Watching the Eagles fly in HK - INQ7.net
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Watching the Eagles fly in HK
Updated 09:58pm (Mla time) Nov 07, 2004
By Danee Samonte
Inquirer News Service
GUITAR overload.
In my entire life, I had never seen so many guitars on stage. There were at least five being played at any given time, and these were changed after every song. This Eagles concert in Hong Kong might as well have been subtitled, "Guitar Wars."
My introduction to the music of the Eagles happened in the summer of 1972, when I was a young DJ learning the craft in San Francisco. Back then, the group had Randy Meisner in the lineup. They had shot up the charts for the first time with "Take it Easy." Their country-flavored vocal harmonies, soothing to the ears, made them heir apparent to the constantly feuding Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The Eagles' recording career lasted about 10 years, almost as long as that of the Beatles. They produced seven studio albums, one live and two greatest hits compilations. "Greatest Hits 1971 to 1975" has been certified by the Record Industry Association of America as the best-selling album of all time in the United States, with 27 million units sold. Worldwide, they have sold more than 120 million albums. They have also won four Grammy awards and landed No. 1 hits five times.
Sold-out shows
Since they started performing live in the '70s, they've constantly sold out their concerts, too. Today, 30 years later, they're doing much better still. All Austral-Asian cities in this tour were sold out well ahead in advance at ridiculously high rates.
The Hong Kong Coliseum was filled up wall to wall, top to bottom. Enthusiastic fans like us-there were nine in our group composed of Joey and Eileen de Leon, director Bert and Brenda de Leon, Kitchie Benedicto and hubby Robert Paulino, Long Tall Howard, midnight radio "queen" Marie Guttierrez and this writer-had traveled over a thousand kilometers to watch the show.
"Farewell 1 Tour," the concert series is called. It's a good guess that the number "1" has been inserted just in case they change their minds in the future and decide to tour again. Then they could call it Farewell 2, 3, and so forth. The tour kicked off in Bangkok on Oct. 15. A friend of mine who watched that one reported that it was "totally sold out." Indeed, were it not for their prohibitive (six figures, in dollars, of course) talent fee, it would be great to bring them to the Philippines for even one night.
All roads to the Hong Kong Coliseum were at a near standstill three hours prior to the Oct. 20 performance. We entered a few minutes late, wielding HK$1,500 tickets that sat us high up in the hall.
We missed "The Best of My Love." Thank heavens for the giant video screens, without which we would have needed high-powered binoculars to see what was going on.
Four turned up
Onstage were the four Eagles who had agreed to tour-Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy Schmit (minus Don Felder and Randy Meisner). They were backed by a dozen musicians, including a violinist and three saxophone players.
Henley was the serious one. He alternated between drums and guitar while singing. Frey was the joker who played a range of guitars, sang with verve and even danced gracefully while at the keyboard. He joked most of the time about his ex-wife, and seemed to enjoy the gig more than the rest.
Schmit, with his long, tangled locks, concentrated on his bass playing chore and sang the lead in some songs, like "I Can't Tell You Why." Joe Walsh, one of my rock heroes from his early days with The James Gang, provided comic relief and played the tastiest guitar licks.
Collectively, the guys sounded almost flawless, their harmonies just short of heavenly. I closed my eyes intermittently and felt like I was listening to a CD.
The concert, almost three hours long, was divided into two segments. First came the Greatest Hits part, which consisted of songs like "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "One of These Nights," "Lyin' Eyes," etc. The second part, after a 15-minute break, started with the quartet seated a la Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with acoustic guitars (except Timothy who played electric bass). They opened the set with "Tequila Sunrise," followed by their new song, "Hole in the World" which the audience applauded with gusto. "Take It to the Limit" made the crowd sing along.
Three encores
And then it was time to rock to "non-Eagles" hits, songs recorded individually by the members. Frey did an up tempo version of "You Belong to the City," followed by Walsh with "Walk Away." Schmit and Henley did solos, too. Henley sang "Dirty Laundry," which sent the crowd clapping and stomping their feet.
Pandemonium broke when the quartet erupted into "Heartache Tonight," their last No. 1 hit prior to the first breakup in the early '80s. They reunited briefly in 1994 for the "Hell Freezes Over" album and tour.
The whole coliseum seemed to vibrate by the time they ended the set with "Life in the Fast Lane."
And then ... lights out!
There was thundering clamor for an encore, and the guys obliged with "Hotel California." The audience sang as one. Lights went off again, but the crowd just got louder. The group returned with two more songs and left. The third encore took a while. This time, they performed "Take It Easy" and finally-finally-"Desperado." They bowed after the song and headed straight for their limos.
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for the front row seats Wayne!