Back in early December my husband provided me with an awesome early Christmas present: tickets to the Billy Joel concert at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore. I’ve been a fan since I was in high school in the early ’70s but had never had the chance to see him perform live, so I was pumped.

The first order of business was to determine our mode of transportation to the venue. Uber was an option, but after waiting almost an hour for a ride after a concert at the Moda Center in September, we decided to drive and park somewhere in downtown Portland, eat dinner there and then take the MAX light rail train right to the venue across the river.

We lucked out with a curbside slot just two blocks from a MAX station and decided to dine at Hubers — in front of which we’d parked. Hubers, claiming the title of Portland’s oldest restaurant (established in 1879, and in its current location for 108 years), offers hearty if fairly pedestrian fare and specializes in a full traditional turkey dinner. (In the 1890s, you got a free turkey sandwich and coleslaw when you bought a drink.) Most entrées cost between 20 and 40 dollars and include the standard steaks, seafood, pasta and salads.

We ate our meal while enjoying the “floor show” for which Hubers is best known: the preparation and serving of its signature drink, Spanish coffee (for neighboring tables, not us). The server, who clearly had perfected his presentation over years, if not decades, performed every step of the tableside process with flair and panache . . . and flames, to boot. After indulging in a delectable hazelnut brownie sundae, we strolled the few blocks to our train, packed with fellow concert-goers, and zipped across the river past cars backed up for blocks attempting to get into the parking garage at the arena. Yep, we made the right choice!

Our seats, located immediately behind the stage, offered us great views even before the music started.  We enjoyed observing the set-up    and the prepping of two spotlight technicians as they were strapped into contraptions on either side of the stage that were then hoisted 50 feet above . . . and remained there for the next three-plus hours. 

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the concert. Joel’s piano sat at the center of a revolving turntable, so we had ample opportunities to see his face as he played and sang,   and we enjoyed being able to see the other musicians close at hand as well.   With such an enormous catalogue, there was no way he could perform all his hits. Instead, during the first part of the concert he would introduce the name of an album and then allow the audience to choose one of two titles from that work. The crowd clearly knew his work and so didn’t always choose what might have been the “bigger” of the two. Joel seemed particularly pleased when we chose “Vienna” over “Just the Way You Are” from 1977’s The Stranger.

He kept it loose and funny and was very self-deprecating: “I know what you’re thinking,” he said after his opening song. “‘What the hell happened to him?'” He also enjoyed doing bits and snippets of covers of other artists’ work that he admired, taking the trip down memory lane for all of us with songs that were inextricably linked with his during key moments of our lives. He kept it up for nearly three hours, ending with a half-hour encore that included “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (accompanied by projections to match the lyrics), “You May Be Right”  and “Big Shot.”

It was so great to finally see Billy Joel in concert, and I hope I won’t have to wait too long to see him again. In the meantime, I’ve dug out some of my old LPs that I hadn’t listened to in so long, reveling in the music and the memories. Thank you, Piano Man.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor