EDMONTON -- I expected the Eagles to be mellow, not comatose.

They just, you know, stood there and played their songs. No flash, no fanfare, nothing but music, and I could've got that at home. Man, what happened to entertainment value, what happened to showmanship? Nostalgia alone is not enough.

That was the headbanger talking. Let's call him the Ghost of the Unknown Rocker. He was at the wrong place last night, rubbing elbows with more than 10,000 diehard Eagles fans at Skyreach Centre. By the time Peaceful Easy Feeling rolled around, he was out of there. We will speak of him no more lest he harsh our mellow.

No, the Eagles concert was no full-blown rock 'n' roll spectacle. This was a soft rock concert delivered by the originators of the soft-rock genre, a little wrinkled around the edges - and towards the middle, too, in some cases - but none the worse for wear after 30 years (give or take a 15-year hiatus).

Unfortunately not named the Hell Remains Frozen Tour, this was an expensive fix of pure nostalgia for the fans delighted to pay good money to be here. Everything seems to be pricey about the Eagles. Top seats were $150. A long-sleeve T-shirt was $75. A trip down memory lane is getting more expensive all the time. Must be something about extra security costs in the wake of Sept. 11. But was it worth it? Musically, yes. Set on a spare stage illuminated tastefully, this show was like Eagles EZ Radio - all Eagles, all the time. Well, most of the time.

With the aid of a nine-piece band trained in the art of rocking softly, the hits were reproduced almost exactly as they are on record, right down to the guitar solos. The classic country rock sound of songs like New Kid In Town and the aforementioned Peaceful Easy Feeling evoked the peaceful easy '70s perfectly. You couldn't have done better playing records on your stereo, though it would've been cheaper.

They say that a great band is more than just the sum of its parts. As was the case when the Eagles came here in the mid-'90s, this concert seemed like it was more about the parts than the sum. This is not necessarily a bad thing, given the talent we're talking about here. At times it felt like the Don Henley show. The singer was strong off the top on The Long Run. He sang many of the leads last night. Glenn Frey, who took a turn in the spotlight with Take It To the Limit, was the first to address the crowd: "Welcome to the Eagles' 30th anniversary tour. It's great to be 30 again." That got a laugh.

We also got gnome-like guitarist Joe Walsh taking a turn on the beautiful ballad Wasted Time. Timothy Schmit, he of the long hair and high voice, did a fine job on Love Will Keep Us Alive, as Walsh sat on a stool.

Later in the first set, Henley did his massive 1985 hit Boys of Summer, which kind of blew the mood. This was supposed to be a '70s experience, man. Heard that song far too many times and in the wrong decade, too, the benighted '80s. The Eagles wisely took that decade off.

They don't have enough hits that they have to toss out the solo stuff?

The Eagles' catalogue of songs is formidable, as any fan will tell you. They could've played five hours.

Still, the Eagles could do no wrong.

The crowd cheered as familiar hits flowed over them. Were they cheering the song or the band? Does it matter? Heck, the Eagles got a huge hand just for showing up. And when they sang, it was like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Mellow, in other words, unstoppable.

A final word about the fans: Generally speaking, the people who turned up last night were in their 40s or early 50s, having come of age when the Eagles were at their peak. But where was the long hair?

Sure, we spotted few "skirted eggshells" (a variety of mullet on a bald head), but this was a clean-cut, well-off-looking group.

They've done well with their lives, it appears. Bring other popular bands from that era here - something like Led Zeppelin or the Allman Brothers Band comes to mind - and you'd have a hockey arena full of greying, long-haired hippies.

Whether middle-aged prosperity is a hallmark of Eagles fans or not, there is clearly more than one avenue to memory lane.

This was just the mellow one. Something to think about, O Ghost of the Unknown Rocker. (More on The Eagles)

JAM! Rating: 3.5 out of 5