In the world of music there are those for whom the joy of creation is its own reward, and there are those who are born to present their work live, desirous of the shared adulation of the gathered mass. You probably didn’t need to be at the Key Arena on Saturday night to know that Elton John falls in the latter category. “Playing for you is the greatest thing I could ever do,” he declared at one point. Across two and a half hours, he gave no indication whatsoever that this sentiment was false.

Looking resplendent in a sparkling blue coat studded with rhinestones spelling out his initials, John and his band took the stage promptly at 8:30 p.m. and wasted little time digging into the extended opening “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” from his magnum opus Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The crowd stayed on its feet throughout the entire extended jam before finally bursting into a euphoric cheer when the pianist plunked out the first chords to “Bennie and the Jets.” The moment drew the first of many wide smiles across John’s face and it remained there as he admired the crowd bellowing the song’s iconic refrain back at him over and over.

The start of the set was dominated by the Englishmen’s earlier material, including numbers like “Tiny Dancer,” “Candle in the Wind,” and “Grey Seal.” The stage design, while admittedly beautiful, wasn’t as over-the-top as you’d expect for a performer who nearly invented the concept of the live spectacle. A large mock chandelier dangled overhead, lifting, lowering, and changing color with each song, and a large digital display was set low into the stage to give those in the higher seats a better vantage point.

One of the more notable aspects of the night, especially amidst a crowd that while generationally diverse was overrun with 50 and 60 year olds, was the exchange of energy between the performers and audience. The cheerful energy in the room was palpable and, unlike many legacy acts—and their faithful fans—who have rolled into the Key in years past, all seemed very in the moment, down to cheer, imbibe, and dance with the best of them. For his part, John seemed to feed off the energy and leapt to his feet to accept the boisterous applause that followed nearly every number.

Now 67, the singer’s voice has aged right along with the showman. It’s no secret that he has lost a great deal of the top end falsetto that lifted so many of his earlier tunes into the stratosphere. Rather than play it straight, however, he and his dexterous band re-worked old favorites into new arrangements, giving the front man room to duck low where previously he might have shot high. That said, he has absolutely retained the iconic richness so present on tracks like “Levon” and “Your Song” and they still sounded as great as they were when they were first laid down forty years ago.

There were a few lulls about mid-way when John performed selections from his most recent work, Diving Board, and his 2010 collaboration with Leon Russell, The Union, but he consistently managed to draw the audience back to its feet with a well-timed rendition of, say, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” or “The Bitch is Back.”

At nearly 11 p.m., John sat alone for the final encore, bathed in soft white light while crooning the theme to the Lion King, “Circle of Life,” before bidding us all one last endearing adieu. In the end, Saturday night was decidedly not all right for fighting, quite the opposite in fact. It was a night for everyone to feel the love.

Check out more scenes of the fun via Morgen Schuler’s photo slideshow

here.