The Concert For New York City - Audience Reaction

Audience Reaction

Much of the crowd itself was extremely emotional, with victims' family members and colleagues holding up portraits of the dead. Three speakers were booed: actress Susan Sarandon (for plugging New York mayoralty candidate Mark Green), actor Richard Gere (for speaking about non-violent tolerance), and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (before saying anything at all). Hillary Clinton did not overtly acknowledge the reaction, and spoke over the noise of the crowd by raising her voice. (In contrast, her husband former President Bill Clinton also appeared, but was very positively received by the crowd.) Richard Gere did acknowledge the crowd's jeering at his pacifist stance, stating, "That's apparently unpopular right now, but that's all right." The repeats and DVD version were digitally edited to remove the booing, and replaced it with dubbed cheering for Hillary Clinton.

Adam Sandler's performance of Operaman was considered by many to be one of the highlights of the night. He sang a humorous song about Rudy Giuliani's term as mayor ending, the New York Yankees who were about to start playing in the 2001 ALCS, the musical acts of the night so far (which included how Destiny's Child gave Adam Sandler a "boner"), and how Osama Bin Laden is a coward which included the line "Osama says he's tough, Osama says he's brave/Then tell me why Osama is shitting in a cave!"

Musically, the audience responded most fervently to The Who, roaring as they came on stage with a roiling "Who Are You", drowning out the band on the famous "It's only teenage wasteland" refrain of "Baba O'Riley," and reaching a peak of excitement with "Won't Get Fooled Again." The backdrop for the band consisted of an American flag alongside the British flag, showing solidarity. Vocalist Roger Daltrey's final words to the crowd of first responders and their families were: "We could never follow what you did." This performance would turn out to be bassist John Entwistle's final performance in America with The Who; he died of a heart attack only eight months later. Multi-instrumentalist Jon Carin, who had worked with the band during the group's 1996–1997 tours, played keyboards at this performance in place of longtime keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick.

Other highlights included David Bowie's opening tandem of Paul Simon's "America" and his own "Heroes", dedicated to his local ladder company, and New York's own Billy Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" where Joel says after singing it, "I wrote that song 25 years ago as a science fiction song. I never thought it would really happen. But unlike the end of that song... we ain't going anywhere!" Elton John's sentimental "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" was also well received, among other performances. After one performance by The Who, FDNY firefighter Mike Moran spoke to the audience, explaining that his brother was killed on 9/11, and that the victims would not be forgotten. He ended by saying "In the spirit of the Irish people, Osama Bin Laden, you can kiss my royal, Irish ass!" which was met with wild cheering and applause. Moran removed his cap and concluded with, "This is my face, bitch!" which was, again, met with cheers from the crowd.