Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot Featuring the Music of Billy Joel Re

It’s 8 O’Clock on a Saturday and the regular crowd shuffled into the Cabot in Beverly but instead of seeing the Piano Man Billy Joel the crowd got to see a concert by Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot featuring mostly Billy’s music. Big Shot has been around for quite awhile and has a big following in the NY/Long Island area not surprising since that is where Mr Joel is from. Over the years Mike and the band has made connections with several Billy Joel related musicians including several that currently are part of the touring band. These connections paid off for Mike DelGuidice who was summoned by Billy Joel for a meeting before some live dates and soon after Mike was invited to join the Billy Joel band that tours the world and plays a monthly show at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York. So yes that's right the guy in the tribute band now plays in the band of the artist he has been playing the music for in his concerts for many years.

The show started off with the high energy song from the lesser known Turnstiles album Miami 2017 which has become a live staple of the Joel live shows over the years as well, then he played the classic song pressure from Nylon Curtain and kept the crowd going with a nice mix of hits and well known Billy Joel songs including the song Vienna off the Stranger album which has grown into a classic song that almost everyone knows and even beats hit songs when Billy asks the fans in concerts which they want to hear next. But what was cool the band didn't just play the obvious hits in fact there were several they didn't do, that's a credit to Billy in having so many great songs, but rather were willing dig deeper in playing rarer tracks like Somewhere Along The Line from the Piano Man album and making a nod to the north shore and nearby Gloucester fishermen by including a cool mostly solo version of The Downeaster Alexa from 1989’s Storm Front album. Mike DelGuidice is a solo artist in his own right with a couple solo albums and played a song Josie from his solo work to pay tribute to all the Mothers out there seeing as it was Mother’s Day weekend. But the true highlight of the night for many was not a song by Mike or Billy it was a song made famous by a Boston band in Aerosmith Dream, I will tell you Mike nailed that song live hitting all the live notes in a version that brought the Cabot audience to their feet and one that Steven Tyler would had appreciated.

Big Shot in the end knew what the fans wanted to hear and that was to hear Billy Joel classic songs like Keeping the Faith, She’s Always A Woman, We Didn’t Start The Fire, Piano Man, Scenes from An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young, and You May Be Right. The entire band was having fun the whole time and included a few mentions of the Red Sox/Yankee Rivalry and with the sax player John Scarpulla even wearing a special Billy Joel Red Sox jersey during the encores given to him by a fan which the crowd greatly enjoyed.

Good news Billy Joel and Mike DelGuidice are coming back to Fenway Park this summer again for what will be a great show I’m sure plus I hear Mike does a mean cover of the classic made famous by Pavarotti Nessun Dorma, but most people can't afford to see the Billy show but the next best thing is to see Mike DelGuidice and Big Shot Featuring the Music of Billy Joel, everyone had a great time on Sat at the Cabot and hopefully they will be back in Boston area soon too, perhaps in Sept along with their already announced show at Tupelo in Derry NH.

Story Covered By Jack Suslak
Wood Media Staff Writer