Mountain Winery - 9/21/11

[Henleyfan]

OMG!! This concert was incredible. Don look great and sounded great! Don was in a very talkative mood tonight. He told several stories and interacted with the crowd all night. Last year I went to see Don 4 times and each of those concerts were great, but this one far exceeded last years concerts. I have to say I have never seen Don in such a great mood. He was smiling and laughing throughout the concert. I am sure it helped that the entire crowd was into the concert and was going crazy with each song. We were all up and dancing very early in the concert and remained on our feet for most of the time.

I need to get to bed now as 4:00am will come fast, but I will get back online tomorrow and cover the entire concert, I promise. Although I am not sure I can do as good as those who reviewed Glen's concert in Niagara Falls, I will do my best.

For those who can't wait, below is the set list from tonight.

Dirty Laundry
Sunset Grill
Everybody's Famous (a song from a young song writer that impressed Don)
New York Minute
Everything is Different Now
Last Worthless Evening (Don even did a great impression of Jack Nicholson when telling the story of this song)
One of These Night's
It Don't Matter to the Sun
End of the Innocence
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Heart of the Matter
Guilty
You Don't have to Believe Me
Funky Stuff
Boys of Summer
All She Wants to is Dance
Life in the Fast Lane
Hotel California
Desperado

More later! Oh and I think I was able to get a few good pictures so I will post those soon. And for those who like the stubble, it is coming back!!! Have I said how gorgeous Don looked?

[EaglesKiwi]

Thank you for posting so soon

Sounds like you had a fantastic night. Yippee! Looking forward to hearing more when you've had a good sleep.

[TimothyBFan]

Great review so far HF.... but I want to know.... Did you like it? So glad you had such a wonderful time and look forward to the rest of your review and pictures!

[Koala]

Thank you for review! Glad you had a fantastic time! Love the Setlist

[sodascouts]

I'm so glad Don is giving it his all and giving us more than just the same old, same old. YOU GO DON! I can't wait to read the review!

[Prettymaid]

Note to Don: You are so adorable when you are in a great mood. Please stay in one during your solo tour (and after!).

[Henleyfan]

Ok, so now that my day has slowed down a little I thought I would sit down and write my review.

The evening started with an opening act. I have to admit I wasn't happy to hear that there was going to be someone opening for Don, but Shana Morrison (Van Morrison's daughter) had a good voice. She performed with one guitar player. She sang 6 songs from her albums and then she was done. She was good, but I was anxious for Don! After a 20 minute break the lights dimmed and I knew it was time...

Don came onstage to the opening of Dirty Laundry and the audience went wild. Don even made a comment about how wild the crowd was. His voice sounded great from the start. After Dirty Laundry he immediately went into Sunset Grill.

After Sunset Grill Don greeted the crowd. He mentioned that the venue had changed a lot since the last time he was there and that it was beautiful. He said that it made him feel like he should cite Shakespeare. Don then begain to introduce the next song by saying that it was from a young songwriter that he liked. He said that there aren't a lot of good songwriters out there anymore and so when he found this song he decided to cover it. He explained that the song was about Reality TV and how anyone can become famous by having naked pictures of themselves on the internet. Of course the crowd started cheering. The song was Everybody's Famous. I wasn't too impressed by the song. Don sang it great, but the band sounded a little out of tune and it was just hard to get into the song.

After this song he started New York Minute. The crowd went crazy and everyone got on their feet. Once Don saw that he just broke into a huge smile. After this song he went immediately into Everything is Different Now. I love this song. (do you see a common thread here ). Don then said that this song is about getting married. Don then mentioned that he had 4 childern (which is the first time I have heard him say "4" kids. I have read it places, the last being a recent interview, but I haven't heard it in a concert) He said that he had 4 beautiful childern that were all great, but he was tired all the time.

Next Don started introducing the next song, Last Worthless Evening. Don asked if he had told us the story of the song and everyone yelled no, so he said he would. He proceeded to tell the story of how he was at the Hollywood party in the 80's and across the room there was a beautiful blonde woman that every man in the room wanted to be with. Don said that she was sitting next to Jack Nicholson. Don decided he wanted to meet her and decided to go ask her for a cigarette. He explained that he was drinking alcohol, "probably tequila because it always makes him stupid". He said that with his veins flowing with alcohol he walked up to the woman, tapped her on the shoulder and asked to borrow a cigarette. The woman showed no interest and just passed him a cigarette over her shoulder without looking up. Don then said that Jack Nicholson said "Nice work Henley" (and Don did a great impression of Jack). Don walked back across the room, smoked the cigarette and then went home and wrote the song.

