Concert Review: Eagles play with their history in rockin' set at Comcast Center
By SCOTT McLENNAN
Special to the Journal
MANSFIELD — On its current “History of the Eagles” tour, the famously fractured band displays how it evolved and derailed, tracing a chronological path from cowboy songs to tunes of glitz and decay, simultaneously mythologizing itself and setting up a parable for the 1970s, when the Eagles truly soared.
Playing Friday at the Comcast Center, The Eagles divided the concert into two halves. The first focused on the peaceful, easy feeling of the band’s first few albums that crested with such hits as “One of These Nights” and “Take it to the Limit.” Part two picked up on the slick and jaded material from “Hotel California” and “The Long Run.” The band also nicely fleshed out the second set with material from guitarist Joe Walsh’s career outside of the Eagles (though tossing in a tune from the “Hell Freezes Over” reunion set from 1994 seemed superfluous).
History is written by the winners, as they say, and the Eagles took advantage of that by reconfiguring some of the story line. For instance, original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon was welcomed back into the fold for the first time since departing in 1975, and allowed to play during the first set. Walsh, who replaced Leadon, joined in on the early cuts as well, though Leadon was mothballed for the second set until the encores.
Such decisions fall to Eagles founders Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Those two opened the concert with an acoustic version of “Saturday Night.” That and other deep cuts such as “Train Leaves Here This Morning” and the “Doolin-Dalton” material from the “Desperado” record were nice detours from previous tours that focused on the hits.
The segment of early songs also unfolded like a blueprint for today’s pop country and bro-folk.
Video clips of Frey and Henley talking about the early days of the Eagles were almost mockumentary bits, given the self-aggrandizing tone of the history lessons. Better were the onstage stories about how the Eagles connected to a California music scene of the early 1970s populated with Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and original Eagles bassist and Poco member Randy Meisner.
The creeping cynicism of the latter-day Eagles surfaced early in the second set with the opening number “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” While Frey pumped up the crowd with a sing-along version of “Heartache Tonight,” it was Walsh who stormed the gates for the show’s second half; and really, wasn’t that his job when joining the Eagles, to be the wild guitarist?
Actually, all of the roles were well played and comfortably predictable. The band simply tweaked the script a little, and gave the packed house a somewhat fresh way to view the Eagles story.
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