Billy Joel Rocks at Ross

I gather that most attendees to last night's Billy Joel performance at the Ross School in East Hampton, New York, came away feeling that they had gotten their $3,000 worth, as the Piano Man, a devoted Long Islander, belted a succession of his greatest hits, from "Movin' Out" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" to "My Life" and "We Didn't Start the Fire." The evening was a double-Joel billing, with the performer's third wife, chef Katie Lee Joel, having designed the menu for the event, a riff on a Hamptons clambake. Wife number two (a.k.a. Christie Brinkley) was also in the house, but stayed off the stage, dashing any hopes that she might do a bygones-be-bygones reprise of "Uptown Girl" with her ex. (The two are the parents of a daughter, Alexa, an alumna of said Ross school.) In what was perhaps a nod to the fact that he has not aged quite as gracefully as his rocker contemporaries Sting, Bruce Springsteen and elder statesman Mick Jagger, when he took the stage, the fifty-eight-year-old musician joked that he was in fact the father of Billy Joel and that his son would be taking the stage later in the performance. He also poked fun at the image chosen for the VIP admission badges (below), explaining to the audience that a rabbi's visage had mistakenly been placed on the badge instead of his own. For all of Joel's joshing, his on-stage energy was in fact pretty subdued, save for the magic he worked on his keyboard (which he still commands like a master). His lack of energy was more than compensated for by the crowd, which leapt to its feet the moment Joel took the stage. Most of them did not re-take their seats for the duration of the performance, choosing instead to sing and dance to Joel's prolific catalog of hits, which span four decades. I was a guest of Sony Cierge, the electronics company's V.I.P. personal-service program, which offers members exclusive access to music performances and other special events. At one point prior to the performance, a crowd gathered around Ripa as illusionist Blaine singled her out for an impromptu sleight of hand. The Joel concert was the third in a series of five performances that have included Prince (7/14) and Dave Matthews (7/28). Upcoming concerts are James Taylor (8/11) and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (8/25). Proceeds from sales of the $15,000 ticket packages (which included dinner) benefit the Ross school. For more information or to purchase tickets for James Taylor or Tom Petty, visit Hamptons (Social) @ Ross. %%showphotos [setid=72157602643240001]%% Photos courtesy of David Prutting at Patrick McMullen.