Elton John

 Elton John 

September 10, 2022

I sure seem to be busy at concerts this year, and this one, was not expected. When Carol had asked if I wanted to join her to see Elton John's very last tour back when the tickets first came out...I immediately said NO when I heard the price. As much as I would have loved to see Elton John, I was not about to pay that much. I believe the cost was somewhere over $150- and up. I had to decline. I was used to a lawn seat ticket ranging from $25-$30 a ticket, once we got up into the hundreds, I just couldnt bring myself to say yes. As it so happened, Elton Johns Farwell tour raked in over $900 million dollars during its 5 year tour, the highest Billboard Boxscore in history. I'm not surprised. 

(We had parked at my parents house, walked to Manley Field house and took the trolly to the Dome)

At any rate, she had gotten tickets, and happened to have someone CA on her, so she had extra. Now I still paid her, I am not that awful, but I was able to get a steal at $100 rather then the $150+ that I was told the tickets went for. Its okay, I still spent the extra $50 on my T-shirt. (Yes it was $50) .

When it comes to concerts, I guess it's all very subjective on the viewers experience as to how great or not so great the show is. Additionally, there are several factors that contribute to that. Seat location, whom you go with, noise or people tolerance, weather your a sitter or a "I must STAND" person. I personally have found that seating in general has a much bigger role in my concert rating score then many. 

I have found that this does not so much have to do with where one is located in reference to the stage. I can attest to the fact that I have sat in the very last row in this very same building to The Police back in 1984 and had a much different experience then I had sitting in the very second to last row at this show. Mainly, for me this has to do with comfort. 

I would much rather be miles away and comfortable, then perhaps in the front row crunched in with a ton of other people. In this case, we were in the second to last row, although not in the upper tier, and we or at least I, felt like I had to stand sideways throughout the entire show.  Bench seats with numbers on them, do not take into account that some people are not going to be on their assigned number or some may take up more room and any number of things that prevent everyone else from having the same desiginated amount of space. I was knocked off my area and crunched into a sideways stance. 

Elton could have walked right up and touched my arm and my experience still would have been tainted by the fact that I had to stand at a pivot for the entire show, forever having to adjust my weight and watch that my toes were not stepped upon. 

Maybe I am just spoiled. Maybe I'm just a brat. I could possibly just be FAT, (which I will accept), but the fact that this seat had cost me $100- and I was miserable made it difficult to actually just enjoy the show. I found myself attempting to sing "I remember when I was young, me and Suzie had so much funnnnnn....." gosh darn it....if those people down the ways a little bit would just move over a tiny bit this area would all have some room. I could clearly see GAPS in the seats, I just happened to be on the cramped end. 

OK....."Rocket MANNNNNN, Rocket Man." Still trying.

If it wasn't the cramped seat, I found I was enraged by the fact that we had this gigantic metal structure (I am assuming that held lights, sound equipment, stage hands etc.) directly in view of the stage. I was unable to get a direct picture of the entire stage as it was blocked. I had to zoom in only on Elton. I finally just took pictures of the Gigantic Projectors located at the top of the stage, Picture of pictures I guess. 

My all time favorite Elton John song is Goodbye the Yellowbrick wall. I did get through this one and sang every single word! No dancing, but I did sing.

Now up to this point, unfortunately I was not fully able to appreciate the star of the show. I was ever so relieved when Carol asked if I wanted to walk around and see if we could sneak into another area or something.

YES PLEASE!!!! I went willingly. The nice thing about the Dome is you can pretty much see or at least hear as you walk around, so I didn't miss much of the songs. So I did sing as we walked. 

Cold Heart, Your Song, Hold Me Closer, Nikita, Tiny Dancer, Candle in the Wind. 

There are more....Bennie and the Jets, Daniel, Someone Save My Life tonight, Sad Songs, and a great one to sing and dance to IM STILL STANDING!!!!!

I honestly do not know what songs were being sung as we walked around, or even if all these songs were done, but I was much more enjoying the concert free from the binds of my sideway stance. We slid in to an area way off to the right of the stage, many of these actual seats were empty as they were really not seats that show goers would sit at. (We were nearly back stage) BUT it was not crowded and we actually got a direct front view of Elton. 

These were taken from the seats at the side of the stage. 

Picture of the audiance from our side seat.

Carol and I stayed at these seats for some time and watched several songs play out. It was a much better experience. Experience Redeemed!!!! Elton, the music and the show itself was AWESOME.

I had a great time from that moment forward, we eventually made our way back to our original seats fearful that we might get kicked out as security was wandering around, but when we did return there were less people, perhaps people left, I dont know but we were able to catch the last part of the show where he plays Cold Heart remixed with Dua Lipa. There were graphics (possibly the video) on the screens to co-inside with this, so we had great seats for that. 

and just like that,it was over. I actually can only say, that now I can forever report that I have seen Elton John perform and I was at his final tour. 

TTFN