Watch Paul Simon Join Billy Joel to Say Goodbye to Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum
One Long Island icon bade farewell to another last night, when Billy Joel closed out Nassau Coliseum with a rollicking set that lasted more than three hours and included special guest Paul Simon.
You can watch fan-shot footage of Simon's appearance above, which — as Newsday reports — included joint performances of Simon's solo hits "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" and "Late in the Evening," as well as the Simon & Garfunkel classic "Homeward Bound."
The concert marked Joel's 32nd show at the venue, a string of appearances that included a sold-out nine-night stand in 1998 as well as a landmark early '80s performance that was commemorated on the sadly out-of-print home video release Live From Long Island in 1983. Fittingly, the opening act, Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot, is a Joel tribute band.
Newsday notes that Joel, who grew up on the island, peppered the evening with a number of references to local landmarks, including regaling the audience with the tale of his first local gig and recalling an evening spent at a neighborhood restaurant with his first wife. The set list also included songs that wove in references to Long Island fishermen (1989's "The Downeaster 'Alexa'") and, of course, New York civic pride ("New York State of Mind").
Joel, who also closed out New York's Shea Stadium in 2008 and played a pair of heavily hyped shows at Yankee Stadium in 1990, worked in some local sports support during the Nassau concert, referencing this season's departure of the New York Islanders hockey franchise for Brooklyn after more than 40 years on Long Island. As you can see near the six-minute mark in the video, Simon echoed Joel's sentiments, equating the loss of the Islanders with the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957.
Nassau Coliseum undergoes major renovations starting today, with demolition on the $261 million project set to begin later in the month.
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