OK, here's the review!

First things first - the set list:
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Lyin' Eyes
Some Kind of Blue
The One You Love
Tequila Sunrise
No More Cloudy Days
Take It to the Limit
I'll Come Runnin' Back to You
You Belong to the City
Smuggler's Blues
Who's Been Sleepin' in My Bed
The Heat Is On
Get Over It (Deacon)
Heartache Tonight
Hotel California (Deacon)
Take It Easy
I Hear You Knockin' (Deacon)
Desperado

I pulled up to the Manhattan Beach Lodge about 2:00, and when I got out of my car to go up to the play area, I heard the opening chords of "Hotel California." At first I was confused, then as I got closer, I heard Deacon's vocal and I realized that he was going to appear! I guess the whole gang was up for Father's Day Weekend, although I didn't see Taylor, so Glenn gave Deacon another chance to perform.

As I stood by a tree and listened to soundcheck, a couple cute kids came barreling past me with a couple blond ladies chasing after them. The little boy practically ran into me as he spun around to yell something. It was Otis and a little friend of his! Later, he went back on the stage with the little girl and danced around, after which Glenn came over and said "You were really rockin' out!" and laughed. Very cute!

I headed over to the VIP area at 3:00 and met some really nice people there who I talked to while the opening acts were playing and all that. Shout out to Mike!

The lodge had made up all sorts of T-shirts to celebrate what one of the locals told me was "the biggest thing to ever happen around here." They were pretty clever, so I bought two - a tank top that said "I was Frey'd at Manhattan Beach Lodge" and another that said "Making the call to his agent: Pennies; Finding a way to get him here: Thousands; having Glenn Frey play in Cross Lake: Priceless." I also snagged a souvenir cup - they were serving beer in them, but since I don't like beer, I asked just for the cup and they obliged. The cup says "The Heat Is On at the Big Trout Tavern."

The opening acts were pretty good. The first was GB Leighton who came out with just himself and a female violinist (her violin was purple!) and the second was Rockie Lynne. Both were country-type local acts. Leighton gave away free CDs (he ran out before I was able to get one) and Lynne finished with the Star-Spangled Banner, which I thought was nice.

Then it was time to line up at the stage for Glenn. It was starting to cloud over and what had been a lovely day threatened to turn ugly, but I crossed my fingers and staked out a spot up front. I wound up right under the keyboard where he would sit for a few songs.

I was once again surrounded by friendly people and had two young girls next to me - one 13 and one 10. Their parents were somewhere in the back. When other people tried to get in front of them, I told the girls they could get in front of me since they were short and would not impede my view. One of them told me her parents knew the guy who owned the place, Rick Born. I heard from people around me that Glenn and this guy were friends because they had once worked together in some capacity - opinions varied as to what that was.

At around 7:30 he came out wearing black jeans, black dress shoes, a hot pink button-up shirt that had a button undone, and the black jacket with the bit of embroidery on it that he recently wore at a photo shoot. While most of the VIP crowd was somewhat boozy from the limitless free alcohol being served, the audience was enthusiastic.

They started off with "Peaceful Easy Feeling," but the song's mellow romance was somewhat spoilt because Glenn spent almost the entire song glaring at people who were trying to video him and shaking his head "no" at them sternly. He practically radiated displeasure and after he glared at some person near us, the young girls looked up at me wide-eyed in alarm. I think they might have thought he was mad at the whole audience, including them. Luckily I had not yet pulled out my camera, but I knew then the jig was up regarding video. At least I could still take a few photos.

Sure enough the first thing he did after the song was ask people not to take videos, but he say photos were OK. Gone was the charm of the request at the Eagles show, and gone were the jokes for the entirety of the show! He said he wasn't going to tell jokes because he wanted to beat the weather.

He did have time for a few default jokes, though, introducing the next song with a dedication to "Plaintiff" - "Lyin' Eyes." The audience enjoyed this one, and Glenn did seem to lighten up a tad.

Next, he went over to the keyboard. I could look right up at him - or at least the top half of his face - the stage was so high that I couldn't see more than that from my position directly under it. He introduced "Some Kind of Blue" by saying that not everyone may have heard the song, but he liked it, and that it was off of his second solo album, Prelude to Obscurity. (Oops Glenn - wasn't that your third solo album? ) I didn't get to hear a lot of the song due to some audience drama, but what I did hear was good.

Al Garth got to shine during the next song "The One You Love" and I thought Glenn's vocals on it were very strong. In fact, I think it was one of his best vocals of the night.

As Glenn got up to get his guitar, "Silent Spring" began to play, and when the guy asked me what was coming up, I said "Tequila Sunrise." When Glenn tried to start strumming, though - no sound! They quickly got everything turned on and he started, to the audience's delight.

As the song ended, though, the rain started to come, and Glenn temporarily suspended the show so we could all seek shelter. A few people, myself included, were loath to leave their good spots by the stage even in the rain, knowing it would be difficult to get them back. I told the two girls I would save them a spot, then got under the canvas covering the keyboard with a couple really friendly women. After the rain started getting worse, we wound up seeking shelter underneath the stage with a few other people. It was dirty and muddy down there, but hey, afterwards, we did indeed still have our places by the stage!

