Episode 043 - Eagles Concert Review

This week, I've got another concert review for you. I went to see the Eagles at the Sphere and it was just an amazing experience. While I'm not an Eagles fan, this show is one of the most memorable ones I've ever attended. And if there was ever an episode to watch here on YouTube, this one is it - it's full of video of the show, which in the Sphere takes concert visuals to another level. Maybe 10 levels! It's the Eagles at the Sphere, this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:50 Initial Thoughts on the Eagles
02:20 First Eagles Concert Experience
03:15 Introduction to The Sphere
05:31 Journey to The Sphere
07:02 Concert Experience at The Sphere
10:12 Concert Highlights and Visuals
13:44 Encore and Final Thoughts
22:26 Review Summary and Takeaways
25:58 Upcoming Shows and Final Remarks

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Transcript

Alex Gadd: 0:00

Welcome to The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see the Eagles at the Sphere in Las Vegas, where they played a 20 song set over two hours, and it was unlike any concert I've ever been to. The venue itself was so overwhelmingly cool and exciting that the show immediately catapulted into my top 10 favorite shows that I've ever seen. And I have so many thoughts to share with you about it. So please join me for my Eagles concert review coming up right now. I think it's important to start out by letting you know that I am not a huge Eagles fan. I really like a few of their songs. But I always found their music a little dull, and I never liked their vibe. I couldn't quite figure out why when I was a kid, but they put me off. Maybe it was their fascination with misogyny in their lyrics, or the fact that Glenn Frey and Don Henley, the band's founders and leaders, regularly came off as grumpy jerks in interviews. Or maybe it's just that their music was bland. But I was never a fan. Still, I knew all the words to their hit songs. And they had a lot of hit songs in the 1970s. Now they broke up following their 1980 tour for their last studio album, The Long Run, but their Greatest Hits albums, especially Volume One is one of the 10 best selling albums of all time, as is their signature album, Hotel California. So rock radio continued playing their hits throughout the 80s and 90s. Even after they reformed in 1994 and started releasing new music again, it was their 1970 songbook that stayed in rotation on the radio. When the band released their two part authorized History of the Eagles documentary in 2013, I was amazed because Henley and especially Glenn Frey allowed themselves to be portrayed as petty assholes while trying to justify that every band needs a leader, which, by the way, is generally true, but"leader" does not need to equal bully. And I found those two guys to be bullies. The documentary really cemented my dislike for the band. However, in 2023, right before I moved out of New Jersey, I had the chance to go see the Eagles at one of their final shows of their The Long Goodbye Tour in Newark, New Jersey, and because I was recommitting to seeing all the bands that I could before they stopped touring, which is what ultimately led me to starting this podcast, I went out and got those concert tickets and checked out the show. And sure as can be, it was as dull as I feared. Don Henley actually got on the mic in the middle of the show and gave the audience a scolding lecture about not standing up to dance because it might block the view of the people sitting behind you. What rock star says that at a Rock-N-Roll concert? More than half of the 21 songs set that night were their popular slow songs. You know the ones that everyone knows, but no one gets super excited about. After that show, I thought, okay, great. I've seen them. They're wrapping up their farewell tour. I can check that box and put it behind me. Just over a week after that Eagles show in Newark that fall of 2023, U2 kicked off the inaugural residency at The Sphere on the grounds of the Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The Sphere was built by the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Company, which was a spin off of the James Dolan owned Madison Square Garden Company. That company owns the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers. And MSG Entertainment is now a separate company that owns Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and the Beacon Theatre, which are some of the best music venues in New York, as well as the Chicago Theatre in Chicago. The Sphere is now owned and operated by Sphere Entertainment, another offshoot of the Madison Square Garden Company. Anyway, corporate ownership gymnastics aside, I wanted to go see the new venue and I wanted to go see U2 there, but I was busy at work and I was in the process of moving from New Jersey to Connecticut when they started that residency. And then I got laid off in the middle of their run. So I didn't go. Phish followed U2 with a four night run in spring of 2024 that sounds like it was really fun But again, with no job, I wasn't going. The Dead Company followed Phish and they don't really do it for me, but the shows last summer looked and sounded like they were a lot of fun. And at that point I was so anxious to see any show there because all the talk was about how amazing the experience was. In fact, I had multiple guests on this podcast tell me how amazing those shows were. So I made a promise to myself, the next rock band that played there, I was going, no matter what. Imagine my surprise when the next band that was announced for a residency at the Sphere was the Eagles. I thought,"that tour really is a long goodbye. I thought they had already wrapped it up?" But when my dear friend Ruby, who has connections to get really good tickets, reached out to ask if I was interested in going to see the Eagles at the Sphere with her and her husband, Mike, I immediately said yes, and we settled on the first date in January that they were playing and she got us the tickets. Now this was in August of last year and I was podcasting away, getting excited to finally go to The Sphere. Since then I've taken a new job and I started that new job right before the new year began with my company's annual sales kickoff meeting in Las Vegas, the three days before the Eagles show that I had already bought tickets for. So I flew out for my company's sales kickoff meetings, and when everyone else left Thursday afternoon to head back home, I stayed in Vegas and got ready for the show. Did a little gambling, went out to eat a nice dinner, walked around the Strip on Friday. I even stopped by the Eagles Sphere merch shop in the Venetian Shops, which is called 3rd Encore, and if you go to any of the remaining shows, you might want to check that out. I bought a poster and this t shirt, and I went back to my room at the Cosmopolitan to get ready for the show. We met up for dinner, and then we walked from the Venetian over to the Sphere. Now, the Sphere looks relatively close by from far away, but as with everything in Las Vegas, scale is misleading, and what seemed like just over there across the street was in fact a pretty long walk. It was 25 minutes from the Cosmopolitan to the restaurant in the Venetian where we ate dinner, and then another 15 minutes or so walk from the restaurant to the Sphere. And as we got closer and closer, the actual size became apparent. So, here's the Sphere from my hotel room window, which again, was about a 40 minute walk. And here's the sphere as we emerged from the Venetian out onto the street, still about 15 minutes away by foot. Then when we got to the venue, it was so massive that taking a picture really can't capture the scale. Here's The Sphere from about 200 feet away. Those are two ambulances parked in case of emergency. It's just so massive, all you see are a wall of lights. Anyway, we got inside, grabbed a drink in the lounge, and made our way to our seats, which were amazing. Right off center, midway up in the center of the room. As we entered the space itself. This is what we saw. To say it took my breath away is underselling it. The screen shows images from all over the LA area, including the marquees of all the rock clubs in the LA area, both current and former, with"Eagles Sold Out" on them, as well as other famous LA landmarks, as well as other famous LA landmarks from the Capitol Records building to the Griffith Observatory to the Hollywood sign. And when we looked up, the early evening sky that was being displayed was so vivid and all encompassing that it really kind of felt like we were outside. It was amazing. Just before 8:30 local time, a blimp appeared in the sky with a countdown clock on it, letting everyone know to get to their seats because the show was about to start. And then, right around 8:32, the lights dimmed and a storm was displayed on the entire humongous screen, complete with intense audio of said storm. The show was starting.

