Here it was, at long last, following cancellations, an abundance of rumors concerning those cancellations and a lengthy “return your ticket if you can’t go on the rescheduled night” grace period. Billy and Elton. Or Elton and Billy, depending whom you ask.

The hugely profitable “Face 2 Face” revue came to HSBC Arena on Tuesday, and the rescheduled date didn’t seem to have had a noticeable impact on ticket sales. The arena looked mostly full, and the reception granted two of 1970s pop’s most revered songwriters and performers was nothing less than glowing.

But was it worth the $150-plus ticket price for the best seats?Hmmm. Well, parts of it certainly seemed to be. Others—not so much.

Gallery: Photos from the show

The evening kicked off with a pair of mirror-image grand pianos rising from beneath the stage, as a massively overblown fanfare echoed throughout the arena. Joel emerged stage left, John opposite.

Manning the 88s, the pair launched into a love-fest that found them sharing in each other’s artistry. John’s “Your Song” came first, with Joel tackling verses in a playful spar with John and lending an interesting slant to the tune’s melodic contour. Elton sounds more guttural and less elastic than Joel as a singer; he tended to spit out phrases in a more staccato manner, forgoing the more languid, elongated melodies that made his songs great way back when. Joel didn’t have this problem, with his own or John’s tunes. He sang powerfully and nimbly.

The dueling pianos proceeded through Joel’s “Just the Way You Are,” with Fender Rhodes electric piano tones replacing the piano; John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” in its duet form would eventually prove to be the man’s finest moment on the HSBC Arena stage. Joel’s “My Life” revealed itself to be what it has always been — a punk’s insistence on being left the hell alone to decide the course of his own life. It kicked.

John then took over, performing a 60-minute-plus set with his band. The opening tune — “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” — told the assembled all they would need to know about the difference between John and Joel. If Elton is Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera” — and we must admit, he pretty much is — then Joel is Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” Which side of that dichotomy you come down on dictated how you would interpret Tuesday’s concert.

John plowed through his solo set with enthusiasm, backed by an agile band that included long-serving members Davey Johnstone on guitar and Nigel Olsson on drums. There can be no questioning the ensemble’s abilities, nor the enduring power of the catalog John and lyricist Bernie Taupin are responsible for. Somehow, though, the whole John set came across as a Vegas act. “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” sounded tepid, mired in some seriously horrible synth sounds that drowned out John’s piano; “Levon” was nice but sounded a bit top-heavy, as if it might collapse beneath the weight of its own self-importance at any moment; the trio of songs from John’s excellent “Madman Across the Water” album were the strongest of his solo set and yet still seemed to lack some of their original fire. Time passes, of course, and a performer’s relationship with his material can and should change. John’s take on his stuff has indeed changed, but it’s not clear if that change is for the better. At times on Tuesday, he seemed far closer to Wayne Newton than he did to one of his old sparring partners and contemporaries, David Bowie. Interpret that how you will.

The fans didn’t seem bothered by this. John’s solo set was greeted ecstatically. It certainly had its moments — though you’d be hard pressed to convince me that “I’m Still Standing” was one of them.

Joel followed the conclusion of John’s set with barely an interruption, launching into the rapid-fire arpeggio pattern that announces “Angry Young Man.” Surrounded by a band that included drummer Chuck Burgi and keyboardist David Rosenthal — both veterans of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, it should be noted, for those who might care about this as much as I do — as well as John Mellencamp/Bruce Springsteen alumnus Crystal Taliferro, Joel seemed relaxed and “into it.” He joked freely with the crowd, took a longer time ambling through his set than John did and certainly delivered a series of songs colored by more harmonic color, subtlety and sophistication than did his cohort.

“Movin’ Out” reprised Joel’s “don’t try to make me bow to your world view” theme and was delivered with oomph. “Allentown” was probably the sole song performed on Tuesday that might have a deep and personalized relevance for folks in Buffalo who had shelled out big bucks to see the show; “Zanzibar” was by a long shot the most adventurous music performed all evening and was punctuated by the sweet soloing of trumpeter Karl Fischer, who blew nice lines over the song’s swing sections.

Where you come down on the Joel/John thing depends on what you dig. “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road” aside, John doesn’t have much Lennon or McCartney in him. His music is a mere two-step away from the “show tune” genre, which is not really a bad thing. Joel, however, has plenty of both the primary Beatles songwriters in him.

’Nuff said.

Concert Review

Billy Joel and Elton John

Tuesday evening in HSBC Arena.