Don then sang One of These Nights. He did a great job and hit the high notes with no problems. Don introduced the next song as one that they had been doing for a few months (although he has actually been doing in for several years ). He said it was a song written by a couple of country guys, although he said it wasn't a country song, or a "hat song". Again the crowd went crazy. He then started It Don't Matter to the Sun. I know a lot of people have commented that they do not like this song for Don, but it is one of my favorite covers he does. I think it is so emotional and sexy in a way.

The next song Don introduced as one he wrote with a good friend of his, Bruce Hornsby. Of coursethat song was End of the Innocence. After that song he sang Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I think everyone in the place stood up and started to dance. There was a guy in the first row that really got into dancing and was jumping all around. It was such a sight that Don started giggling and pointed the guy out. I love when Don sings this song. I think he does it better than Tears for Fear.

Before the next song Don mentioned that he was going to sing one more song and then we were all going to dance. The crowd again started screaming. Don said that we were going to see white men dance. He said "it might not be pretty, but it will be entertaining. He then sang Heart of the Matter. He sang that with so much emotion that he pretty much got a full house standing ovation. I think there was always a group of people who would give him a standing ovation after most of the songs, but this was one got everyone up for the ovation.

Don introduced the next song as a song that describes the 70's "and maybe the 80's". He talked a little more about the song, but I can't remember all that was said. He then sang I'm Guilty and immediately went into You Don't Have to Believe Me and then Funky. All songs were great! There were very fast pace and Don was getting into them with dancing. In fact the entire band was getting into the songs. Mike Thompson even came out behind the piano and was shaking it a little with Stewart Smith. During one of the three songs Don walked up to one of the two backup singers and bumped with her for a little bit. At that time I think every woman in the front section that was able to see that melted and wished they were the backup singer. I know I was wishing that!

The next song was introduced by Don talking about how beautiful the weather was here. He said that summer was almost over but then said "that doesn't mean anything to you here, you always get great weather" He then talked about the tough times Texas was having this year with the fires, floods and "the govenor, but I won't go into that here". Don then sang Boys of Summer.

After that was All She Wants to do is Dance. If there was anyone who were not on their feet by now were once this song started. Before this song Don started a conversation with someone at the back of the stage, probably a helper. But he go so into the conversation that he wasn't able to get to the mic for the first few words of the song. The audience started laughing and Don just shrugged and smiled. Don then did Life in the Fast Lane. You could hear everyone in the audience singing along with him, it was great!

Don then left the stage for a short moment and came back for his encore. He came out and sang Hotel California and it was great as always. The entire audience was singing with him At the end he went to the back and started playing the bongo (don't know if that is the proper name for the drums he played).

Don then announced that he was told he only has time for one more song before curfew and the beginning of Desperado started. The crowd went crazy and Don stepped way from the mic and let everyone scream for a few minutes. He then was egging the crowd on to scream more (I love it when he does this...) Don then said "How about we all sing it together" and everyone sang with him. Sometime during the song Don whispered "You are rushing it" to the audience and just laughed and went on with the song.

At the end he was smiling and laughing and then said that we were a great audience and he had a great time with us. He then blew kisses and thanked us for the last 40 years! The crowd went crazy and were screaming for more when he went back stage. The venue was a little mean in that they left the lights off leading us to thing he might come back out, but he didn't and the lights soon came on.

As I mentioned before this was the best Don Henley concert I have been to. I love the brooding Don, but this one was awesome! I love his smile and laughter and he displayed it many times during the night. Several times he would walk to the edge of the stage and say Hi to the people in the first few rows. Each time I died a little because I was in the 8th row!

As we walked out of the venue all I could think about was how I get to do this all over again on October 1st, and how I get to be in the 3rd row then!

I did take pictures and some turned out ok so I will go post them in the Photo thread.

Hope you enjoy the review! And I hope I didn't forget to much... it all went by so fast.

[Henley Honey]

Fabulous review!! I'm glad it exceeded your expectations. I love when that happens. AND, you get to do it all again very soon -- and closer!
Now that you know what you're in for, you'll be jumping out of your skin with anticipation. Enjoy!

[sodascouts]

FABULOUS review! Happy Don = Happy Audience Members! Oh my gosh, this makes me so much more excited about my upcoming show! Hurry up, Tulsa!

[Koala]

FANTASTIC Review! Thanks!