By 2000, Elton John had been a superstar for three decades and showed no signs of slowing down. The show at Syracuse’s War Memorial at OnCenter came during a stretch where Elton was at peak workload — fresh off an Academy Award for The Lion King, his Aida collaboration headed for Broadway, and still playing 100+ dates a year. An Elton John concert in 2000 was a career-spanning event: “Crocodile Rock,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” — songs so embedded in popular music that hearing them live felt less like a concert and more like a shared cultural experience. Syracuse got three decades of hits delivered by one of the greatest performers alive, in a venue intimate enough to see the man behind the piano.
Your Guide to Live Music in Upstate New York
