Elton John - Peachtree Road Tour

Artist:
Elton John
Venue:
Gaylord Entertainment Center - Nashville
Concert Date:
September 30, 2005

Elton John. Nashville. If that seems like an unlikely combination to you, consider these tidbits

• The city's largest indoor concert venue has booked twice as many rock and pop acts as country music acts this year
• Rock artists have recorded here for years, because of the high quality of the recording studios and the pool of exceptional session musicians
• Nashville is called Music City, not Country Music City

You might be tempted to make a case that Nashville would be a fitting venue for the tour that promotes the artist's slightly country-tinged album, Peachtree Road. Well, don't be. The fact is that the 16,000 people who came to hear Elton John in Nashville on September 30 didn't come to hear Porch Swing In Tupelo or Turn the Lights Out When You Leave.

Oh, sure, the crowd was polite and even mildly enthusiastic as Elton ... uh, excuse me, SIR Elton (do they really confer knighthood on little guys who wear puffy pink pants and lie on top of their pianos?) ... hurried through a few songs from his latest album, each with a somewhat perfunctory, over-rehearsed spoken introduction.

It wasn't until the Peachtree Road album's backup singers left the stage and John hit the first chord of Benny and the Jets that the crowd started clapping, swaying, stomping, shouting, and singing along while accompanying themselves on air piano.

The artist himself was clearly more at home with the "old" material, immediately becoming more comfortable, more connected with the audience, and in general just having a lot more fun. It isn't unusual for performers who have been kicking around for as long as Elton John has to rely on popular favorites from times gone by in their stage sets. It is, however, unusual to see the artist perform those songs with his energy and enthusiasm.

For a solid two-and-a-half hours, stopping only long enough to leap from the piano bench to take a sip of water between songs, Sir Elton played, sang, and crisscrossed the stage, applauding the audience as warmly as they were applauding him. Then it was two encores and another thirty minutes of high energy performing. His trademark leap onto the top of the piano might have been a little slower than it used to be, but not much.

It was a long time after his string of wooden intros to songs from the recent album before he even stopped long enough to speak before launching into the next song. That was when he warmly related the story of going into the recording studio with Ray Charles to record Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word for Charles' Genius Loves Company album, shortly before his death in 2004.

The show-stopper was an extended rendition of Rocket Man, bolstered by audio effects and light show, both of which were used sparingly but effectively throughout the show.

When you look up "showmanship" in the dictionary, you expect to see Elton John's picture next to the definition. Though less flamboyant than in past incarnations -- the only feather boas and sequined eyeglasses were worn by fans -- he still puts on one helluva show. Longtime sidemen Davey Johnstone on guitar and Nigel Olsson (former Nashvillian who has been around since the Elton John Trio days in the late '60s) on drums are a perfect fit in both musical proficiency and stage presence.

This is a performer who seems to genuinely like and appreciate his fans. This is evident in his expressing his pleasure at having met some of them backstage, dedicating a song to one of them, and taking time during his first encore to shake hands and sign autographs for those in the front row seats. His concert ticket prices, in spite of his well-earned superstar status, have remained low enough to keep him accessible to most fans, and them to him.

This isn't the first time the artist has played Nashville, and if we're lucky, it won't be the last. If anything was clear in his most recent performance here, Elton John likes Nashville, and Nashville likes Elton John.