Mike DelGuidice brings a Veterans Day weekend home to The Paramount

The Long Island singer who went from Billy Joel tribute act to Billy Joel's band plays the first of two nights in Huntington next Friday.

Somewhere in the crowd at The Paramount next Friday there'll be people who saw Mike DelGuidice in a Long Island piano bar back when he was just the guy who could really do Billy Joel. They'll be there with people who know him as the man standing next to Joel onstage.

Mike DelGuidice plays The Paramount in Huntington on Friday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. It's the first of two nights billed as Mike DelGuidice – A Concert Weekend for Veterans, with a second show on Saturday, Nov. 14. Tickets are through Ticketmaster.

DelGuidice's story is about as Long Island as a music career can be. As Wikipedia and an NBC New York profile tell it, he grew up in Miller Place on the North Shore. He wore out a copy of Joel's *Live from Long Island* concert video and spent hours in the music room at Miller Place High School working through Joel, Elton John and Paul McCartney songs. He studied music theory and composition at SUNY Purchase, graduated in 1993, and then did what local players do: Long Island piano bars and saloons, night after night.

The tribute work came out of that. His band Big Shot sold out its first show, at the Village Club in Port Jefferson, and grew from a regional draw into a national one. After about 15 years as a Billy Joel cover artist, he got the call most tribute singers only imagine. In 2013 Joel asked to talk with him, and DelGuidice joined Joel's band as rhythm guitarist and vocalist.

He spent about 15 years playing Billy Joel's songs before Billy Joel asked him to play them alongside him.

He didn't leave home to do it. More recently he opened Live On The Porch, a Long Island venue focused on original music, an unusual move for someone best known for other people's songs. Our records show how local his touring is: 69 shows in this market, more than anywhere else he plays.

The Paramount is a familiar stage for him. He played the venue's Tribute Series in April 2024, and this fall's Veterans Day weekend gives him a bigger frame, two nights in a room our data puts at about 1,500 capacity.

What you'll hear is exactly what you'd expect from the guy: big, faithful piano-man songs sung by someone who grew up on them, plays them for a living, and has played them next to the man who wrote them. Friday is the easier night if you want to catch the start of the run.

Buy early, get to Huntington with time to park, and bring the friend who still has the *Live from Long Island* tape. This one's for them too.

Sources: Mike DelGuidice at The Paramount (JamBase) (jambase.com); The Paramount: shows (paramountny.com); Ticketmaster: Mike DelGuidice tickets (ticketmaster.com); Ticketmaster: Mike DelGuidice, A Concert Weekend, Huntington, Nov 13, 2026 (ticketmaster.com); The Paramount Tribute Series presents Mike DelGuidice (April 19, 2024) (paramountny.com); Wikipedia: Mike DelGuidice (en.wikipedia.org); NBC New York: How Mike DelGuidice went from tribute band singer to Billy Joel's band to NY music hall owner (nbcnewyork.com); Mike DelGuidice official site (mikedelguidice.com)