Elton John enchants
Extravagance fuels farewell world tour
All Elton John needs is a piano. Even if he has never been content with just a piano.
John packed his Saturday TD Garden concert with multiple costume changes, a confetti blizzard and the extra-jumbo Jumbotron with constant video montages. But none of the extravagances mattered (and often they got in the way). During moments alone behind his Yamaha grand and singing platinum hits, the 71-yearold enchanted the audience of 10,000 plus.
The icon layered complex lines of melody and harmony into the piano runs that opened songs — see “Border Song,” “Take Me to the Pilot,” “Levon.” His voice sung lead, while his hands filled in gospel choirs and orchestra crescendos around the words. Often, after he fleshed out a tune, his band would crash in. These aces on guitar, bass, keyboards and three separate percussion kits added drama; they shoveled coal into an already racing locomotive. But, amazingly, the six musicians seemed more like accoutrements than essential ingredients.
So why all the extravagance? Why add double-necked guitars and laser lights and a tambourine player making faces like he’s Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop? Because he’s Elton John. Don’t forget this guy felt fine playing to stadiums dressed as Donald Duck. So yes, sometimes the video screens played clips of dancers that looked like an Old Navy commercial or endless footage of Sir Elton’s five-decade-long career. But he’s earned the excess by selling 300 million albums and playing 4,000 shows in 80 countries.
Calling this the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, he could have stuck with only hits. But early on he told the audience, “I’ve had to leave some of them out, a lot of them out.” Instead he rounded out the 2 1⁄2-hour set with his favorites while giving constant praise to longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin — deep cuts such as the soul stomp “All the Girls Love Alice” and the grandiloquent “Funeral for a Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding.”
These selections often intersected with his most experimental or fiery playing. Stripped of the syrupy string section on the LP version, “Indian Sunset” became a pop concerto. “Burn Down the Mission” highlighted his talent for cramming disparate influences together. (He got Stephen Foster, Tin Pan Alley and more gospel into this one.)
John would never leave the world stage without showing off a few tailor-made suits constructed of more sequins than cloth. But his gift of melody, mighty voice and unique composition style is what remained lodged in the brain after the one-two punch of the “Your Song”/“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” encore.