Fans of Billy Joel will have an opportunity to see the next best thing when Billy Nation closes Poway OnStage’s 35th season.
The 7:30 p.m. concert on Saturday, May 31 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts will feature many of Joel’s hits, including well-known favorites “Piano Man,” “My Life” and “Movin’ Out,” said Adam Shapiro, the band’s leader and pianist who represents Joel on stage.
“We’ll do all the classic big hits that everybody knows,” Shapiro said.
The tribute band formed in 2020, meeting for the first time just four days before everything shut down due to the pandemic that March. So its early days consisted of the collaborating from their homes and making videos that could be seen on the band’s YouTube channel.
Its first in-person concert was in July 2021. Since then, Billy Nation has performed at numerous venues throughout Southern California, including Humphreys, Belly Up and Bernardo Winery in San Diego County. It also performed throughout Orange County and in the San Fernando Valley.
The first time the band ventured outside of California was in 2023 and since then, Billy Nation has taken its act throughout the United States and Canada.
“Over the last 3 ½ years the band has definitely taken off and … we are really excited to go places where we’ve never been,” Shapiro said. “Exposing those (in other places) to this music … is really fun.”
Shapiro said some of the “amazing venues” Billy Nation has taken its concerts include the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, which had a sold-out crowd, though Belly-Up in Solana Beach where the band now regularly plays two or three times a year is especially meaningful due to its “legendary music venue” status, he said.
“It is the best place to hear live band music from an audience perspective,” Shapiro said, adding Belly Up still holds a “mystique” for him to this day.
Shapiro said he and his bandmates are looking forward to bringing their show to the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, a venue Billy Nation has not played before. However, it will be a coming home for saxophonist Ross Rizzo Jr., a Poway High graduate whom Shapiro said has not returned to the PA stage since his days in the high school music program.
“I’ve always wanted to play the Poway Center as it is a great opportunity and we will close out its season,” Shapiro said. He added that he and Rizzo had the opportunity to play a sneak peek of their Billy Nation show when Poway OnStage held a party to announce its 2024-25 season last summer. It was his first time to go inside and Shapiro said he liked what he saw.
Shapiro said he is especially excited to perform on the PA’s “beautiful Yamaha concert grand piano” because it has “absolutely gorgeous sound” and he usually plays a digital keyboard in a piano shell.
“I am looking forward to playing on that one,” he said. “It will be my pride and joy.”
While most audience will not likely notice a difference, Shapiro said he will be able to tell.
“It sounds better, especially that caliber in that beautiful venue,” he said. “The concert-level sound will be fuller and more dynamic acoustically, with mics placed around it.”
The Encinitas resident said he has been playing piano professionally for over three decades. He began his piano journey as a 10-year-old, inspired by his late father, a jazz pianist and music professor who, like Joel, was from New York.
While performing, he often included some Billy Joel songs and people told him he sounded a lot like the famous musician. So he started Billy Nation because he wanted to create for audiences an “authentic experience, especially of Billy during his early concerts” during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The band’s goal is to “really engage the audience and have fun with it” while also creating some surprises to keep the concerts interesting, he said.
“My guys like to play practical jokes on me mid-set,” he said, adding the band also like to unexpectedly show up in the audience while playing.
ing Shapiro and Rizzo will be bassist Miles Clowminzer, drummer Jules Stewart, guitarist Joe Bigham and trumpeter Anilh Rameshwar, who also plays keyboards.
“We are 100% live, there are no backing tracks and everybody sings,” Shapiro said. “There is nothing pre-recorded.”
Over the years, Shapiro said the band has evolved with its musical content, sound and stage dynamic.
“It is now the complete experience, what it is like at a Billy Joel show,” Shapiro said.
Initially, the focused on just getting the music accurate, but over the years have made their show much more engaging and immersive, he said.
“We’ve expanded our repertoire of songs, so that increased the numbers we can draw from,” he said, adding they never do the same show twice, which keeps their performances fresh and new.
“We bring the audience into the show as much as possible,” he said.
Shapiro estimated that about 65% of each show is Joel’s standards like “Uptown Girl” and “New York State of Mind,” but the rest features a variety from his vast songbook.
“We try to do numbers … significant to that show,” he said. For example, with the Poway concert being close to Memorial Day, they will likely add in “Goodnight Saigon,” which Joel wrote to honor those who served and lost their lives in Vietnam.
The concert will feature two sets of about 50 minutes each, plus a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets are $39-$59 for adults; $35-$52 for seniors (65-plus), active military and students (ages 13-21); and $24-$34 for youths (12 and under). Buy at powayonstage.org, call 858-748-0505 or go to the PA box office at 15498 Espola Road in Poway.
