We don’t get to see the Fink’s very often, but every time we do it’s an awesome weekend. We try to have events planned for our visits and the last few have been pretty exciting. The Big Apple BBQ, an awesome party in the Fink’s backyard and this past weekend Billy Joel’s Last Play at Shea which is the last musical performance before the tearing down of Shea stadium before the opening of the NY Mets new ball park.
The weekend for me began Thursday evening when I went to play poker with a good friend that Kate and I used to work with. I had a great time playing and even was re-introduced to somebody I used to hang out with in High School. I took Friday off to finish straightening up the mess that was our house before the Fink’s arrived. They arrived shortly before 1 PM and Kate was able to leave work shortly after. We all relaxed on the deck for about an hour before heading into the city to for our evening.
The entire weekend was absolutely amazing and the concert was the best I’ve ever seen. A lot of details for those who want to read more below.
New York City: Pre-Concert
We arrived in the city and made our way to a restaurant we had selected for dinner and drinks prior to the concert. We were all hungry and very thirsty from the heat of the subway and walking in the city and were not so impressed with the wait time they gave us so we decided to go back to one of the numerous awesome looking establishments we found on the way. We settled on Jack Dempsey’s directly across from the Empire State Building. We all had an amazing meal and drinks. The girls shared a pitcher of Sangria which was fantastic and I kept stealing some from Kate’s glass. I had Fish and Chips in a beer batter which were absolutely killer. I wasn’t very hungry but I still managed to polish off the entire plate; including every last french fry!
We then had a good chunk of time to kill so we decided to explore some of the stores in the local area. We first entered a store called “Accessory Palace” and could have been renamed “Crappy Jewlery Made By Small Children in Foreign Country”. Beyond the stuff being ugly there were hundreds of signs that read, “You can not try! Sorry Sorry Sorry.” and multiple “Sentrys” standing around the floor and some even on stairs or in offices above monitoring everybody. I felt like a prisoner in the yard and we left quickly. Our next stop was a Dollar Store called Jacks Dollar Palace I believe. It was amazingly entertaining; but scary. Immediately upon entering the store there was a group of large bins with T-Shirts sitting in it. Peole were diving in full body trying to find the “one good shirt” in the bin. After walking around the first floor we saw a sign that said there is more upstairs. We found our way to the pet area and saw parenting at its best. To begin with I pointed out the awesome parenting of a mother who let their child run free in a huge and very crowded store in NYC; but more than that, the kid ran past toys and went directly to a dog toy. I turned to point this out and with my back turned I missed what the rest of the group saw. Said child took a giant bite out of the feather portion of the toy and the mother spent the next chunk of time removing feathers from her childs mouth!
The Concert
I can’t even express in simple words how outstanding this concert was. The amazing performance by Billy Joel, the amazing video and lighting effects, the amazing energy in the crowd and the guest performances made this concert 100% worthy of being the last musical performance at Shea. The stadium can now be torn down knowing no better show could have been performed there and it went out with a bang.
Billy had on either side of the stage a jumbo-tron setup in the shape of a NYC Skyline. These screens would play zoomed in bits of Billy playing the piano (his hands), him singing, his guest stars and some prerecorded video and effects. For example during Zanzibar the screens showed a highlights reel of the NY Mets.
The show started late with Billy’s apology as they needed the sun to go down a bit more in order for us to get the full effects of the light show. For all of those who may have heard rumors that the man can’t sing anymore; you’ve been told wrong. Granted he needs to care for his vocal chords a lot more but he was very frank about this. He used a misting bottle and some bottled water to keep his vocal chords moist and his voice ringing out. His first surprise guest on stage was Tony Bennett who sang Billy’s New York State of Mind. Tony is an amazing vocalist with a long career strongly associated with New York City. My brother-in-laws father even told Kate later that weekend that he saw Tony in the 50s after his prom at the old Coco Cabana.
Next up was Garth Brooks who sang his song Shameless, which Billy Joel wrote. Not being a country fan at all I wasn’t overly excited but he did do a good job and I appreciate him coming on stage wearing a Mets jersey. I am sure some of his fans were not pleased to see him in NY colors. Shortly after Robert Daltrey from The Who came on stage and sang My Generation which ended with Billy smashing a guitar on stage. The next on stage was Steven Tyler of Aerosmith who sang Walk This Way and if these stars weren’t enough Paul McCartney came on stage and sang I Saw Her Standing There. We left shortly after Paul left stage, in fact we just waited for Piano Man as we had a train to catch. Because of this we missed Paul coming back on stage and taking the piano to play Let It Be while Billy sat on the piano and sang along.
New York City: Post-Concert
Well, this was an interesting event. We made it out of Shea and pushed our way through the masses. Landed on the first seven train that was waiting at the platform and began our trip to the Times Square subway station to transfer to the A,C,E line for Penn Station (train station). Unfortunately as there were no express trains running the trip took a short eternity. As we were standing on the A,C,E platform we realized that our train back home had just departed Penn Station. We decided we’d determine what to do once we were at Penn and had the train time schedules at our disposal. We arrived at Penn Station and realized we had already missed the next train to Newark, NJ for transfers to our line. We then decided we’d take a train to a major stop like a New Brunswick downtown. The train wasn’t scheduled to pull in for another hour so we wandered around Penn Station and people watched. The train ride home was entertaining with some extremley trashy girl screaming and carrying on about topics ranging from boyfriends to “stomping on peoples faces”.
We arrived in New Brunswick, NJ at about 2:30 and took a taxi back to our place. Then John and I drove out to the Bridgewater, NJ train station to pick up Kate’s car. I was washed, teeth brushed and in bed by 4 AM.
Saturday
On Saturday we all just lounged around the house and ate amazing food. The girls went out shopping while Fink and I played some Xbox. We then all sat on the deck and drank, ate chips and multiple dips including Rachel’s famous pizza dip. For dinner we made two whole chickens with fresh spices, grilled potatoes and grilled ceaser salad. Very awesome meal.
Sunday: Sheridan’s Birthday Party
Sunday we went to my sisters house for my nieces firt birthday party. We had a nice time chatting with people and I spent some time playing with my nephew. I then helped build one of Sheridan’s toys which was very rewarded to see her play with the finished project. I’ve a bunch of pictures I took but I’ve not had a chance to take them off the camera yet let alone cleaned them up.
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