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Anyone else seeing Bruce at Friends of the Arts this summer in NY? I bought my tickets on pre-pre-sale which was sweet. Billy Joel’s daughter is also guesting which may or may not be neat. Also, one more fun note. My friend and I saw Bruce at his Westbury show on 8/25/05, so it’ll be fun celebrating the one year anniversery of our first Bruce show with…another Bruce show!
I’m going ‘range with about 11 friends. Tickets went fast. In a day I went from row l to CC. Oh well we’re inside the tent if the weather doesn’t hold up.
Article in Newsday -saturday or sunday about Billy Joel attending no wonder why tickets went fast!! Can you say duet – and I DON’T mean with his daughter!!mandolinrange wrote:what seats do you have si? I have row E right center.I won’t know until I get there!
I have 2 extra tickets to Oyster Bay – and amazing seats too
Hi. I bought four tickets but my friend and his wife cant make it.
Does anyone want to buy them, or, even consider upgrading from your shoddy seats, I know I would.
ROW J (ten rows back), I believe there is a small VIP section in front. Maybe Billy Joel will sit there.
$75 for each ticket.
Email me mailto:MikeNYPhotographer@Yahoo.com or call me 631 252-6965.
Best,
Mikeso this year as opposed to las ti was dissapinted. bruce didn’t sing long enough due to an overlthy ecessive alexa ray joel. pricks in the right side of the tent destroeyd mandolin rain. a said evening of bruce. no better than a good show with great requests from the true fans. 8/25/05 was a ton better. better crowed, more respect and a lot longer
ps: this bruce show was one hour forty minutes. most are 2.5 hours. this show was a rip off and im’ sad quite frankly. not classic bruce by any means. 2/5 for the night. rude adults ripped us off…oh and ALEXA RAY JOEL. SOME drunk’s daughter destryoed the night basically thanks
got to agree with you mandolin
I was sitting left side CC row. Were those people really getting to Bruce? I didn’t follow why he got off the stage and couldn’t really hear what he said when he came back. It was pretty uncomfortable for the band to say the least. Hate to say it though stereo – typical loud mouth inconsiderate New Yawkers (althoug they could have been from anywhere
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Even though I feel Bruce can do no wrong my wife and friends who are not as big fans as I am felt it WAS NOT ONE of his better shows. Song selection was all over the place. He seemed like he just wanted to get through the show. Only when to the bad-assssssss accordian once!
He seem detached? from the crowd for the most part and was not as “chatty” as he usually is. Heck he just played less than 24 hours before in VA. Maybe he is pushing the envelope with too many back to back performances. I dunno.
You think he was pissed by ARJ taking so much time. She played almost as long as he did!!!! We were out in the parking lot tailgating till after 8:00 and when we got to our seats it seemd like she played on and on. I guess that’s what happens when it’s your home court. The only thing I’ll say is it is amazing that a loud band can cover up so many imperfection in a voice and keyboard playing. Well she didn’t get her mother’s looks so let’s hope someday she have her father’s talent. 😉Oh well Bruce nowhere to go but up from here.
Show was a C-.
my thoughts on the concert
I too was very disappointed with the show. This was my first Bruce concert ever and I drove 8 hours from Rochester, NY. It was originally supposed to be 6 1/2 hours to my hotel in syosset, but I hit traffic near the GW bridge. I got to my hotel room by 6:30 and had to rush out right away to get to the concert in time. Alexa Ray Joel was not impressive to me at all and we should have only heard 3-4 songs instead of 9 or 10. That took away from Bruce’s time on stage, thats for sure. Bruce started out awesome with Night on the Town to open. When he went into Candy Mountain Run, I thought the crowd would at least get into it, but nothing really happened. Even though I was out on the lawn, I was hoping to see a lot of people actually getting into the music, but it seemed like they had no clue what Bruce was playing. I enjoyed getting to listen to Bruce play some of his hit songs like WWL and End of the Innocence, but I was hoping to hear Standing on the moon or jack straw because those are two of his best covers. I still don’t understand why Bruce decided to leave midway through Mandolin Rain and stop completely? The crowd did not seem at all rowdy from the lawn and from what I saw under the tent, there really was not a lot of commotion. It would have been nice for him to have played Valley Road to close the concert. I am hoping to go see Bruce at the University of Buffalo because it is much closer than Oyster Bay.
Well this says it all
Funny thing he doesn’t say ANYTHING about Bruce’s show. He also doesn’t say much about how WELL she sang. He talks about her style and influences, the article is all fluff and no substance – no doubt a courtesy from newsday to mister Joel.
