Wow - that's quite a change! Thanks for sharing your experience. I wonder if he plans on doing PEF in solo shows regularly now, or if that was a one-off?
Hearing him sing the Christmas song was great, Shun. He was kind of walking around the stage when he sang it, and then he'd sing another line. He had a really cute smile on his face. His voice sounded great on it, really deep and resonant. Now I want him to record it. LOL!
I don't know if he'll keep singing PEF or if it was a one-off, but if I had to guess, I'd say he would keep singing it. His version was the best tribute we've heard, in my opinion, partly because of Don's voice and partly because of the fantastic harmony with the back-up singers. Of course, we haven't heard Deacon's version of it yet.
As I said, there were a few differences from his shows last summer. One big difference was that he didn't sing duets with the three female backup singers. The closest that he came to that was that they did a group singing of It Don't Matter to the Sun and Lara sang most or all of Stevie's part. There were no other solos by any of the three, and Don didn't take a break in the middle, so they didn't perform "I Don't Want to Hear Anymore" together, either. That is kind of puzzling me because they got such a positive response (partial standing ovation) for that song when I saw DH last September.
The only other song Don sang from Cass County was The Cost of Living . I was excited because I love that song, but I'm not sure it translated well to the concert stage and of course, no Merle Haggard. Don sang it solo. I missed Train in the Distance and kind of wish if he wanted to switch up his Cass County songs that he'd sing No Thank You. I think that would be a really upbeat song to play at a concert.
Most of the rest of the set list was pretty similar to what he did previously. He sang Last Worthless Evening, which he didn't do last time he was in Boston, and I was pretty happy about that. He sang Sunset Grill and not All She Wants to Do is Dance, which is what he did in Boston last year, but I know it's been different in different cities. I think he changed up a few of the lyrics on The End of the Innocence, probably ranking on Trump, because people were laughing, but we were in the back and I didn't catch what he was singing.
We had really obnoxious people in front of us and everyone was standing up. I kind of like standing and dancing for part of the show, but when you're in the back and there are a lot of tall people, it gets kind of old fast. The staff finally got people to sit down, but when Best of My Love was sung, everyone was up again and they stayed up. Also, the staff weren't cracking down on people taking pictures and videos very much, so people had their phones up a lot of the time. Don stopped once or twice to tell people, "Put it away." Knowing Don, he must have been pissed.
One funny thing was when Don introduced Scott Crago. Scott always gets a lot of applause here, as he's from Massachusetts. After he was introduced, Don said, "Craaago. Say it with me, Craaago." I don't know what that meant. LOL. Last year, when Don introduced one of the newer band members he called him The Prospector and said something like "We found him in the desert when we heard music coming from a mine shaft." I think he was talking about the pedal steel player Milo Deering? Don seems to like having a bit of fun with the band members!
He talked for just a few minutes about Walden Woods before The Last Resort. He didn't tell his little story about the girl from Providence. In fact, he didn't do a lot of talking, but he seemed in a great mood, smiling and moving around a lot (probably to keep warm!). He got his usual standing ovations to The Last Resort and Heart of the Matter and the crowd was very engaged, singing along and dancing, even in the back. Overall, it was a good night and Don made me forget all about the rain and cold for a couple of hours!
mc, sounds like a wonderful show! But, it's Don Henley, what else would we expect! Glad you had fun!
"They will never forget you 'till somebody new comes along"
1948-2016 Gone but not forgotten