{"id":39963,"date":"2006-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/12-gardens-live\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:32","slug":"12-gardens-live","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/12-gardens-live\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Gardens Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

We last left intrepid hero Billy Joel in December 2005 with the release of his career-encompassing box set My Lives<\/i><\/a>. While the quality of that set can be argued, it accomplished its goal of demonstrating Joel’s artistic range. 12 Gardens<\/i> is in many ways an extension of that idea, with the exception of being performed in front of a raucous <\/place><\/placename>Madison <\/placename>Square <\/placetype>Garden crowd. <\/p>\n

Joel\u2019s previous live releases, while having their moments, failed to truly encapsulate his career. Songs From The Attic<\/i> was intended to show\u00a0off album tracks from Joel\u2019s early work. 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert<\/i> was in my eyes just a stopgap release, putting Joel product out there on the market for the sake of simply getting more to the people. 12 Gardens<\/i>, thanks to its stellar song selection, actually has a viable reason to exist. <\/p>\n

There are 32 tracks on 12 Gardens<\/i>, and it\u2019s hard to argue with any of the selections. The classics (\u201cScenes From An Italian Restaurant,\u201d \u201cMovin Out,\u201d \u201cPiano Man\u201d etc), the less famous (\u201cMiami 2017, I\u2019ve Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway, \u201cVienna,\u201d \u201cThe Entertainer\u201d) and the obscure (\u201cGreat Wall Of China,\u201d \u201cZanzibar,\u201d \u201cEverybody Loves You Now\u201d) are present and accounted for, presenting the listener with a wide variety of Joel\u2019s material. <\/p>\n

The Piano Man himself is also in fine form. Considering that Joel retired from the pop scene over a decade ago, he still retains an enthusiasm for the genre. The opening flurry of notes on \u201cAngry Young Man,\u201d prove he\u2019s still got the chops, and his vocals are much better than those from the New Year’s Eve concert. My biggest thrill was hearing him hit those high notes on \u201cAn Innocent Man.\u201d <\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned countless times in any live review that I\u2019ve written, one critical aspect to the success of the live album is energy, or the opposite of Chicago XXVI<\/i>. Energy is certainly not lacking here on 12 Gardens<\/i>. Joel was playing to a home crowd, and that affection is sent right back at him. With the exception of the rarer cuts, you can hear the crowd singing along to the songs; hell, they practically carry \u201cPiano Man\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s Always A Woman.\u201d <\/p>\n

Not everything quite works out for Mr. Joel, though. I said earlier it\u2019s hard to argue with the selections made for the track list. However, after seeing the songs that were left off this particular edition of the album, some tracks here should have been replaced with the others. \u201cThe Night Is Still Young\u201d wouldn\u2019t be missed if it were switched with, say, \u201cAll For Leyna\u201d or \u201cStiletto.\u201d However, this is still a minor gripe and a case of me being greedy. <\/p>\n

With 32 tracks, it\u2019s hard to pick a few favorite performances, but a few just stand out above the rest. \u201cMatter Of Trust\u201d rocks about ten times harder than it did on The Bridge<\/i>. The guitar riff to open things up isn\u2019t complex but is played so powerfully it grabs your attention immediately. The underrated \u201cThe Downeaster ‘Alexa’\u201d follows suit, capturing a wide, sweeping epic feel. And, of course, \u201cPiano Man\u201d took me right back to the night when I saw Joel and Elton John perform together. That night, \u201cPiano Man\u201d was the closing number, and to hear 20,000+ sing along was a magical moment. <\/p>\n

12 Gardens<\/i> Live<\/i> encapsulates a Billy Joel performance almost flawlessly; there is something here that anyone can enjoy. Whether you are a hardcore or casual fan, this is a must-listen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5760],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39963","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-joel","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52123,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39963\/revisions\/52123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39963"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39963"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}