8:32

You know what? I'm out. Bye.

Alex Gadd: 9:24

I had already snuck a look at the setlist, which they do not change from night to night, and the storm continued as the band took the stage, with me knowing that they were going to go right into Hotel California. Which, as their signature song, had long been the song they performed for their encore. But at the Sphere, they opened with it, and the visuals were amazing. It took me a few songs to figure out how to record what we were seeing in the room because my phone's camera is simply incapable of capturing the entirety of what was there for us to take in. Which was also true of our eyes. You can't see everything on the screen and on the stage at one time, not even close, my head was on a swivel for most of the show. And again, I acknowledge that what I'm sharing with you here does not come close to capturing everything there was to see, so please bear with me. Now, after Hotel California, the band did what they did when I saw them in Newark just over a year ago, and they went into a run of slow songs that left me purely focused on the visuals, but this time it was six kind of mellow songs in a row, One of These Nights into Lyin' Eyes then Take It to the Limit, where Vince Gill took the lead vocals as he had done in Newark. Vince Gill joined the Eagles in 2017 after Glenn Frey passed away, and he joined the band along with Frey's son Deacon. But unlike Deacon Frey, Gil l had been an established star since the late 70s when he joined the Pure Prairie League and became their lead singer, and then went solo in 1982 and had a successful career as a country solo artist. Gill has an amazing voice to this day, and the dreamy sound of Take It to the Limit was matched by the images on the screen. Take a look.

