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Billy Joel to Begin Monthly Residency at MSG

Will people want to hear ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ live every month?

by
Adam Chandler
December 03, 2013
(AP)
(AP)

Billy Joel will be ringing in 2014 at the semi-newly minted Barclays Center in Brooklyn. (To the chagrin of one Tablet senior writer, tickets are selling for thousands of dollars on StubHub.) But the kid from Oyster Bay, Long Island and recent Kennedy Center honoree is thinking even bigger for next year. In a move reminiscent of both Las Vegas and the biological cycle, Joel will be dropping in on Madison Square Garden for a monthly concert until…get this…fans stop coming. Fat chance!

He has performed 46 times at the Garden since 1978. In addition to his previously announced four shows in 2014, he’ll perform on May 9 (his 65th birthday). More concert dates will be announced later.

The announcement was made today via a livestream from the Garden. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in attendance offering that the partnership would mean that “two great icons are coming together to make entertainment history right here in New York.” Then the puns began:

This presser from MSG has been going on For The Longest Time…. #BillyJoelMSG



— Pat Bailey (@CBS6Pat) December 3, 2013

You may be right, he may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic @TheGarden is looking for http://t.co/hNh75Q0vh1 #BillyJoelMSG



— My Social List (@mysociallist) December 3, 2013

Here’s Joel performing “Miami 2017,” which unwittingly became one of his quintessential songs about New York.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.