Atlanta, GA 5-14-08

[glenneaglesfan]

There is a nice review of the first night here.

http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-...hitheatre.html

[DonFan]

Chris, I was with a different crowd last night and never got away to make any phone calls. I hope you both enjoyed the show--I thought it was great as always!

[cmooreNC]

Finally have a few moments to get back here and post, so here goes....

I know most everyone knows the setlist already (and if you, dear reader, don't, and don't WANT to know it, 'cause you're catching a future show... then stop reading, you silly person, you!), but I like to post it because that's how I tend to keep my brief notes during a show and it helps me remember moments that were "highlights" for me, so....

8:15 on stage

1) HOW LONG

2) TOO BUSY BEING FABULOUS
(the "While we have your attention..." line was dropped tonight, although Glenn did say something about "We're going to do two more songs now from our new album, "Long Road Out of Eden", AVAILABLE AT WALMART! ---- How long have we waited to hear those words, huh? NO! Not "Available at Walmart"! The "from our new album" part! I think that hell truly HAS frozen over....)

3) I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYMORE

4) GUILTY OF THE CRIME

5) HOTEL CALIFORNIA (the trumpet intro.... OH.....MY.......)

6) PEACEFUL EASY FEELING

7) I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY (how come mothers can get away with "Because..." and us guys just can't?)

8 ) WITCHY WOMAN (just too cool.... loved the screen graphics.... and I wondered for years how Don could hit those high notes in his 20's.... but now???!!! --- does someone tighten his jockstrap somehow at the appropriate moments, or what? Just kidding. What a frickin' voice!)

9) Glenn, once again.... "Here's another song in the key of 'G' for all you guitar players out there. It's just one of my favorite keys! This one goes out to my first wife.... plaintiff...." --- LYIN' EYES

10) BOYS OF SUMMER (perfect video... the ultimate summer song.... and one of my alltime favorite Henley lyrics, among many, --- "Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said 'Don't look back, you can never look back.' " Lyrical imagery incarnate. And a message that far too many in the audience, at least around us, seemed to have totally missed! I said to my wife after the show, "You know, I think there are quite a few people out there who will never grow up, no matter how old they get..." Drunk teenagers look stupid. Drunk 50 and 60 somethings look and act like total a**holes!)

11) IN THE CITY (a few hints of the rockin' JW to come in the second set)

12) THE LONG RUN (FINALLY a chance to get up and dance for many of those around us.... we were on the second level, although only 4 rows back, but over on the far right, and we found ourselves wishing throughout the night that we were down on the lowest level, as those folks were up on their feet MUCH more throughout the show)

9:20 - 9:40 Intermission (did I really get a whiff of pot smoke coming from my left as the band left the stage? --- I guess all the booze wasn't enough for a few people? --- so much for the big "No Smoking" signs throughout the whole seating area.)

13) NO MORE WALKS IN THE WOOD (case in point about dumb drunks... the lady in front of us, yelling out "GO EAGLES" several times on both this song and the next one.... what did she think this was, a NFL game in Philadelphia?! --- And then the genius behind me, who thought he was at the movies and kept up a running commentary throughout most of the show - Thank God he and his girlfriend left before the encores, at least - turns to his girlfriend and announces in his "I know everything", loud, voice.... "That was the first song on disc one of the new album." Thank you, Mr. Einstein!)

14) WAITING IN THE WEEDS (On the way to Atlanta, driving down 85, my wife and I listened to LROE and I told her that I thought this song - WITW - was actually about Don's hoping that the "political winds of change" are finally beginning to blow here in our good ol' USA. She thought I was wrong. But after seeing the video that accompanied this song, she now agrees with me. It's not obvious. Don usually isn't. You have to dig for his real message. Or you can just take it on the surface. But I'm convinced that the "woman" he's singing about, the one who has left him and messed things up by pursuing the "flavor of the week", is not a woman at all, but our American society. But of course, WTF do I know? LOL! And I doubt he'll ever tell us, will he? So make of it what you will. Either way, it's simply a gorgeous, wonderful song. Classic Eagles. And VERY nice live. It would have been even better if Ms. "Go Eagles!" had kept her yap shut!)

this whole post has gotten too long and I don't want to risk losing it, so I'll "submit" now and continue on in the next post (hopefully..... please, please don't disappear into an internet black hole on me, Mr. Post, please.....)

[DonFan]

Great recap so far, Chris! looking forward to part 2.

I also noticed the whiff of pot --and the fact that there seemed to be a lot of drunks of all ages at that concert. Guess that's the big difference between a Wednesday crowd and a Saturday crowd. Many people seem to think a ballad or slow song is the perfect time to make that cell phone call or to get in a debate with the people around them. Shut up already and let me listen!

I agree with your analogy of LROOE. Don's lyrics are beautifully crafted and multi-layered, and open to many interpretations.

[Freypower]

Great review Chris.

That is an interesting take on Waiting In The Weeds. A vaguely similar analogy has been used about Somebody (I can't wait to read your thoughts on that song)! being about the Bush administration and how their sins will come back to haunt them.

[cmooreNC]

15) NO MORE CLOUDY DAYS (again, nice visual scenes on the rear screen, complete with a beautiful sunset at the end of the song)

16) LOVE WILL KEEP US ALIVE

17) From Glenn (again... does he get ALL the catchy lines?) - "We're going to do one more song while we're still sitting down." as the boys -- boys? Can you still call guys in their 60's "boys"? --- have been sitting on four stools along the front, in a row, for all the songs of the second set so far.

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT

(the "wife's credit card" joke is not spoken tonight... too bad, my wife hadn't heard it and I'm sure she would have laughed!)

