Billy Joel: 2000 Years - The Millennium Concert

(Columbia)

Herald rating: *

Russell Baillie

Some people, as Billy Joel notes not particularly apologetically during some early audience banter on this live double CD of his New York New Year's Eve show, paid up to $US999 to be there.

Yes, well, you'd probably have to be that kind of Joel fan to enjoy this 25-song set which covers predictable fare (save for Uptown Girl and Just The Way You Are), and turns into a bit of a knees-up towards the end (with Joel's band finally having some fun on covers of Dance to the Music and Honky Tonk Women).

Otherwise, the end-of-the-millennium context makes We Didn't Start The Fire - Joel's lyrical sprint through the second half of last century - sound twice as trite.

As a replay of Joel's own musical history, this is basically a slightly lacking greatest hits package with extra cheering, worse sound and Auld Lang Syne.