Elton John Concert Review: Breaking Hearts Tour, October 17, 1984, Capitol Centre, Landover, Maryland
Leave a commentJuly 3, 2013 by tworoomsejbt
My third Elton John concert! This show was another very upbeat and raucous affair. Elton was joined by the same band line-up as the previous world tour in 1982: long time original 1970’s members Nigel Olsson on drums, Davey Johnstone on guitars and Dee Murray on bass. This tour had one addition, Fred Mandel on additional guitars and backing keyboards. The show was held at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.
The Breaking Hearts Tour (named after Elton’s album of the same title), pulled from nearly every Elton John album up to that point with some special attention paid to the 1983 album, Too Low For Zero. It was nice to see Elton have a tour break between albums (no USA tour in 1983). This allowed Elton to play newer material from both of those albums, as well as plenty of songs from the 1970’s too.
Arriving on stage dressed as a Rhinestone cowboy, complete with white hat, boots, metalic gold jacket, and of course, large white rimmed glasses, Elton offered up Tiny Dancer as the opening song. A nice way to get audience warmed up for what was to become a long show.
The usual hits were delivered with equal sincerity i.e. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Philadelphia Freedom and so on.
But it was the fierceness of the rockers that wowed me and the audience. The band cranked out old stalwarts like Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting and The Bitch Is Back with aplumb. Elton jumped, danced and ran across the stage during these numbers that really worked everyone watching into a frenzy. At one point, he crawled under the piano and played from the floor!
Newer songs like Restless, Kiss The Bride and Li’l Frigerator held their own as well. Elton promoted the current single from Breaking Hearts, Who Wears These Shoes with plenty of gusto too. The whole show seemed to say, at least to me, that Elton was reminding everyone that he wasn’t going anywhere; and he was a force to be reckoned with two decades into his career. He wasn’t a relic from the 1970’s holding on to old glories but rather, a contemporary artist in the 1980’s who was still capable of delivering the hits and being a stellar showman.
Fans were further treated to a rave up of I’m Still Standing, the quiet and reflective One More Arrow and the sing-a-long, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues. Rocket Man and Bennie And The Jets both got the over 10 minute long treatment, which, for better or for worse, worked (depending on how much you love those songs and the extent you can bear them for that long). But the audience ate it up.
Elton, Nigel and Fred were set up on large round platforms in the shape of a circle that had multi-colored lights beaming up and flashing off and on, in what created a memorable light show.
By the time the show was over, everyone felt the workout that Elton and the band gave us. The rock and roll medley of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On, Twist and Shout, and I Saw Her Standing There, left everyone begging for more.
Below is a photo of the program from this tour as well as the Capitol Centre.
All in all, a fine performance and one that remains high on my list of memorable Elton John concerts.
David Sigler
Two Rooms 