probably the coolest night of my life

on friday night i attended a billy joel concert. although i like billy joel, i'm not a huge fan. so attending his concert wouldn't normally be on my shortlist of the most amazing things i've ever done. but this concert was special and my circumstance unique.

the concert was special for two reasons. 1) it was held at shea stadium. shea is the home of the ny mets, but it also has the claim of being the first stadium to ever host a concert. it was 40 years ago. and the group was an obscure indie band called the beatles. now 40 years later the stadium is being demolished for a new, state of the art facility, and the native new yorker, the pride of long island, billy joel himself, was given the rightful honor of performing the last concert at shea stadium, hence the promotional tag line for the night - "the last play at shea". 2) because this was the last concert at the stadium that hosted the first concert, billy added a few special guests to the playlist. tony bennett dazzled the crowd with a "ny state of mind"; steven tyler owned the audience with "walk this way"; garth brooks belted "shameless"; roger daltry (from the who) killed it with "my generation". and one other guest (to be revealed later in the post) brought down the house, causing some to tear up, others to feel goose bumps, and even a few to pee their pants from excitement. with such a star-studded cast you can appreciate why this was such a cool event; it was much much more than just a billy joel concert.

i would think that just being at this concert, regardless of the seats, would make for a special evening. but our circumstances were unique, and the evening went way beyond special. a friend of ours, greg whiteley, makes movies. i blogged about our trip to the hampton film festival here, in which we saw a screening of his documentary "resolved" (really really good. currently running on HBO. watch it). for the past few weeks he's been following billy joel, collecting footage with the intent of making a documentary about the singer and the shea concert. greg was generous enough to invite our posse to be his production assistants for "the last play at shea". production assistants (PAs) help the crew filming the documentary with whatever is required, from carrying the camera, to random tasks like getting water or taking earphones from one location to another. for one assignment slade and i went outside the stadium with a camera crew and interviewed the die hard billy joel fans. another assignment took me to the green room where i was to wait for roger daltry to wake up and then notify the producer (while walking to the green room one of the other PAs announced roger was awake, thus ruining my assingment. i figured i shouldn't take her word for such an important task and so i went to the green room to verify. the PA was right. he was awake.). running around got tiring, but it was fun work. and while they offered to pay us, we declined; the benefits of being at an event like that made working for free only seem appropriate.

now being a PA rocks steady for a couple reasons. 1) you get an ear piece and a walkie talkie. for some reason, there is something about an ear piece that just screams sexy and powerful. at least the long, seductive stares from the moderately attractive long island women suggested as much. 2) but easily the best part and the reason my circumstance was so rad is that PAs received all access passes. in case you missed what i just wrote, i wrote ALL ACCESS PASSES. and in case you're retarded, all access means we could go anywhere we wanted. from the green room, to back stage, to the front row. anywhere. anytime. not too shabby.

craig probably had the coolest job. he was greg's right hand man. and greg interviewed each of the special guests for the documentary. craig was hanging out the in the green room after the interviews and snapped a photo of garth, steven and tony. talk about three peas in a pod...

working as a PA required that we go to areas where some of the singers were hanging out. at one point, i stood a few feet away from billy while he chatted with christie brinkley. tony bennett brushed by me on his way to the interviewing room. while assisting one of the cameraman backstage, i watched as billy took the stage and sang the national anthem. while assisting the photographer in the front, i found myself catching eyes from some of the attractive women in the front row (fun fact #1 -- billy joel started a tradition a number of years ago in which he purchases the first two rows at every one of his concerts. he then has one of his assistants go to the last few rows of the stadium and offer these tickets to the die hard fans that are unable to afford the expensive seats. some are skeptical, thinking it's a hoax, and decline. those that accept are escorted to the very front. their excitement level progresses proportionally to their proximity to the stage, climaxing with shrieking screams and tears of joy when they arrive to the front row. perhaps this was a-typical, but it just so happened that at this concert the front two rows were filled with attractive women. kudos to billy's assistant.). i watched from the side of the stage as garth lit the house on fire.

garth wisely donned a mets cap and jersey in an attempt to keep the long islanders from beating up the southern boy. it worked. the stadium loved him.

the highlight of the concert was unquestionably the ending. for the last few songs, a few of us were assisting near the stage and were fortunate enough to see billy perform some of his classics and steven tyler and roger daltry perform two of their hits. it was unbelievably fun to watch them perform from so close.



there is no denying it. steven tyler is dead sexy.

billy, tony, garth, steven and roger all offered stellar performances and in their own right are legends. the show would have been unbelievable had it ended with them. but it didn't. entering from stage left, dressed in a white shirt and black tie reminiscent to the outfit worn 40 years ago, was sir paul mccartney. the pandemonium that ensued is difficult to describe. i, for one, felt goose bumps as the significance of the moment sank in. one of the most influential musical artist of all time, returning to pay homage to the stadium that introduced him to america 40 years prior. he thanked the crowd and then rocked out to "i saw her standing there". billy followed with his ever popular hit "piano man". paul then came back out on stage and closed the concert with "let it be" (fun fact # 2 - we found out earlier in the evening that there was a chance paul mccartney would be flying in from london for the show. he landed, came straight to the stadium and met billy backstage. billy had suggested they sing "she loves you" and "i saw her standing there". paul recommended they do "let it be" instead of "she loves you". billy obliged.).

up close and personal as mr. mccartney wows the crowd with "i saw her standing there".

slade and i quickly snapped a photo during paul's first number. yes. i know. we look like giddy schoolgirls.

billy either just pooped his pants or is absolutely ecstatic about playing backup for paul.

the "hot girls" (roseanne, mary, erin, marilee and andrea), as they preferred to be called, take a moment to pose for us weekly.

the wednesday night crew (mary, greg, jon, craig, melissa and davis). melissa and davis agreed that the friday night show was better cause it really was the "last play at shea". in this photo melissa is goosing davis, and boy does he like it.

anyway, the night was completely surreal. hard work. but absolutely amazing. totally unforgettable. easily in the running for the coolest night of my life. we owe greg big time, and we'll glady repay him as soon as he and erin move to ny.