11:00

Take it one more time, take it to the limit, take it You gotta take it to the limit one more time

Alex Gadd: 11:32

After Take It To The Limit, they went through three more of their more generic sounding songs, to me at least. Witchy Woman, Peaceful Easy Feeling, and Tequila Sunrise, by which time I was getting antsy for some Rock-N-Roll, despite all the beautiful imagery on the screen. And at that point, they delivered, breaking out my favorite Eagles song, Joe Walsh's In The City, from The Long Run album. Joe Walsh put his body through a lot of drug and alcohol abuse in the 70s, 80s, into the early 90s, before he finally got sober. And at this point, he's 77 years old. His voice is kinda shot, even if his guitar playing is still really good. I love his playing and the choices he makes when he solos. But the visuals for this song more than made up for any quirks in his delivery. The tenement buildings on the screen start off looking fairly normal and they show Joe on something resembling a billboard on top of one of those buildings. But then the buildings all shot up into the sky as the solo began. And Joe was shown soloing in the center of the sky. To see him, you had to either watch him on stage from far away or you had to look straight up. Then the camera work took us on a roller coaster ride down into the column of the tenement buildings. It was breathtaking and I was so in the moment that I didn't record that part. But if you go, be ready for this song in the set. I thought it was the best use of visuals all night. After In The City, it was two more ultra mellow songs, I Can't Tell You Why and New Kid In Town, before they broke out one of my other favorite songs, their cover of the Steve Young song Seven Bridges Road. I love the song because the band really shows off what great vocalists they are and how well they harmonize together. It's still amazing all these years later. However, I really love the song because it always reminds me of my great friend Dave who died in 2021 after battling a brain tumor for three years. He and I had bonded over music when we first met, and had planned to start a new cover band before his tumor affected his ability to play and sing. But while we were working out songs for our new band, he was dead set on us performing this song, so hearing the Eagles sing it was a bittersweet moment for me that I wouldn't have missed for the world. The only visuals were stars shown in the sky, as the song says, with a band shown singing over those stars. They still sounded great.

15:10

Down the Seven Bridges Road Now I am bound to find some lonesome child Now I am bound to find some lonesome child

Alex Gadd: 16:44

They followed Seven Bridges Road with the least popular song I believe they played all night and also one of their quirkiest, the song Those Shoes from The Long Run album. It may be the darkest song in their catalog, purely from a musical soundscape perspective, and it hinted at where they might have taken their music had they not broken up after that album and tour. I'm sorry they didn't get a chance to follow that path to see where it might have led. They wrapped up the main set with four of their bigger hits, starting with Joe Walsh again and Life's Been Good, then early hit Already Gone, Don Henley played his biggest solo song, The Boys of Summer, and they finished with Life in the Fast Lane. The Life in the Fast Lane video showed a super attractive couple, like the ones described in the song, driving a beautiful old red Thunderbird convertible into Nevada and then into Las Vegas as the sun sets, driving up and down on the strip at night.

17:36

One day he found me, he was good in bed to me. He felt the dust in me, the lights were turnin green. Life in the fast lane is gonna be delusional. Life in the fast lane. Action. Termination. Captivate. The dollar appeals. When the average is falling. They could have anything. And does it not show yet? Out every evening. The dollar appeals. It was like, he was too tired to make a deal.

Alex Gadd: 18:37

There were even a few shots of The Sphere, which was a fun, self referential moment. Then the encore started with the first song from their first album, which was also their first hit, Take It Easy, and they turned the entire sphere screen into what seemed to be an empty grain silo, as if we were all inside. This song featured Deacon Fry, and while he doesn't actually sound exactly like his dad, in the moment, everyone seemed to think he did. It didn't matter. I loved his laid back charm, his voice was great singing his dad's songs. Check it out. Then they went to Joe again for his solo hit, Rocky Mountain Way, which started off with the same silo images, until the extended talk box solo that has become synonymous with that song. At that point, the video switched to a series of incredible flyovers of the Rocky mountains. Take a look.

20:11

Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh,

Alex Gadd: 20:33

Then when they moved back to the regular guitar solo off the talk box, towards the end of the song, they showed more mountain views. They followed Rocky Mountain Way with Desperado, which is by far my favorite of their slow songs, a beautiful song. And the video wasn't really interesting, which was fine with me, because I was focused on the song itself and the amazing sound system playing it. Finally, they ended up with Vince Gill singing Heartache Tonight, accompanied by some trippy computer generated images of instruments and gambling related items hurtling through space.

21:18

Everybody wants to touch somebody, if it takes all night. Everybody wants to take a little chance, make it come out right. I'm feeling heartache tonight, heartache tonight, I know. I'm feeling heartache tonight, heartache tonight, I know.

