Sacramento, CA 11-19-05

The first review I ever wrote for an Eagles concert was my review of the Sacramento 2005 show. It was my first Eagles show and, at the time, I thought it would be my last. (Glad I was wrong about that!) Foolishly, I never saved the review on my computer, and when it got deleted unexpectedly, I thought it was gone for good. However, today, Dreamer found the review on her computer! I'm posting it here for posterity. ;)

And also, when you read how gushy I am about Glenn, remember that this was the first time I had ever seen him live and cut me some slack, lol. I had just opened Glenn Frey Online two weeks earlier, after all. Who could have known where my path would lead...


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I just got back to my apartment in Indiana from Sacramento, but I can't get to sleep, so I figured I would write out a bit of a review of my first Eagles concert. It's not going to be too detailed - I'll leave the note-taker of our group to give that - but I will give some general impressions and some disjointed recollections as they occur to me.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Perfect Little Sister, I've Always Been a Dreamer, and Karen Z before the show so that we could all go together (I also got the chance to talk briefly with Zermie at the show). Perfect Little Sister and I sat together in the fourth row, right in front of the mic alternately used by Tim and Glenn. Unfortunately, our visibility was hampered by tall people in front of us, but who can complain when one is that close? It was an incredible experience. I don't regret once cent I spent to go out there. It was a thrill I will never forget. The Eagles put on a hell of a show and I enjoyed every minute of it from top to bottom.

First, my overall impressions of the band as they came out. I won't get too shallow here, but the guys were looking good. It is apparent that Joe has lost weight and is doing something to get himself into shape; he was wearing blue jeans and a light blue top and looked much better than he did for the Farewell 1 DVD. Timothy had dressed up in a pinstripe blazer suit with a red lining, paired somewhat incongruously with tight brown pants. Glenn informed the crowd that Tim was going the extra mile to impress his mother in the audience (Sacramento is his hometown). Don to me looked cheerful and happy to be there. He was wearing I believe a checked shirt and black pants, although for some reason during Desperado he donned (no pun intended) a rather dowdy brown jacket. Glenn was in his favorite candystriper overshirt and black T-shirt underneath, with blue jeans. All looked to be in good moods, although after the show the veteran concert goers remarked that the guys did not interact with the crowd or joke around with each other as much as usual.

For those curious about such things, while I got some residual looks from Tim and Joe after they checked out the lovely Perfect Little Sister, as well as some underlidded ones from Don no doubt for the same reason, there was not much from Glenn. There was one time, after Take It to the Limit, when not many folks were standing and I was going nuts (it's my favorite song), waving my fist in the air, "PUT ME ON A HIGHWAY!! SHOW ME A SIGN!!" That he did look up and made eye contact and for someone like me, that's pretty cool! The most attention I got otherwise was from Timothy. During the acoustic set after the intermission, he was sitting right across from me. Some weird guy stood up in the middle of it and started screaming and clapping, earning the look of death from Glenn until he sat down. Timothy searched for somewhere else to look and occasionally that somewhere else was me - I appropriately gave him my attention instead of Glenn as a result for that song. But enough of that, let's get to something everyone cares about, the music.

Put simply, they rocked. They sounded terrific to these ears. I didn't see any mess-ups except for Timothy missing his cue at the end of The Long Run, much to Glenn's amusement. Apparently the keyboards were not turned up loud enough initially for ASWTDID, as I saw Glenn frantically gesturing for them to turn it up. Joe jammed more than usual, especially during Funk 49. Glenn seemed surprised at how much he was jamming, as he kept waiting to end it with him - and waiting - and waiting.

Joe was very impressive that night, if more subdued than I expected him to be overall. He made a joke about Kenny G wanting to record his "industrial love song" but he had refused him, then broke into Life's Been Good. I cracked up when I saw him moving in slow motion during the strobe lighting that begins one song (I forget which). They also did a cool free-motion vogue-esque posing in different positions for each ending note of one of the songs - I believe it was Funk 49... not sure about that. As I said before, my memories are somewhat disjointed as the concert effectively blew my mind.

