TaxSlayer Center, Illinois, United States

5Irina 5:00 PM Nov 10, 2017

FANTASTIC
This modern, spacious, attractive and fashionable TaxSlayer Center in Moline hosts all types of social and cultural events, from sports to concerts. Its seating capacity is twelve thousand people. And that Friday evening of November 10 it was totally packed and completely sold out. Like a giant bowl it was full of happy people of all ages unified by their love for a rock mega star. Yes, we were among the lucky ones to see Elton John. The first time I was at the concert of Elton John was at Wembley Stadium in the UK, in June of 1998. The concert, called Face to Face, was supposed to feature two huge entertainers - Elton John and Billy Joel, but one couldn't perform because he was sick, so Elton John performed for over three hours by himself, with some fast change of costumes (on the stage!) , with no intermission at all, with some impossible tricks, like playing with his back to the piano (!!!). He simply couldn't let his fans down, I gathered. And Wembley accommodates about ninety thousand people. That concert was a total success, of course. About twenty years later, I was stunned to see again this legend, Sir Elton John giving all his best - his soul, his voice and his music to the grateful public. I actually had an impression that this time his performance was even stronger than when he was twenty years younger. That deep baritone, those hands ceaselessly flying over the keys at unimaginable tempo, that fascinating music that should last forever. Sixty seven years of playing piano. 'Genius ... just genius ', I whispered, probably to myself. Among all the famous songs and the relatively new creations I was quite mesmerized by 'Levon', both in music, vocals, solos (keys, drums, percussion, bass) - everything in this long, fiery and constantly theme-and-tempo-changing composition was strikingly magic and ... gripping? I wished it never ended. During those two and a half hours (no intermission again!) the audience burst in long, loud ovations all the time. The atmosphere was quite electric. 'Crocodile Rock' was performed together with the twelve thousand people. We did our best, too. At the end Elton John invited fans from the front rows in the orchestra seats closer to the stage, and signed autographs. He also spoke a bit about the way he writes his songs and also introduced his whole legendary band. He looked and talked just like a regular person, in an absolutely non-pretentious, friendly manner. Our group was seated in the Upper Bowl of Section 215, pretty high (row 7), but with a good side view of the stage, theater binoculars (and ear plugs for those high-volume, roaring decibels) helped a lot! A huge screen above the stage gave a magnified picture ... of the whole show. The Center organized this unique one-day event very well. Security was up to the task, but very polite and friendly. I am just so happy that I saw this fabulous concert, at this wonderful venue. Wish the greatest FANTASTIC all the very best!

4iowaloves2travel 5:00 PM Jun 7, 2022

Concerts and more
We went to see a Slipknot concert here. This is a smaller sized arena as compared to Des Moines or Omaha. They did have concessions of a beer for $8 and water for $4. They had vodka lemonades. They also had some other food and drinks available. Overall a good experience.