When I arrived at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last night, I wasn’t in the best mood. Our hotel had lost the reservation for one of our rooms, resulting in a good hour of drama. I’d gone without dinner after sending back my overcooked steak, only to have the replacement never arrive. I needed something special to turn the night around, and I got it in The Eagles show.
Few bands endure like The Eagles. Sure they’ve taken some time out, but over the decades together they’ve developed a chemistry like few others. They know their own instruments and each others, which results in flawless harmonies and one of the tightest sounds around.
And there are those hits. In the three hours they graced us with our presence, they delivered some of the greatest songs in musical history. When you can bring out a tune like “Hotel California” early in the first act, yet still have somewhere to go it’s impressive.
There were so many highlights for me. “I Can’t Tell You Why” has always been one of my favourite Eagles tunes, and to hear Timothy B. Schmidt sing it so beautifully was something really special. “Best Of My Love” was something I never expected to hear, but I’ve always held deep in my heart. “Heartache Tonight” was the first Eagles song I ever fell for as it was on one of my Dad’s favourite driving cassettes, and it absolutely rocked. My inner 80s fan girl went nuts for “Boys of Summer,” another song I didn’t expect being a solo hit for Don Henley. The Eagles back catalogue is so rich that those solo hits were rare, but I was thrilled to see Joe Walsh let loose on “Rocky Mountain Way” in the finale. And “Desperado” was of course, the perfect closer.
The Eagles really are in a class of their own, artists that write incredible songs and make incredible music. Those tunes hold up just as well today, just as their talents do. Age has not wearied them, thankfully for folks like me who weren’t around to see them when it all began. I know these guys are getting on, but they’re still in their prime. Hopefully they can squeeze out another tour, because one day on I’m ready to do it all again.