For the most part I enjoyed the screen effects, but I think the view of the Rocky Mountains during Rocky Mountain Way doesn't really match the song in any way other than nominally. I felt like National Geographic was airing a special behind them; lovely scenic views of snowy mountaintops don't seem to go too well with such a raucous song.

Timothy did a great job also. He dedicated LWKUA to his mother, and did the most crowd interaction, pleasing certain ladies very greatly. At the end of the show, he gave some picks to a couple kids. In the same way, Don gave his drumstick to someone - not a cute kid or a cute girl, so I'm not quite sure why this person was so blessed. More power to 'em though!

Don's voice was on and I thought he especially did a good job on Boys of Summer, a song I adore, and Hole in the World. Since No More Cloudy Days has apparently been discarded, much to my disappointment, he had taken on Glenn's joke about "new" Eagles songs being anything in the past 15 years to preface Hole in the World. Some of us actually stood up and sang with the last verse of that song. Indeed, the crowd overall was very into the concert, standing and singing and dancing throughout. Perfect Little Sister and I remained on our feet for all except the first three songs at intermission, but I expected us to be one of the few. Instead, almost everyone around us was standing too - including those tall people! Sigh. (They did play the movie during intermission, BTW).

And Glenn... ah, Glenn. He was magnificent. It was hard to tear my eyes off of him even when he wasn't singing, because he throws himself so much into backing the songs when he's not doing lead that it's fascinating to watch. I love how into them he gets, mouthing the words with them, being wonderfully expressive as he plays, even playfully "acting out" some lyrics - for instance, dancing around to ASWTDID. When he did sing lead, his vocals were dead-on and impassioned. He pours his heart into singing those songs and it shows. As many of you know, he keeps his eyes closed during most of the songs, as if he's encased in his own world living each one over again, feeling all those emotions that originally inspired them. He truly is an amazing performer, and he makes it seem effortless and natural, although I'm sure it's not.

As the lights went down after Desperado, all I could do was wish desperately that in some way, I could do this again. I pray that they will one day return to the midwest so that can be possible. Even more so, I pray that I will be able to see Glenn perform solo some time so that I can see him put that same amount of heart into my favorites of his. However, none of the guys disappointed me. They are all talented men in their own right who, when together, are truly greater than the sum of all their parts. Seeing the pure joy, the sense of "rightness" on their faces as they all gathered around Don's drums in a tight circle for the end of Life in the Fast Lane, I believe that they realize that, too, on some fundamental level.

Long live the Eagles.

I was so excited today when I stumbled across these old reviews. Like Soda, I also thought they were lost forever and that this would be my last show as well. I am posting my follow-up to her review. As I read through this now, it is soooo shallow that I almost wish it had been lost. But what can I say - that was a fun time. It's hard to believe that this was almost 5 years ago. But here goes ...

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Well - I'm back from Sacramento - very exhausted, but one very happy woman!!! Great review, Soda. Unlike Oakland, where I had many, many pages of notes and extremely vivid memories of things, I didn't write down one single word this time, and my mind is still in a delirious fog. Most every thought I'm having right now is not G-rated, but I do want to thank sodascouts, Perfect Little Sister, and KarenZ - it has been a long time since I've had such a completely fun, shallow weekend. It was great, and I think a fun time was had by all. I'm not being presumptuous to say that - am I ladies? :wink: PLS - your hubby was great to "tolerate" us. It was also great meeting you, Zermie. We wanted to hook up with you again after the show, but couldn't because Karen and I were not in our normal seats. That, BTW, leads me into telling you about what a genious Karen is. We were sitting in front of Timmy, Row 4, Aisle Seats 1 & 2. They were actually great seats, but I was still having a hard time getting Glenn's attention. A female security guard had a chair seated right next to me. Every time she got up, I would move her chair back a few inches - so after a while I had enough space to move between the chair, which put me a full 2 1/2 feet closer to Glenn. We had a very narrow aisle right in front of us that I thought was very annoying because all the people in rows 1-3 kept coming through. But about a third of the way through the 2nd set, the security guard had left her station (which I hadn't even noticed at that point) Karen calmly stepped in front of me, and muttered the two simple words - "come on". Just to prove, I'm not totally stupid - I knew exactly what she was doing, so I grabbed my bag, and promptly followed orders. We are both short enough where when we got to the front row, we simply just kept saying "excuse me" to the front row people until we found the perfect spot we wanted. The remainder of the concert was viewed from the best "seats" in the house. We weren't even crowded. This is why I am still in a fog. I just looked at Karen and said "Whose seats are these, actually? Cool, I like my seats."