The little girls came up again and started talking excitedly about a boy off to the side of the stage. "Who's that?" I saw who they were talking about. "That's Glenn Frey's son, Deacon." "What's his name?" "That's his name - Deacon - like in church." "Oh, Deacon! OK! I think he was looking over here!" "Maybe he thought you were cute!" I grinned. They asked how old he was, and I said 15, and I joked that he might be too old for them. One girl quickly told me that she was 13 so he wasn't too old for her!

Fittingly, when Glenn finally came back on, the song he did was "No More Cloudy Days." He introduced it with the fact that it was from the new album - "Don't know if any of you have it - is there a Walmart around here?" - and he said that it was definitely appropriate to re-start the show with. A rainbow had come out at that point, which added a nice atmospheric element.

The first time the crowd really went wild was for the next song, "Take It to the Limit." He intro'd it with his credit-card joke, then added, "I love my wife!" who was over to the side of the stage. She filmed a large portion of the show - hope Glenn wasn't mad. We all got into it!

Earlier in the show, a guy near me had offered to take a picture of the setlist for me, so I knew that the only "special" song that was getting played that night was "I'll Come Runnin' Back to You." He said it was unreleased but he really liked performing it, and even did a bit of localization by throwing "Brainerd, Minnesota" into the part where he talks about how he'll come runnin' no matter where he is. He did a bit of a jog – very cute! It was one of the few songs were he seemed to get into the spirit of it (no offense to Glenn but, while his vocals were strong, it seemed a lot of the performances didn't have that extra bit of spirit that takes a show to the next level).

"You Belong to the City" rocked, largely due to an awesome instrumental duo between Danny Grenier and Al Garth. Unfortunately, something must have happened to the sound, because I could barely hear Al from where I was. I also would have some trouble hearing Glenn's vocals later, which was a bummer for me. I wonder if it was just where I was standing? I hope so.

He did "Smuggler's Blues" slow and with a funky voice - I guess the guy in the song is now smuggling downers. Of course it was enjoyable, but it's nothing compared to the real rockin' version, IMHO!

Things picked up with "Who's Been Sleepin' in My Bed" - I don't care what you think of that song on the album, it plays great live. Folks really got down to it.

He finally brought out his "favorite guitarist" Deacon for the next song, "The Heat Is On." I gotta tell you, Deacon looked pretty bored - maybe he was trying to project the "too cool to care" attitude! Anyway, this song always kills live and got a great reception. The show started to pick up energy and got better from there.

Deacon sang lead for the next song, "Get Over It," and folks were rocking out to it so much that at the end Deacon actually cracked a smile! Everyone was really impressed with him.

Glenn pulled out "Heartache Tonight" and with the audience clapping and singing along, it was lots of fun. This was one of the songs where I had a hard time hearing his vocal, but unless I'm mistaken, he reversed the bridges "We can beat around the bushes" etc. and "There's gonna be a heartache tonight, the moon is shining bright" etc. Still, it sounded fine.

They went off for a brief encore break, then came back on again. Glenn said, "Here's a song I never do" and they began "Hotel California," with Deacon singing lead. Deacon did a great job with it, especially on the end when he did the duet with Danny Grenier. When the crowd went wild at the end, Danny just indicated Deacon and smiled.

Glenn then launched into "Take It Easy," which is always a crowd-pleaser, getting everybody dancing around and singing along. They went off for one more encore break, to thunderous applause.

Then they returned again, with Glenn asking the crowd, "Who wants to hear Deacon do one more song?" The crowd cheered, and they did the bluesy number "I Hear You Knockin'." I noticed that we had a couple more percussionists in the back as Otis and his little friend were banging tamborines on a platform near the drum kit. Too bad Taylor wasn't onstage or it would have been downright historic.

Desperado was the last song, and the nice guy next to me put me in front of him when some ladies tried to push past me. Otis and his friend attempted to continue banging tambourines, but that didn't last too long as this song was not very conducive to tambourine dancing. Glenn indicated the crowd for the final "Let somebody love you" and held out the "too" before the last "too late" for dramatic effect. Afterwards, he hugged Deacon - aw!

I wouldn't call it his best show ever by any means - he just didn't seem to have as much fun with it as he usually does - but I enjoyed it and I'm glad I went.

However, my experience afterwards was pretty scary. As I was leaving, I got a call from the lady who was running the tent that she still had my extra ticket if I wanted to pick it up. I returned to the tent and, as I picked it up, everyone started screaming “Tornado – get inside!” I started freaking out. TORNADO?! What about my car? Was I going to be stranded in freaking Brainerd, Minnesota?! I was so freaked out that even though I saw Danny Grenier and Jonathan Clark in the restaurant inside, I was too agitated to talk to them. I couldn’t make small talk about the show while envisioning my Honda being thrown around by tornado-force winds. About fifteen minutes later, we got the all clear – no tornado – whew! But I almost had a freaking heart attack! Not even a Glenn show is worth having your car destroyed by a tornado.