18 ) LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN (believe it or not, the Einstein commentator behind us, in a shear moment of genius during the intro music on this one, goes "OH, A WHALE SONG. EVERYONE HAS TO HAVE A WHALE SONG!" Seriously. Can we all say "CLUELESS!" together now? C'mom.... gimme a "C"! Okay, that's enough. You get the picture. But he sure couldn't. I mean, the video screen is displaying desert sand dunes, for gosh sakes. And this guy thinks he's hearing WHALE sounds? --- Uh.... Hello! McFly?! Anybody home?! Geesh.) The song was cool. Better than I thought it would be live, although I think a lot of folks in this particular audience got lost pretty early on for this one. It's kind of hard to preach a "we're consuming more than our fair share" message to a lot of inebriated folks who have forked over $200 a ticket and think they're having one big '70's flashback, ya know?

19) SOMEBODY (this string of songs coming out of LROE just built and built in tempo to close out the show.... these guys are such consumate professionals in their entire planning and delivery of a show... just perfect!)

20) WALK AWAY (up another notch)

21) ONE OF THESE NIGHTS (2 rows in front of us, a young woman who had been on her butt in her seat the entire night is suddenly up and gyrating like a dancer in a nightclub.... all she was missing was the pole..... I had absolutely no problem with that, but it was just totally amazing.... obviously this song certainly pushed HER button!!!!) And once again Don was hitting those impossible high notes. Damn.

the band intro came here ---- Glenn shows he's totally stone cold sober by covering absolutely everybody on stage, not with just names, but where each person is from. And yes he "goes female" when he introduces himself. Very funny. But how odd that he has to introduce even himself? My favorite line of the night.... when introducing they guys in the horn section. "Don't try this at home, folks. These guys are highly medicated professionals!" Don, sitting at the drums, cracks up. I guess this was an adlib. Nice one, too.

22) LIFE'S BEEN GOOD (and here, in his verbal intro, Joe proves that he can tell a good joke, too..... "Glenn tells me I wrote this one, but I DON'T REMEMBER!") Ah, yes, the underwater scenes shot at the bottom of the swimming pool. Who could ask for anything more fun? Well, maybe the "smashing up the hotel room" scenes. But wait! They're in there too! Ah, life is soooo complete!

23) DIRTY LAUNDRY (did people actually sit down on this one? Yes, some did! Party poopers! We didn't! And if that's what caused Einstein and his girlfriend behind us to leave... bye, bye!)

24) FUNK 49 (what can I say... total 60's flashback party fun, without a single psychedelic drug required --- YOU ROCK, JOE!)

25) HEARTACHE TONIGHT ("this night is gonna last forever... last all summer long" could there possibly be a better summer tour song? Yeah. I thought not.)

26) LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

__________Encore 1 ____________

27) ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY (Not bad for an old guy, Joe. You had more stamina than some in the audience, that's for sure)

28 ) ALL SHE WANTS TO DO IS DANCE ("but if I ever do... I'll bring more money... 'cause) - Did I mention that the guys frequently seemed to be having a lot of fun up there? No? They sure were. It was totally obvious on this song, too!

___________Encore 2________________

Glenn, once more.... "we're going to do two final songs that take us all the way back to the beginning for this band..."

29) TAKE IT EASY

30) DESPERADO

Off stage, after much bowing and waving, pic distributing, and yes, even a pair of drumsticks from Don to someone down at the front left, at 11:35.

I know it's rude of me to complain after a show like that, but the only thing missing was something off "On The Border". "Already Gone" would've been nice to tuck in there somewhere, although the title track is my personal favorite off that album. What can I say? It was my first Eagles record (and indeed, the first time I saw them live was in 1974, on that tour, when they opened for the Beach Boys and totally blew them off the stage). They've come a long way since then. Now they can basically blow ANYBODY off the stage. In a class by themselves. Thanks for keeping it real, Timothy, Don, Glenn and Joe. You've still got it. If you choose to wrap things up anytime soon, you'll be going out on top. No doubt about that.

[cmooreNC]

Oh... geez, I'm supposed to analyze SOMEBODY, too? Ooops. Uh.... I guess I'd better go back and listen to that one some more!

Interesting lyric change for Joe on "Rocky Mountain Way" at this show, though (and I assume he's probably doing this every night, but still...) ---- "Bases are loaded and BUSH is at bat, it's time to change the BATTER!" My wife caught that one and I didn't. I knew he changed it up from CASEY, but somehow I didn't catch the replacement. Don's not the only one of these guys who's not happy with the current regime. Uh, I mean "Administration". :P

[cmooreNC]

Great recap so far, Chris! looking forward to part 2.

I also noticed the whiff of pot --and the fact that there seemed to be a lot of drunks of all ages at that concert. Guess that's the big difference between a Wednesday crowd and a Saturday crowd. Many people seem to think a ballad or slow song is the perfect time to make that cell phone call or to get in a debate with the people around them. Shut up already and let me listen!

I agree with your analogy of LROOE. Don's lyrics are beautifully crafted and multi-layered, and open to many interpretations.

Thanks. Actually I was referring to my interpretation of Waiting in the Weeds, not LROOE, but I can see how my post confused you on that. I've gone back and edited in "WITW" to clarify there. Although LROOE is definitely more of the same Henley thought process along those same lines, I agree.

[Freypower]

All four of them are Democrats.

That was a really entertaining review, Chris. Thanks so much.

[sodascouts]

I loved your review, Chris - very entertaining! I especially loved this line:

It's kind of hard to preach a "we're consuming more than our fair share" message to a lot of inebriated folks who have forked over $200 a ticket and think they're having one big '70's flashback, ya know?

LOL!

I'm glad you had such a good time, even though you had to deal with Mr. Einstein's commentary. Thanks for the details!