As I said before, I was having a hard time "feeling the love" from Glenn until we made it up front. Once Karen and I were placed in our "proper" positions - I kept thinking to myself "how am I going to get Glenn's attention without making a complete fool of myself????" I finally did it sometime during Hotel California. The problem is I have gotten hardly any sleep since Saturday night trying to remember the details - I swear - my mind is literally in a fog. Every time I thought Glenn was getting close to looking my way, I made sure I was staring him down and making gestures (totally appropriate, of course) at him. I caught his eye during HC and made some gesture at him which he noticed and he looked at me and laughed and made some gesture back. I just can't remember the details. How pathetic is that!!! Then again, during Rocky Mountain Way, I caught his eye again. This time my mind is a little clearer, but only barely. I remember during the guitar solo, I was very animated when I was dancing - I kept sharply pointing both fingers at Glenn (as in "you are the one, Sugar"). He saw me, shook his head, and laughed at me again. He then pointed back at me and mouthed something. I'm not positive, but I think he said "You". - I guess it doesn't matter - he said something!!!

Anyway, some of you know how heavenly it is to be on the receiving end of one of these stares. I am so totally hooked on eye contact. :shock: :shock: :shock:

Awww, thanks so much for posting these, ladies! I bet they brought back some lovely memories for both of you. They were a lot of fun to read!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer

I remember during the guitar solo, I was very animated when I was dancing - I kept sharply pointing both fingers at Glenn (as in "you are the one, Sugar").

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:hilarious: Too cute! No wonder you made him smile.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer

Anyway, some of you know how heavenly it is to be on the receiving end of one of these stares. I am so totally hooked on eye contact. :shock: :shock: :shock:

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This made me grin too. I SO know what you mean. :thud:

Those were a great read! The thing I was thinking during Soda's was how surprised I am that you didn't become a "Timothy girl". You sounded rather taken by him.

My favorite part of Soda's review....

Quote:

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all I could do was wish desperately that in some way, I could do this again. I pray that they will one day return to the midwest so that can be possible. Even more so, I pray that I will be able to see Glenn perform solo some time so that I can see him put that same amount of heart into my favorites of his.

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:hilarious:

Looks like my prayers were heard! ;)

I would have sworn I'd read these before...but I must be thinking of the shorter posts from the Reminiscing thread.

Great read. So poignant that at the time you thought it would be your last opportunity to see them, and now, thanks to Don's remarks in that interview, we are going through it again. :sigh:

Yeah PM - I was thinking about this yesterday when I was reading that interview with the comment Don had made. As I said in that thread, back in the summer or fall of 2005, both Glenn and Don were both saying things that made me think that the end of the Eagles was near. It must have been that they were both frustrated at the time at the lack of progress on the album. I remember Glenn predicting that the album probably wasn't going to happen.

In any event, after I went to the Oakland show in October, I came back with severe PEW thinking that it was the last show I'd ever see. After PMing and talking to Karen, we decided to go back one more time. Again, I figured Sacramento would be my fourth and final Eagles concert. After the show, we were bemoaning this fact and I told everyone that I guess if we wanted to ever see Glenn again, we would probably have to track him down on some golf course - someplace like Pebble Beach. What a concept! :idea:

Who knew!!!

:singer: Fairy ta-a-a-a-les can come tru-u-u-u-u-ue, it can happen to yo-o-o-o-o-ou...