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WINNIPEG - Perfection always comes at a steep price. At Friday night's sold-out Eagles concert at MTS Centre, it was about $250 a head.
That's what a sizable chunk of the 14,000 mostly middle-aged fans in attendance shelled out for the privilege of watching Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit play their first local show since an outdoor gig at Assiniboia Downs way back in the summer of '78.
Hard as it may be to believe, the California country-rock icons gave the faithful their money's worth -- a perfectly balanced, expertly paced and impeccably performed three-hour show that was anchored by their voluminous catalog of hits, sprinkled with new cuts and liberally juiced with highlights from the various members' solo careers. And harder as it may be to believe, the aging musicians sound almost as good on their so-called "Assisted Living Tour" as they did 30 years ago.
Arriving onstage shortly after 8 p.m. in matching black Reservoir Dogs suits, the self-proclaimed "band that wouldn't die" -- augmented by three keyboard players, a horn section, a drummer/percussionist and an extra guitarist to handle ex-member Don Felder's solos -- got down to business and took a stand by launching into four songs from 2007's Long Road Out of Eden, their first studio album in nearly 20 years. It was a pretty cocky move for a band that many people now view primarily as a nostalgia act. Of course, Eagles (there's no The in their name, for the record) have always been cocky customers.
But as the old saying goes, it ain't bragging if you can back it up. And that's precisely what the band did next, switching into hit mode and earning their first of several standing ovations with the magnum opus Hotel California. Aside from a new Ennio Morricone-style spaghetti-western introduction starring a Mexicali trumpet, the FM-radio staple was reproduced with note-for-note exactitude. Ditto '70s gems like Peaceful Easy Feeling, I Can't Tell You Why, Witchy Woman and Lyin' Eyes (which wisecracking master of ceremonies Frey dedicated to his first wife: "Plaintiff"). Every vocal line, every harmony, every guitar solo and every drum fill was flawlessly executed. There were no bum notes, no ragged harmonies, no rough patches, no mistakes, no rushed tempos.
Granted, there was also zero spontaneity. But anyone who goes to an Eagles show looking for improvisation is clearly not a fan. Eagles don't do spontaneity. They do pristine, polished precision. They do tasteful and classy. And they did it to the nth degree on Friday night. From the well-designed stage, which was rounded in front and backed by a semicircular video screen, to the legion of roadies that swarmed out like ants between every song to change guitars and swap mic stands, to the velvet rope -- yes, a velvet rope -- that separated the well-behaved fans from the stage, everything was polite and pleasant and subdued and civilized. Nary a bead of sweat formed on any performer's brow. Not a hair fell out of place. The normally zany Walsh was remarkably reserved, letting the hired-gun guitarist do most of the heavy lifting. Everybody got a turn at the mic and a piece of the spotlight. Henley -- who impressed us by spending a lot more time behind the kit than we expected -- didn't even take off his jacket while drumming.
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At least, not in the first half. After closing their 65-minute opening set with Henley's '80s hit Boys of Summer, Walsh's slow-burning In the City (which may have earned an even longer ovation than Hotel California) and The Long Run, they took a brief intermission and returned to perform another handful of laid-back Long Road tracks while seated on stools. (It was a savvy move on their part; had they played those cuts mid-set, they would have prompted beer runs and bathroom breaks. Instead, the songs drew stragglers back to their seats.) But once they got through a surprisingly powerful version of Eden's epic title cut, the jackets came off en masse and they made the smartest move of the night: They let Walsh out of his cage.
It was all uphill from there. The wild-card guitarist has always been the joker in the band's deck. But more importantly, when they need to raise the energy level, he's also the ace up their sleeve -- a bona fide rocker with a slew of crowd-pleasing hits that he was only too happy to deploy. Whooping like one of the Three Stooges, he uncorked smoking versions of the James Gang classics Walk Away and Funk #49. He apologized to everyone whose parents tormented them by making them listen repeatedly to Life's Been Good -- then donned a helmet-cam and mugged his way through the song. And for the rest of the set, no matter whose tune he was playing, he owned the stage, reeling off blazing solos and slide-guitar licks while stomping in his shiny patent-leather shoes and stretching up on tiptoe with every piercing high note. Judging by the wildly enthusiastic ovations he earned -- especially from the dude behind me who kept screaming "Jooooooooe!!!!" every 15 seconds like the guitarist was his cop partner who had just been gunned down on his last day before retirement -- Walsh was clearly the MVP of the night.
In light of that, it was disappointing that he didn't get to deliver his signature song Rocky Mountain Way (which the band only plays intermittently). But the letdown was short-lived. After the 95-minute second set and a fairly brief pre-encore pause, they closed with the twangy Take it Easy and a superbly mellow version of Desperado, with Henley letting the audience take the ball and sing the final lines.
Perfect. At any price.
SET LIST
First Set:
How Long
Busy Being Fabulous
I Don't Want to Hear Anymore
Guilty of the Crime
Hotel California
Peaceful Easy Feeling
I Can't Tell You Why
Witchy Woman
Lyin' Eyes
Boys of Summer
In the City
The Long Run
Second Set:
No More Walks in the Wood
Waiting in the Weeds
No More Cloudy Days
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Take It to the Limit
Long Road Out of Eden
Somebody
Walk Away
One of These Nights
Life's Been Good
Dirty Laundry
Funk #49
Heartache Tonight
Life in the Fast Lane
Encore:
Take it Easy
Desperado