All it talks about is what she did onstage and nothing about her performance – it’s very factual.
Guzman’s comments about Alexa Ray being a singer is like saying the Yugo is an automobile.
Maybe I’m just being bitter because I didn’t go there to see alexa ray, I went to see Bruce! Guzman says she played for an hour (it was more) – and it seemed like days!! In any event she played at least 30 minutes too long!!!
Her selfishness and self promotion put a damper on what was to be a great night and Bruce’s only NY appearance with his band.
While I’m ranting 😡 , the people in the audience who pissed Bruce off and and made it so difficult to enjoy the show with their yelling were probably there only to see Alexa Ray anyway.Bruce – next year Westbury/North fork – AND NO OPENING ACTS
CONCERT REVIEW
Billy’s girl strikes all the right notes
BY RAFER GUZMÁN
Newsday Staff Writer
August 27, 2006The headliner was Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, but the nearly sold-out crowd showed up early to catch the opening act, introduced simply as “a girl from Long Island.” As if everyone didn’t know, the girl was Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of that most famous local musician, Billy Joel.
In the audience were her mother, Christie Brinkley; her half-sister, Sailor Lee; and the Piano Man himself. The 20-year-old singer-songwriter announced that the one-hour concert was her “first hometown gig” and the longest she’d ever played, making it a coming-out party of sorts – albeit one reportedly shadowed by paparazzi and documented by the “Today” show.
Joel is not a total rookie: She’s been touring clubs and colleges and posting demos on MySpace (her star-studded friends list includes Fiona Apple and Butch Walker). Her six-song EP, “Sketches,” was on sale at the show. Throughout the concert, she chatted easily with the audience, sang with conviction and appeared poised and confident at her electric piano.
Like her father, Joel takes inspiration from early pop, even pre-pop. “The Heart of Me” rolled along on a doo-wop cadence; “Say Goodbye” borrowed from Tin Pan Alley; “The Sapphire Night,” which Joel wrote as a teenager, sounded like a 1950s teen ballad. As a lyricist, Joel is still developing – many of her songs seem to be about writing songs – but her clever, ever-shifting chord progressions are unfailingly catchy.
Dad’s influence ends when Joel begins to sing. Her distinctive voice has a speedy, almost chipmunkish vibrato, but it also has grit and brass. Perhaps through osmosis, Joel has soaked up the R&B and gospel influences that define the current sound of female pop.
At the show’s end, Joel moved away from her keyboard to join her three-piece band for two numbers, the slow-burning “Song of Yesterday” (dedicated to her mother) and a straight-up funk tune, “Not Alright,” that brought the audience to its feet.
Clearly, someone has taught Joel how to control a crowd. “Thank you,” she said sweetly. “That’s all for today, folks.”
ALEXA RAY JOEL. The nonprofit Friends of the Arts brings some local talent to its summer concert series. Friday at Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, Oyster Bay.
A couple of things I learnt – Bruce has no control over the opening act, or even whether there is one. She started a quarter hour late, which I assume was due to the traffic and excitable security staff coming in.
For what it’s worth, I found Alexa Ray a little too happy with herself, but I guess that’s to be expected when she’s playing predominantly to family and friends.
The “incident” that people have talked about was one particular guy heckling, stage left. Specifically, he was creating laughter amongst those around him. I don’t know about you, but if I were opening my heart to people in a public situation, the last thing I’d want to hear back would be laughter. Just seemed a lack of manners and respect from a small few.
It also didn’t help that security (see above) were officious in the extreme. No photos, no walking during songs (?!! thank goodness I didn’t need the bathroom during The Way It Is…) and they certainly did their bit to aggravate those around them. Yet, they allowed the heckler and more than one pot smoker to go about their business, trouble-free.
One of the shorter Bruce shows for all of the reasons above, and a tight curfew, but what I heard, I had a good time with.
my $.02
I have to agree with Si… what we did see of Bruce and the boys, I thought was quite good. I was, however, unimpressed with the young MS Joel. I happened to be standing right back where her parents were standing… Mom seemed VERY impressed with her little girl, singing along with every song – Dad bopped about a bit, but then, interestingly disappeared. Maybe he was too embarrassed by his daughter’s nervous chatter. The quote by the Newsday reviewer about how she “chatted effortlessly with the crowd” made me laugh. I think she made some grand announcement about being nervous between every song. She has a lot to learn.
Bruce’s set was wonderful, as per usual. Too short? Yes, but it always is when there is an opening performer. At least the opening band in Lowell (The Brew) was actually really good… I was pleasantly surprised.
