POP MUSIC REVIEW : Billy Joel Psychs Up and Connects With the Fans : Despite an uneven performance, the Sports Arena concert was a crowd-pleaser. The singer, who comes to Anaheim on Saturday, played the self-deprecating egotist to the hilt.

LOS ANGELES — Billy Joel has such a strong rapport with his audience that he effectively played mind-reader during his show on Monday at the Sports Arena, addressing virtually anything fans might likely have been thinking. At times it seemed almost as much a mass telepathic interview as a concert:

* During his powerhouse ballad “An Innocent Man,” Joel let his female backup singer take over some of the key lines. Gee, Billy, can’t quite reach that upper range anymore?

“About 10 years ago I recorded that little sucker,” he said when the song was over. “I actually could hit the high notes back then.”

* There was a notebook on top of Joel’s piano. Hmmm, can’t remember how “Piano Man” goes anymore, Billy?

“I could have a TelePrompTer up here and try to B.S. you,” he noted. “I just feel good that (the notebook) is here, because sometimes I forget (expletive). I probably don’t need it--it’s like safe sex.”

In a way, his rap was a kind of risk-reducing intercourse, as Joel played self-deprecating egotist to the hilt.

He punctuated his well-paced two-hour show with occasional Carnac routines on everything from his piano’s revolving platform (“I know what you (in the back) are thinking: ‘So his piano spins around. Whoop-de-do. We ain’t gettin’ any closer to that fuzzy little head.’ ”) to predicting how his take on aging might be received (“The 40s are all right. ‘Yeah, easy for him to say! He’s a rich rock star! He married Christie Brinkley!’ ”).

The song choices point out just how unevenly Joel--who plays the Anaheim Arena on Saturday--has applied his talent over the years, up to the overreaching pretensions that flaw his latest hit album, “River of Dreams” (which provided only four of the numbers in his 19-song set).

But the way he connected with his fans here--going out of his way to deflate any hints of star iconography, yet always remaining the cockiest sort of likable son of a gun--made it clear why his career is on an upswing again.

The show encompassed the best song Joel has written (“An Innocent Man”) and the worst (“We Didn’t Start the Fire”), providing a demonstration of why the craftsman is at his least graceful when he’s shooting to be the poor man’s Don Henley, and at his most charming when he’s content to be the rich man’s Neil Diamond.

In tone, he jumped around, from the serious “Goodnight Saigon” to the mike-twirling shenanigans of “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.”

But to the fans, there’s no inconsistency in a fellow who plays the piano with his butt in one Elton-esque breath and croons ever so earnestly about the dangers of cultural imperialism in the next; he’s Billy the rugged individualist.

You don’t need to be a mind-reader to know that Joel’s broad, all-purpose style will charm crowds well after he’s training bifocals on that piano-top notebook.

* Billy Joel sings Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Anaheim Arena, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. $28.50. (714) 704-2500.