Elton John in Cleveland 10/5/01

A few more pictures:


Don Grim (Grimsby) with eltonjohn.com hat and shirt ready to go to the concert.


The red shoes celebrate Elton's new Red Shoes song in 2001.


Don Grim in the 70's with an Elton John t-shirt (long-time fan).

That's all of the pictures. I hope you enjoyed them!

Here is my review of the concert:

Elton ROCKS the city where you find the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!!!

That's the best way that I can describe it! I am partial to his solo concerts and didn't have high expectations. However, I was VERY pleasantly surprised! I saw Elton three times before with the band (76 Cleveland, 82 Akron, 89 Pittsburgh) but never remember him rocking that piano like that. On the fast numbers, his piano work was unbelievable! It had almost everybody swaying to the fantastic beat! I never danced so much to any other concert. My hair was soaked with sweat at the end of the concert. If you get a chance to see this tour, you won't regret it. It is unbelievable and different than any audio or video could have captured it! Still, I hope this concert gets on audio or video someday! Elton and the band were flawless. Perhaps they'll put some or all of this concert on the CBS special this fall. There was certainly enough video cameras there. There was even a guy on the stage with a hand-held video camera moving about and taking video closeups of each band member.

This was a true dedicated fan concert with him playing about 7 songs from the new album and many songs (not singles) that just casual fans wouldn't recognize. Nobody looked disappointed though. I remember seeing people older than me, just behind me, with smiles on their faces. They, just like me at 44, felt like teenagers again! Those older songs just took us back to our memories of when we WERE younger.

I had one of the 50 Rocket seats which was on the right side, 4th row, somewhere near about the 10th row of the floor seats (Section 103, row DD, seat 12), but elevated and not floor seats. I prefer the elevated seats over the floor seats for you have a clear view of the stage with no heads in the way. I was a little disappointed, at first, that it was not on the left side where I could always see EJ's hands on the keyboard but the big screen showed his hand work on the piano at times. It was still a great view of Elton's head and all the band members. Thanks to eltonjohn.com for making them available to us Rocket members!

I was surprised that I didn't see more Rocket members with Rocket gear on. I had the eltonjohn.com hat & shirt on as well as red shoes on. I met two nice ladies sitting right on my right side. The one lady was from Chicago, a suburb near my sister, and the other lady was from Minnenapolis. That made my trip back to Erie PA seem short!

I hadn't planned to do anything with my shoes but when the Red Shoes song ended, I impulsively held one red shoe in the air as a tribute. I don't think Elton or the band saw it which was fine for I wasn't really trying to get attention but it was my way of applauding! My friends, who sat in elevated seats on the left side, knew I had red shoes on and looked and saw me hold up the shoe and thought it was funny.

Though there was talk about the tour being called "Journey Through Time", I think it is called the "Songs From The West Coast" tour. The tourbook, $15, is called Songs From The West Coast. I talked to a frustrated vendor who said the tourbook wouldn't be ready to sell until 8:00, the time of the concert. The lady next to me wanted to get up during the concert and nicely bought a tourbook for me, her, and someone else so it didn't sell out on us. There are great pictures in the tourbook. It says, in the tourbook, that almost 100 lyrics were written, 22 songs were written, 18 songs were recorded, and 12 songs made it on the album. With North Star and God Never Came Here on the latest single and with Elton's web page video revealing songs Fingerprints and Surviving Crash And Burn, there are only two recorded songs left that we don't know about yet.

There was a US flag on the right side of the stage. Elton said, more than once, how he loves America! He also mentioned how he is proud of the SFTWC album. He gave interesting hints before songs and it was fun guessing what the song would be. When he said I am going to do a song about New York City, I guessed right for Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters. When he said I am doing a song about our early life touring on the road, I guessed right for Holiday Inn. When he said I am going to do a song about a hero of mine from The GBYBR album, I guessed wrong for Candle In The Wind but was glad that it was the Roy Rogers song!

Someone mentioned that Elton had green tinted glasses but, to me, they looked like blue tinted glasses. When they did I Want Love, they showed bits of the Robert Downey video on the big screen. I was expecting to see something like a Japanese movie where the lips don't match the sound but, somehow, Robert's lips matched the song being played in concert. I don't know how they pulled that off!

It was a little surprising that This Train and Dark Diamond weren't played but you have to cut out something. It was surprising that they played Mansfield in concert but I like the ending of that song (At The Break Of Dawn line) the first time I heard the album. It reminds me a little of the end of My Father's Gun. The whole Mansfield song is growing on me. Mansfield in concert sounded a little different than the studio version but both versions are great! I like Elton's ballads best but I can't emphasize how great Elton and the Band rocked in Cleveland! Wow!

Davey was great like usual and the highlight of his work, for me, was his great mandolin work on Red Shoes and Mona Lisas! It was great to see Nigel! There is something charming about his facial expressions and just the way he carries himself. His drumwork was good throughout and his drums on Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me were especially enjoyable!

I was a little disappointed with Original Sin. It was great to hear it in concert but it was a little too loud. It seemed like they turned up the volume from that song forward. They did do a bunch of fast numbers after Original Sin. Perhaps they turned up the volume one song too early. Did I mention Elton rocked his piano on the fast numbers like I've never seen before? :) I know I mentioned it before but it can't be overemphasized!

Wasteland was probably new for casual fans but it got a very good response. When I picked up my tickets, I talked to a lady who had the Sleeping With The Past cover picture on a stick. I think she said she got it on campus there. She was very interested in the eltonjohn.com site. She was going to visit there and said she was probably going to become a Rocket member. I told her about the cost, prizes, and contests.

Elton introduced Original Sin as a love song and called Birds one of his favorite songs on the new album.

Here is a list of the songs played:

1. Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
2. Someone Saved My Life Tonight
3. Bennie And The Jets
4. Philadelphia Freedom
5. Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes
6. The Wasteland
7. Rocket Man
8. Daniel
9. Roy Rogers
10. Mansfield
11. Meal Ticket
12. I Want Love
13. Birds
14. Country Comfort
15. Take Me To The Pilot
16. Mona Lisas And Mad Hatter
17. Holiday Inn
18. American Triangle
19. Original Sin
20. Levon
21. I'm Still Standing
22. The Bitch Is Back
23. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
Encore 1:
24. Believe
25. Crocodile Rock
Encore 2:
26. Your Song
27. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

"His gift is his song"! Praise God for giving him the gift!

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