Watch a video of Sir Elton John's performance.A capacity crowd filled the Adams Center to its rafters, cheering and singing along as Sir Elton - seated just a few feet to the left of where Obama stood six days earlier - jammed through his catalog of hit tunes.
“You rock, Elton!” shouted a young teenager, hoisted - momentarily, until a security guard arrived - on his dad's shoulders.
Despite the fact that the concert was sold out, and seats were all pre-assigned, fans lined up outside the University of Montana's basketball arena more than an hour prior to the concert. By 7:30 p.m. - a half-hour before the scheduled start time - the bubbling mass of fans was even longer, snaking all the way to the Van Buren Street footbridge.
At the end of the line stood Sierrah Scofield, with her mother, Janeva.
“I'm the biggest fan of Elton John,” declared Sierrah - who, at 7 years old and about 4 feet tall, did not tower over nearby fans physically. “He's the coolest singer ever.”
It was Sierrah's first rock concert.
“It's really cool to see Elton,” she said. “I hope he plays ... what's it called?”
“Candle in the Wind,” said Janeva.
“Yeah, that one,” said Sierrah. “That's my favorite.”
(Sierrah got her wish.)
Over on the Van Buren footbridge, sisters Rebecca Gaines and Lydia Prink paused to show off their enormous pink and yellow sunglasses.
“We didn't get a chance to come see him last time when he performed,” said Gaines. “So when we heard he was coming back we said, ‘We're going this time, if we can get tickets.' ”
(Gaines and Prink got their wish.)
Up near the front of the line, Minnie Mateer stood forlornly with her boyfriend, Travis, holding two tickets aloft.
“I was too excited when they announced the concert,” she said. “Now I'm six months pregnant. I've been standing up all day at work, and I just don't want to stand for another three hours at the concert. It's a bummer, but oh well. We're just hoping to get face value for them.”
(No word on whether she got her wish.)
The Missoula concert took place just two days after John made headlines by holding a massive fundraising concert for Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, in New York City. Outside the Adams Center, Clinton supporters Dana Boruch and Missoula City Council member Stacy Rye stood at a small, fold-up table, passing out campaign stickers and signing up people for Clinton's mailing list.
“Hillary had a mosh pit at the Mansfield-Metcalf dinner - she's a rock star, too,” said Boruch, referring to Clinton's appearance at the annual Democratic Party gathering in Butte last Saturday night.
“Is this the right line to Section 212?” a passer-by asked Rye.
“People think we're some kind of officials,” Rye laughed after the man wandered off.
Confusion did seem to reign for awhile outside the concert, where multiple lines snaked toward the various doorways. But despite the fact that the concert began promptly at 8:06 p.m. - before the queues had fully dissipated - nobody seemed too worried.
Inside, concert-goers were treated to a dazzling show of lights and video screens that dwarfed the colorfully clothed musicians onstage - with the exception of John himself, whose larger-than-life personality and dazzling musicianship held the audience in thrall all night long.
In the second row, a white-haired man in a button-down shirt danced and sang along as John belted out “The Bitch is Back.” A couple of rows back, a man with a shaved head played air-drums along with the song, near a certain newspaper reporter who played air-piano virtually throughout the concert (see his review of the concert on page A1).
“Oh my God, he's playing it!” a woman in the sixth row squealed into her cell phone, which she promptly held high over her head for the entirety of John's performance of “Tiny Dancer.”
And so it went, song after familiar song: Teenagers danced with their parents, the rhythmless clapped to their own beat, and in the same building that resonated with a message of unity just a few days prior, everybody - child and grandma and yes, even a few of the dour security guards - sang along as the Rocket Man burned his fuse up there, alone.
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