The Eagles remain classic while adapting to the new era
Mizzou Arena was transformed Tuesday night from the home of the Big 12 Champions Missouri Tigers to the setting for The Eagles "Long Road Out of Eden" tour.
MU men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson -- who was in attendance with the rest of the Missouri basketball team -- must have given The Eagles some pointers on endurance as the group played a 27-song, three-hour set, that included two halves and an overtime (er, encore). Not bad for a band of 60-somethings. The Eagles played a mixture of greatest hits, new songs and covers.
The Eagles opened with Grammy award-winning song “How Long,” followed by “I Don’t Want To Hear Any More,” both tracks from Long Road out of Eden. Finally busting out a classic, the stage went black until a single red light shined on trumpet soloist Bill Armstrong, leading into their 1977 number one single “Hotel California.” They followed it up with a run of greatest hits including: “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “I Can’t Tell You Why,” “Witchy Woman” and “Lyin’ Eyes.”
After a decent cover of “Boys of Summer” and a lively rendition of “In the Long Run” that brought the mostly packed house to their feet, founding band member Glenn Frey announced that they were going to take a short breather to “do ya business,” but promised to return shortly to play for a “long, long time.”
The second act began with a trio of songs from the new album, only one of which was memorable (“Waiting in the Weeds”). But the show changed tones as the band members took off their black suits, loosened their neckties and broke into “Somebody,” another new song. The rest of the show followed a trend of upbeat hits.
The Eagles demonstrated that they did in fact know what century they’re living in. During Joe Walsh’s solo hit “Life’s Been Good,” Walsh wore a helmet cam to capture video of the crowd, while old school images and videos of The Eagles played on a large projector screen. While performing “Dirty Laundry,” the screen flashed videos from several news outlets and pop culture staples like Fox News, The View, National Enquirer, Perez Hilton and TMZ before putting up a Rolling Stone magazine’s cover featuring The Eagles.
The show concluded with classics “Heartache Tonight” and “Life in the Fast Lane” while their encore featured two songs the crowd had been waiting for with “Take it Easy” and “Desperado.”
As The Eagles left the stage to thunderous applause, it was easy to see that the band was, in a word, timeless. They may be in their sixties, but they’ve still got it. This didn’t look like a good-bye tour, but more of a revival tour. Frey summed it up best when he referred to themselves as “the ancient ones who will never die.” For the sake of older-aged women everywhere, let’s hope not.