Alex Gadd: 21:53

It kind of felt like they were ripping off ELO's visuals, but it was nice to see something different. I had to record only from the center of the screen to the right because there was a guy standing up, aggressively clapping and dancing in the row just in front of us off to my left, which was kind of cool because it was the only time anyone stood up the whole show, so I couldn't be too upset about it. And with that, the show was over an hour and 58 minutes after it had started, they took a bow and headed off the stage. So here are my takeaways. Number one, the Eagles are a dull band. They choose too many slow, dull songs to play live. That said, I need to give credit where credit's due. Everyone in the audience, including me, knew every word of every one of the 20 songs they played. Okay, maybe everyone didn't know every word to Those Shoes, but the other 19 everyone knew them and they sounded really good overall despite the lack of energy or excitement The sound was great. Their voices great They blended together great. But The Sphere should have inspired a special setlist, something different from their regular tour dates that included some different songs from their regular tour setlist And Don Henley started off the night by welcoming us to The Sphere before saying bluntly,"We're not going to jump around a lot up here." Now that was an understatement. The entire band was so reserved they appeared almost asleep on stage for most of the night. Second takeaway, despite the lack of enthusiasm overall coming from the stage, there were a few standouts. Joe Walsh is always good and funny and weird and the few times he spoke were super entertaining and charming. Whenever he spoke or sang, I was smiling. Deacon Frey sounded great filling in for his dad. Not exactly like him, but enough like him while still doing his own versions of the songs. He looks an awful lot like his dad too. And the band was debuting a new lead guitarist, Chris Holt, who was replacing their longtime touring guitarist, Steuart Smith, who had just retired in December. The new guy played great, looked totally comfortable up there standing next to Joe freaking Walsh and playing the majority of the solos flawlessly.

24:12

I'm going to go ahead and get started.

Alex Gadd: 24:37

Kudos to you, Chris Holt. And Vince Gill sounded amazing when he sang. Number three, aside from those few high points, they honestly could have played the Eagles greatest hits records through that sound system with those visuals, and it would have been about the same experience for me. In other words, the band itself added very little to the overall experience, just as Don Henley had predicted. That said, number four, the Sphere is simply an incredible venue in which to see a rock band. The sound is pristine, the visuals are so all encompassing that it made the Eagles show thrilling. I'm considering going back to take my daughter to see this show, I liked it so much. I know, I, I can't even believe I'm saying that. Number five, the only concern I have about the venue, which I didn't experience personally, is that I can only imagine that the floor seats might not be a great way to enjoy everything The Sphere has to offer as you're so low down and so close to the band and the screen that it seemed like it would be hard to take in most of the visuals. Go back and look at some of the videos and you'll see, there are people on the floor right in front of them. I don't know how they were able to look up that high to see everything on the screen. It would either be hard to do or would cause neck pain trying to compensate for your location. If any of you did sit down there, please leave us a comment letting us know what the experience was really like. I'd like to know, but I'm not going to pay to find out. That's for sure. Number six, upcoming acts at The Sphere include the Eagles through mid April. Then the Dead and Company come back from mid April to mid May. Then Kenny Chesney does a series of weekends from late May through June. He's the first country artist to play there. There are no announced shows yet that I'm aware of past June, and I wonder who will be the next band to show up there. I heard someone say Motley Crue. Let's find out. Can't wait to hear Number seven. Given the band and the ticket price, it was unsurprising that I was at least slightly below the average age of the people in the audience. And again, as I've said before on this show, I am not a young guy. They have to figure out a way to get younger people in there, or they're just going to keep booking bands that draw the people that can afford those tickets, meaning older people. And finally, I spent a week considering how I was going to review this show because of my general dislike for the Eagles, which I realized was due to the personalities of the band's founders. Only one founding member remains, that's Don Henley, and although he's a total curmudgeon, the band overall did what I paid them to do. They entertained me. Yes, they needed the incredible venue and the incredible visual and audio elements, but that's okay. It's all part of the show, and that's what I paid the ticket price for. And it's a good reminder to fans of any type of art. You should really try hard to separate the art from the artist if there's a conflict between your feelings for the two. The Eagles show at the Sphere was worth the money I spent on the tickets, which were not cheap, In the end, I have to give this show really high marks, and it will stand out as one of the best shows I've ever seen. And I really don't like the Eagles. Except maybe I don't dislike them as much as I thought I did after seeing this show. And so that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday. And if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode and tell your friends. Also a reminder, we release a playlist for every episode. So look for The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week. This week featuring all 20 songs from the set list of the show at The Sphere, plus the other Eagles songs that I really do like. So check that out. Additionally, we want to know what you think, so please leave us a comment. We'll try to respond to them all. We do love hearing from you. Remember, I'm sharing my opinion. I want you to also. So let's do it together. Respectfully. The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd. And until next time, remember that life is short. So get those concert tickets.