Concert Review: The Eagles, MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB, 3/13/09

For the first time in 31 years, The Eagles returned to Winnipeg for one of the fastest-selling shows in the history of the four-year-old MTS Centre. This show also had the most expensive tickets at the venue, with the top price $239, likely topping $250 once all the extra fees were tacked on. From my seat in the fourth row on the floor, I had a perfect view, with all the main band members' faces showing up crystal clear in my vision.

With no opening act, the show kicked off with four of their newer songs, from 2008's Long Road Out Of Eden, which met with polite response from the audience. The fifth song began with a solo trumpet opening which led into the first huge number of the night, "Hotel California," as the video screen showed footage of the iconic album cover and similar scenes.

The principal players were dressed in identical black suits and ties with white shirts and the backing four-piece horn section were clad in all-black attire. For most songs, there were nine people on stage, including superb lead guitarist Steuart Smith, a drummer (who sometimes traded off on percussion with Don Henley), and three keyboardists. The audience rose to their feet with thunderous applause after "Hotel California." As was the case with everything they performed on this evening, it was note-perfect and sung flawlessly. Even when Henley sang from the drum kit, his vocals sounded fine.

The balance of the first set saw a couple of solo tracks among other prime Eagles material. Don Henley's 1984 smash, "The Boys of Summer," which featured a lot of guitar soloing as well as Joe Walsh's 1979 track, "In The City," which received among the most applause all night, both sounded absolutely fresh. (While it ultimately found a place on The Long Run, the song was originally recorded by Walsh for the soundtrack to the film, The Warriors.)

From the band's 1972 self-titled debut, "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman" made it into the first set, the latter sounding positively hypnotic with it's unmistakable, tribal drum introduction. Timothy B. Schmit still looks far younger than his 61 years and the bassist sang with a remarkable R&B falsetto on some songs, including 1994's "Love Will Keep Us Alive."

Article Author: Triniman

Almost weekly, Triniman catches new movies, and adds one or two CDs to his collection. Due to time constraints, he blogs about only 5% of the CDs, books and DVDs that he purchases. Holed up in the geographic centre of North America, the cultural …

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