Tuesday night's alright (for Elton John)

He opened the show with a haunting instrumental introduction to ‘Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,’ leading a lean outfit of five musicians - a keyboardist, drummer, bassist, guitarist and percussionist, who doubled as backing vocalists.

Through the evening, the 68-year-old cycled through a series of hits that read like an audio résumé of his five-decade music career: ‘Bennie and the Jets,’ ‘Candle in the Wind,’ ‘Levon,’ ‘Tiny Dancer,‘ 'Daniel,’ ‘Philadelphia Freedom,’ ‘Rocket Man,’ ‘Hey Ahab,’ ‘I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues,’ ‘Burn Down the Mission,’ ‘Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me,’ ‘Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,’ and more.

The end of the third number saw Elton utter his first words of the night. “Good evening, Singapore,” he said, to rousing applause from the nearly 5,000-strong audience. “We're proud to be here playing in this beautiful hall. I've got a stinking cold, but I'll get through it,” he added, before launching into his 1973 hit ‘All the Girls Love Alice.’

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Elton churned out energetic tunes one after another, and his fingers flitted over the ivories with focused ferocity. The singer stood up from his seat intermittently to take a bow, wave to the crowd, sip a drink and possibly stretch his legs.

“I've written hundreds and hundreds of songs with Bernie Taupin (his long-time lyricist and songwriting partner),” he said when introducing his song ‘Believe.’ “Its lyrics are about hope and love and peace, and in the world we're living in we could do with all three of those.”

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Some vocal strain snuck in midway through the show: ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ was seemingly performed in a lower key, while backing vocals on ‘Rocket Man’ camouflaged the absence of high notes from Elton. But royalty may always be excused.

It was a slight pity the concert venue wasn’t an open-air Glastonbury-style stage, though. One could tell the audience were itching to get up and groove - in fact, a handful did, but they gave up because it probably got awkward for them.

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But when the telltale guitar riff of ‘The B*tch Is Back’ rang out, the crowd tossed away its Asian paiseh-ness and got on its feet to dance. Elton himself stood up multiple times during the song, once even sitting atop his piano like a sassy diva. (The number came as a surprise too, considering it was banned from several radio stations soon after its 1974 release due to its uncouth lyrics.)

The crowd inched towards the stage and formed a polite mosh pit for ‘Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ’n’ Roll),’ then lost all inhibition - likely with help from alcoholic beverages - and bopped along to ‘Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).’

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Elton and his band exited the stage, but resounding applause forced them to return. Elton picked up a child from in front of the stage and posed for photos with him, and then enthusiastic fans took off their shirts for him to autograph.

One psyched spectator in the crowd started singing “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba,” the opening line from ‘Circle of Life,’ in the hopes of getting Elton to perform a track from The Lion King soundtrack as the encore number. But ‘Crocodile Rock’ ended the night, with the audience lending their vocals to the catchy “la la la la la” chorus lines.

“Thank you,” Elton said simply. “I'm sorry about my cold, but we got through it and we had fun so thank you.”

A man of few words makes great music.

Elton John All The Hits Tour Singapore is on again tonight, December 2, 8pm at The Star Theatre. Tickets at $488, $358, $248, $188, $148 available from SISTIC or its booking hotline (6348 5555)

Click on for more photos from Elton John's concert!