Melbourne Fan Review (David)
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at 11:20AM This was my third time experiencing The Eagles in concert – once for each of their Australian visits in 1976, 1995 and 2004. How did this one compare? Well, as in the past, it was a supremely confident and professional performance. The sound was fantastic and the feeling of the band enjoying themselves was evident from go to whoa – more so than in the past.
I was particularly impressed by Glenn's vocals - spot on and nailed every tough bit, including the "I don't want to hear it, ahh-oooh" from NKIT. He received a huge response from singing Take It To the Limit, but it was and always will be measured against Randy Meisner’s delivery and while it was fine, nothing compared to Festival Hall 1976 where Randy stopped the show!
Likewise, Timothy B. does a fine rendition of LWKUA and receives huge applause - but the song is such a wimpy ballad and not written by any member of the band. He should be doing a Poco or solo song.
The only small negative of the night was Don's vocals. 95% of the time he was great, getting all the big notes. But in the lower end of his register he was obviously struggling - his voice sounded hoarse and gruff. Don't know if he's not well or what. But as I said he soared through all the high stuff.
Joe Walsh!!! He was the outright, hands-down star of the night. Sang with power and played like a demon! He’d just joined the band when I saw them in ’76 and then he was busy with 42 guitar changes for the night. Here he was having FUN!
There were some nice subtle re-arrangements of a few songs, adding piano and brass parts to some old favourites like Lyin' Eyes and PEF. The brass section was superb and with Al Garth doubling on fiddle, many of the songs sounded re-freshed.
Scott Crago on drums was excellent - Don started sans instrument front of stage for the first song, The Long Run, and then alternated between drums, guitar and playing a second smaller drum kit standing up just left of Crago.
Will Hollis and Michael Thompson on keys added the fills where necessary, MT in particular providing some lovely piano.
And then there was Steuart Smith! "Incomparable" was how GF described him as he introduced the band. His playing was sensational. While he had to follow most of Felder's lines to the letter he stamped his own imprint on them, clearly showing his country pedigree. Especially on ICTYW.
They rocked, they crooned, they laughed, they had fun … Eagles set the standard!
Reader Comments (5)
Yes - Don Felder was and is brilliant. Yes Steurt Smith is brilliant, but I think there is no doubt that SS is a little better - technically better that is. He did change some of the guitar parts - his solo in LWKUA was amazing. Don Felder RARELY changed any of the parts, which I found a little frustrating.
When I saw them for the 1st Syd show, Don Henley was also struggleng in the lower songs. In 'The Long Run' he got away with, but then came Wasted Time.....it was terrible, I wanted to shrink into my seat out of embarassment for the guy. I thought - how on earth is he gonna get through the night....well he did. When the intro was playing for Boys Of Summer - I thought oh no - he can't do this, but he did, perfectly. Somehow his higher register was intact.JW was brilliant, singing better than I have heard him do for years - playing some filthy guitar too.Glen....the years have taken their toll on his voice, but he sounded excellent.TBS - yes, they ought to give him something other than LWKUA, or let him sing Take It To The Limit - I'm still not convinced of the Glen version of this.All in all - it was brilliant and I would go again today given the chance, they proved why they're still around - cause they're so damn good, and so professional.Damien