Elton John, the Laramigo

Last night, in the midst of an April snow shower, Elton John played an almost three hour concert in the basketball arena at the University of Wyoming. I went, because how could I pass up the chance to see someone so famous and entertaining in a venue that I could walk to? Laramie hardly packs in the stars. And a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, too--you know how I like those Brits. The ticket fees all went to charity, so that was even better.

While Sir Elton's voice was clearly showing the strain of his years, his piano playing was beautiful. He played without a band, with only his piano and some synthesizer back-up. He showcased some pretty instrumental bits and vamped up the playing quite impressively on some of his famous songs, which made up for the screechy aspect of his voice when he tried to hit the high notes. "Get Back Honky Cat" was a bit painful, but he could still carry the deeper, calmer tunes like "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" and "Candle in the Wind" with no trouble.

When he played "Tiny Dancer," making me cringe a bit as he had trouble hitting some of the notes, all I could think of was Pheobe from "Friends" and her misheard lyrics. It would have been cool if Tony Danza had appeared to dance on the piano or something. I also wanted George Michael to come out to duet on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," but I guess Laramie was no big draw for a cameo.

I was a bit disappointed that he didn't play "Sacrifice" or "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". I mean, really, "Philadelphia Freedom"? Anything with Philly in the title should be given a pass immediately. I guess he was pandering to a red state crowd. The glittering pictures and lights on the back of the stage took on a red, white and blue stars and stripes motif.

And that song about Levon with the lyric "Jesus wants to go to Venus"? I never liked that one. Too much of a David Bowie fascination with spacemen. "Rocket Man" is enough of that, and a better song.

He also chose to do a song about Roy Rogers. Well, we are in Wyoming. He made it a point to mention being a childhood fan of Hop-a-long Cassidy, whose saddle happens to reside in the University of Wyoming Art and Heritage Museum (or something). I've seen it. It's terribly exciting. Hop-a-long Cassidy used to order milk at bars, instead of whiskey. That probably still wouldn't go over well at a cowboy bar in Wyoming.

Sir Elton made up for some of these dubious choices by playing my favorite song of his, "I Guess that's Why They Call it the Blues." I can play that on the piano, but, for some reason, his version sounded a lot better. My man suggested that perhaps I am too beholden to the written notes. This is indeed a huge flaw in my playing, but Elton had none of that, which was fun to see.

Sir Elton appeared a bit subdued, in black tails and sunglasses, because the concert was benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation after the tenth anniversary of his death. Elton talked of tolerance and his hopes for the Obama administration and got cheers from the University audience (a lot of people who seemed to be up from 'bluer' Colorado--he mentioned Boulder, which is like the Portland or San Francisco of Colorado and got huge applause). Although most people seemed supportive of the cause, when he played a sad song about Matthew's murder and sang the word Wyoming, to indicate "a place where a boy got lynched", a few idiotic people cheered, in a "whoo-hoo, I'm from Wyoming!" kind of way. Some people really are clueless.

It's too bad it took a tragedy to bring such a big star to Laramie, but, regardless of the subtext, Elton was still a showman. The back and one arm of his dark outfit was decorated in stones in a shiny, silver design, and you could see his enjoyment of the crowd's excited reaction when he slowly played the first bars of "Benny and the Jets".

The walk home in the snow was pretty nice, too.