Sir Elton John took time during his second performance in as many nights at MetLife Stadium this Sunday (July 24) to share some counting numbers he’d amassed: 247 performances so far on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, 13 career appearances at the East Rutherford venue (formerly known as Giants Stadium), nearly 30 total lifetime performances in the state of New Jersey. But of course, the most important number on the night was zero: the number of times he’d be returning to the tri-state area following that night’s gig, with the legendary road warrior moving on to other legs of his tour before ultimately retiring from live performance altogether.
“So let’s make it a good one, eh?” John suggested, to roaring crowd agreement.
A good one was indeed made on Sunday, as John’s 23-song set satisfied exactly as a final engagement should, right from the opening piano pounds of “Bennie and the Jets” — repeatedly bringing the entire stadium crowd to their feet, despite the sweltering 90-plus degree July heat. John’s catalogue of smash hits and fan favorites is so vast that he can afford to leave as many as four of his nine Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits completely off his set list (and another couple No. 2s to boot) and have their absence barely be noticeable; by the time he got to the evening’s one true deep cut (a thunderous “Have Mercy on the Criminal,” from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player) it almost felt shocking to hear a song without a chorus that was already intimately familiar. (It was flanked on both sides by timeless classic rock standards “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man,” just to be on the safe side.)
And even after over a half a century of touring and 247 dates on this trek alone, Sir Elton still sounds and feels very much like Sir Elton. At age 75, he’s certainly aware of his vocal limits — six-minute mega-ballad “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was pitched down to a less trying key, and he let the audience fill in the falsetto’d “laaaaa la-la-la-la-laaaa…” refrain to “Crocodile Rock” — and he’s obviously dialed back the physicality and performative gaudiness that once made a live signature, with only some sparkly jackets and a go-to move of picking up and slamming down his piano lid really nodding to the ostentatiousness of his early years. But his unmistakable baritone sounds as mighty and resonant as ever, and his energy at the ivories remains positively infectious — even if, after a workout like a gospel double-time finish to Madman Across the Water staple “Levon,” he collapsed on his piano in exaggerated exhaustion while taking his bows.
Those bows came nearly after every song, from first to last — in a way that not only allowed the tens of thousands of generations-spanning fans in attendance to express proper appreciation for both his superlative performance that night and the lifetime’s worth of entertainment the Rocket Man had provided for them, but also allowed him to return the favor. As John paced the stage to huge ovations between songs, he pointed each time at various pockets of the stadium crowd, either encouraging them with an inaudible “all right!” or “come on!” or thanking them for their support, tonight and through the decades.
Perhaps the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s most touching display of gratitude for his tri-state fanbase came with his performance of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” his Honky Chateau highlight inspired by New York City. “This is the last time I’m ever going to play this song,” John vowed to the East Rutherford crowd. “I wanted to play it for you.” The song, which would be a career-defining signature number for nearly any other performer, hasn’t lost a bit of its wide-eyed, platonically romantic wonder over half a century — and the idea of getting to hear its words of finding one’s place in the big city (“I thank the lord for the people I have found”) live for the final time after no doubt thousands of lifetime performances was incredibly moving. (This writer probably won’t be the only one checking John’s future FYBR setlists to see if he makes good on his promise.)
It was just one highlight of many across a night that hewed to the crowd-pleasers without making them feel stale. “Rocket Man” was stretched out to prog-rock lengths by an extended outro of Sir Elton and longtime sideman David Johnstone seemingly talking to each other, Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style, via piano, warped vocals and slide guitar transmissions. Given a long intro of thunderstorms — which sounded worryingly plausible on the humid July night — FM favorite “Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” made for both an appropriate mid-set costume-change break and then an absolutely riotous second act opener, starting a run of classics that proved stunningly sustainable for John, right up to the three-song encore.
You wouldn’t have called it a career-spanning set, exactly — only one song performed on the night came from after 1984, a somewhat surprising dismissal of a long portion of his career where John continually proved more relevant than 99% of his ’70s and early ’80s peers, with dozens of hit singles and even one RIAA Diamond-certified soundtrack album. But the one hit from that period he did perform was his most recent, the 2021 Dua Lipa and PNAU collab “Cold Heart,” and it was quite a testament to the 75-year-old’s career longevity that he could save a song for his encore that was still subsiding in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, making some of the teenagers in attendance screech with recognition from its opening bass thumps.
Lipa herself did not appear to perform her vocals on the track — she did her half of the duet over video, with the crowd of course providing able assistance — and indeed, the NJ/NYC farewell came and went without any surprise special guests, local or otherwise. But one of the most impressive things about John’s live show is that it still has the muscle, excitement and chemistry of a real live band, some of which have been with Sir Elton on and off since the Nixon administration. They’re currently touring stadiums, of course, but it feels like an act tight enough to be scaled back to a tour of 500-cap venues — assuming they could find room for the three separate percussionists — without losing any of its power. It’s the reason why John’s set list can veer from chart-topping pop ballads to ramshackle southern soul rave-ups to 10-plus-minute art-rock symphonies without ever jarring, and the reason why any big-name guests for the evening might’ve felt more like an outsider intrusion than anything.
Towards the end of his encore, John took time to thank the New York Post for their positive review of his concert at MetLife the previous night, but also to share his incredulity at the number of comments underneath the article expressing disbelief that the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was still going, and doubting that this would in fact be his final trek. (“We lost two years because of COVID… we should be done by now!” John exclaimed.) But there certainly was an air of finality to his majestic ending performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” particularly as his seat started rising at song’s close — carrying him off the stage and up to that great yellow brick road in the sky, as displayed on the closing video projection.
The set’s most awe-inspiring (and unexpectedly touching) moment came earlier, however, in a performance of his career-revitalizing 1983 hit “I’m Still Standing.” The song was matched with a rapid-fire video montage of John’s life in pop culture, spanning from ’70s appearances on Soul Train and The Muppets through clips from his MTV peak of the early ’80s, through animated cameos at the turn of the century on era-defining TV shows like South Park and The Simpsons, right up to his promotion of his Me autobiography and the “Cold Heart” music video from recent years. It was overwhelming to see a lifetime’s worth of Elton memories evoked in three and a half minutes, demonstrating how he’s been as much of a consistent fixture in our lives as any other entertainer of the past half-century. The implication was clear: After all of that, Elton is in fact still standing — and he’s more than earned the right to finally take a seat.
Setlist:
Bennie and the Jets
Philadelphia Freedom
I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues
Border Song
Tiny Dancer
Have Mercy on the Criminal
Rocket Man
Take Me to the Pilot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Levon
Candle in the Wind
Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
Burn Down the Mission
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
The Bitch Is Back
I’m Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
Encore:
Cold Heart
Your Song
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Adele.