Billy Joel helped dedicate the opening of the Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix, saying he hoped it would be home to "a lot of good music," before offering a musical contribution of his own.
Joel grabbed a commemorative silver shovel before the show and gave Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson and other city dignitaries a hand in planting an acacia outside the pavilion Friday."I wish you much luck with this new place and I hope you get to listen to a lot of good music and have a lot of good fun here," the 41-year-old Joel said at a news conference.
Joel, almost a year into his 16-month "Storm Front" tour, played a rousing two-hour, 20-song set that included two encores before a capacity crowd of 18,500.