NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
On Thursday, August 11th, Billy Joel continued his non-stop tour with an incredible show at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. It had been six years since Joel played here and the capacity crowd showed their appreciation. Many fans came to the stadium early to tailgate, getting ready to party with their idol. Having been a Billy Joel fan since the 70s, I was familiar with the whole set and I’ve lost track of what was a hit vs what wasn’t. To me, they’re just great songs that I grew up with. I do admit that I lost interest after his 1983 album “An Innocent Man” but I still listen to his older albums regularly. It’s an honor to see and photograph one of his shows but I would like to see him at Madison Square Garden in NYC just one more time.
With no opener, Joel went right into it with “My Life”. Often times, he would refer to many of his songs as “non-hits”. Whether they were or not, you could see and hear many of his fans singing along as I did. Most of the performance had him sitting behind the piano, which was on a rotating platform, allowing everyone to see his face for at least part of the set. Quite the storyteller, he spoke often telling us about how certain songs came to be and was also quite the jokester. He also used a fly swatter at times, once going after a moth that was flying around his face. Joel did sing a couple of songs at the mic sans piano and, oddly enough, with a guitar in hand during “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, the first song of the encore. His set included a pretty good spread of songs from throughout his discography with a little more weighted to songs from “The Stranger” through “Glass Houses”. Highlights for me were “Zanzibar”, Vienna”, and “It’s Just a Fantasy” but I was disappointed that “Summer Highland Falls” was missing. He does switch up his setlists, which is nice, and you can never make everyone completely happy. Joel’s voice was solid and strong, although the high notes were a bit of a stretch, sounding not quite like himself. After playing for over two hours, he closed out the evening with his “biggest hits” and left the crowd cheering.
Click on photos to enlarge
Setlist
My Life
Pressure
The Entertainer
Just the Way You Are
Zanzibar
(intro from Lion King)
An Innocent Man
The Longest Time
Don’t Ask Me Why
New York State of Mind
Allentown
Vienna
Movin’ On
Always a Woman
The Ballad of Billy the Kid
Only the Good Die Young
It’s Just a Fantasy
River of Dreams (interlude to Dancing in the Streets)
Nessun dorma (Puccini cover sung by Michael Del Guidice)
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
Piano Man
Encore
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Uptown Girl
Still Rock and Roll to Me
Big Shot
You May Be Right