So for those of you who were ‘disappointed’ – don’t let that show leave you feeling like all his shows are like that – it was certainly not the norm. (except, of course, for the amazing stuff he had the chance to get out to us!)
si_twining wrote:A couple of things I learnt – Bruce has no control over the opening act, or even whether there is one.At this and some other venues, perhaps. I know that the Mountain Winery in Saratoga and Koncti Har bor in Kelseyville have specifically accomodated his request for not having an opening act, in order to play longer. This seems to confuse the crowd at the Mountain Winery, who consistently show up late. 🙄
Perhaps Bruce should avoid booking shows at unacommodating venues in the future.
As Si said “One of the shorter Bruce shows for all of the reasons above, and a tight curfew, but what I heard, I had a good time with”.
Over the last ten years that I’ve been see to Bruce it’s all good, Si
. Whether it’s one song or twenty!Unfortunately I bought a bunch of tickets for friends of mine who have never seen him before – and the night was less than inspiring for them as compared to other performances that I have seen in the past. I’m not blaming Bruce and I agree with you but I still stick to my observations because I guess I have come to be spoiled about what to expect at a Bruce show. Last year to the day at Westbury/North fork was light years ahead of this show but then again maybe what happened was all beyond his control.
But I still think he was somewhat detached from the audience interaction he usally has and he did not move around as much as he usally does. And the accordian didn’t get much of workout! I think the shows so close together are taking a toll on him/them. Remember he had to come from VA the night before after performing there.
And you’ve got to admit that “close encounter of the third kind” during Mandolin Rain was like something I’ve never seen at a Bruce show. Left me kind of speechless with my friends asking all sorts of questions.
Well hopefully I’ll have his solo show to look forward to November 10.
My husband and I flew to LI from Buffalo for the Oyster Bay show as my husband is a huge Hornsby fan. First of all, people shouldn’t blame ARJ for Bruce’s lackluster and very short performance. I’ve seen him in concert 3 times to my husbands 7 and we both left the concert with a bad taste in our mouths. Why did he walk off the stage during his one and only encore? We were sitting in row L to the right of the stage and weren’t aware of any major disturbances during Mandolin Rain. Telling your fans that you thought “they were smarter than that” seems a little unprofessional. Also, why is Bruce so concerned about fans coming to watch him only for his past hits? Personally, I don’t think after roughly 20 years people are still coming around just to hear those songs and even if they were, perhaps Bruce should feal honored that he wrote a few songs that remain in people’s souls even 20 years later.
P and G Netti
Quote:Why did he walk off the stage during his one and only encore?I would say it was because he was a bit insulted by the rudeness of the dude in the crowd. I don’t really blame him for being aggrivated. He’s up there playing and this moron is making enough of a scene for it to distract Bruce – even if you didn’t see it. I didn’t see what happened either, but I know it must have gone on longer than necessary for Bruce to react the way he did.
Quote:Telling your fans that you thought “they were smarter than that” seems a little unprofessional. Also, why is Bruce so concerned about fans coming to watch him only for his past hits? Personally, I don’t think after roughly 20 years people are still coming around just to hear those songs and even if they were, perhaps Bruce should feal honored that he wrote a few songs that remain in people’s souls even 20 years later.Regarding his comment about the fans being smarter – I figure he was addressing this person’s lack of understanding about what is appropriate social behavior. The guy was hecking Bruce’s music during a concert for which he’d obviously paid to see the man play… and if he didn’t like the music he was more than welcome to simply leave – he didn’t need to be an ass about it. Don’t you think young Ms Joel would have had something of an issue of people had done that during her set?
Bruce does give people a hard time about wanting only to hear “the hits”, but it’s really good natured ribbing. I’m sure he’s very proud of all of his songs, and obvioulsy likes those because he continues to play them, he may continually change them up and to keep them fresh – but I think when he teases the crowd about it, he’s really saying, “If you think that’s good, you should check out some of the stuff I’ve done lately.”
Well, it’s too bad that Oyster Bay had to be my first Bruce show. I’ll be back to see him again, no question. My take on it is that it wasn’t a great show b/c of a combination of things. I was sitting off to the right side under the tent. And there were a few loud, cigar-smoking guys over there who made it hard to hear the show at times. I thought Alexa played a little too long (and talked too much) and that the Bruce set went by way too fast. He and the guys just seemed to have trouble getting into a good groove. And, yes, there were some obnoxious hecklers. It’s too bad that guys like this give New Yorkers such a bad rep. I’m glad a few of ’em got kicked out.
As for the show, the highlights for me were: Line in the Dust/Shadow Hand/Tango King.
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