could it get any better then this? Well, yes it could!
 
Me and Tommy Byrnes Crystal Taliefero
They would eventually be coaxed to get on stage at this Piano bar and perform a duet together!
Tommy played the piano, while Crystal sang Aretha Franklin's (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Women!
THE NEXT DAY
Then the next night, November 16th, 2019 we all went to Wayne, New Jersey to see the 'Legends', BILLY JOEL's former band members who call themselves, 'The Lords of 52nd Street'. Members include, Richie Cannata, Liberty DeVitto, Russell Javors, minus Doug Stegmeyer, who we tragically lost in 1995. The 'Lords' performed BILLY JOEL's early music and songs flawlessly, having been BILLY JOEL's band in the 1970's! A must see show! They were amazing! There's so many BILLY JOEL cover bands out there, with Mike DelGuidice's 'Big Shot' likely the best. But there's nothing like the sound from the former band members, that created the sound, and helped BILLY JOEL sell 150 million albums!
(The Legends of Billy Joel's band from the 1970's)
Doug Stegmeyer Russell Javors Billy Joel Liberty DeVitto Richie Cannata
Russell Javors Richie Cannata Liberty DeVitto
Snippet of ♫ 'Italian restaurant'♫ Richie Cannata on saxophone.
The last notes of ♫ 'Billy the Kid'♫ by 'The Lords of 52nd Street'.
All photos / videos: John Marchut (11/15/2019 - 11/16/2019)
(except 1970's Billy Joel band photo / pre-dinner photo)
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