On February 11th, 1972, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum opened its doors to host a basketball game between the New York Nets and Pittsburgh Condors. While the Nets moved to New Jersey and have now returned to Brooklyn, and the Condors never survived past the 1972 season, the Coliseum stood proudly in Uniondale, NY for over 40 years.
With a capacity of 18,100 (for concerts), one can only imagine the rock and roll history within the venue’s walls. Pink Floyd brought their The Wall tour to Nassau. Elvis Presley performed there! Both the Grateful Dead and Phish played the venue on numerous occasions, as did Queen, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Paul McCartney and, of course, local legend Billy Joel.
Joel had the privilege of performing the venue’s final concert. With a guest appearance from Paul Simon on a handful of songs, Billy Joel played refrains from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and dozens of songs from his expansive catalog. Playing over three hours, it was a fitting farewell to a beloved arena.
The venue will be undergoing extensive renovations, to the tune of $130 million, and is slated to reopen in December 2016. With that much work being done, this was the final performance at the Nassau Coliseum we all know and love. Check out the historic setlist, in full, below: