Live Review: The Eagles – 2nd March 2015 – Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney, Australia

There aren’t too many bands who have reached the level of success to match that of American legends The Eagles. Most artists or outfits would be more than content with achieving a very small fraction of the success that The Eagles have achieved over their 44 year career. The band have been going strong for over 4 decades and have released some of the most timeless and top selling records in history including being the band behind the 2nd biggest selling record, after Michael Jackson’s Thriller, with Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) which has sold over 40 million copies.

The history of the Eagles has not been smooth sailing since they formed in the early 70’s and various line-up changes have affected the band at various stages of their career with the dismissal of lead guitarist and principle Hotel California writer Don Felder in 2001 and the early fallouts of Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner which would eventually create openings for key Eagles members Timothy B Schmit and Joe Walsh to join the iconic line-up which has remained unchanged for over 20 years now.

The band are currently enjoying the success of their recent History of the Eagles documentary which was released a couple of years ago and since then the quartet have been trekking the globe with their hits for fans to experience the true masters of classic rock. As part of the world tour Australia has been offered a batch of shows for fans to have their chance to be part of the phenomenon with the band locking in 3 nights in Sydney. We went along to see the band at the Qantas Credit Union Arena this week and as always, we were absolutely blown away by the band who offered fans a sturdy 3 hour long set filled with some of music’s most timeless hits.

The venue was the perfect choice for the band to lay down their iconic repertoire; the sound was superb with the acoustics within the area providing an intimate rawness to acoustic driven mid-tempo hits like Peaceful Easy Feeling and Tequila Sunrise as well as the right amount of ‘oomph’ to the bands more rock-laden gems including Life in the Fast Lane and Heartache Tonight.

Everyone who has seen the bands fairly recent The History of the Eagles documentary will know what to expect with this show. Between songs we were offered stories that chronicle the bands rise to the top and the fall of the biggest selling band of the 70’s following their 1979 studio record, The Long Run.  The format changed during the first half of the show as Glenn and Don spoke their story to their fans before handing the task over to the large screens that were placed on both sides of the stage as the pair recounted their 40+ year journey as pioneering musicians and a legendary song-writing team.

One of the biggest and most unexpected surprises came right at the start of the show with Glenn and Don’s introduction of founding member Bernie Leadon who joined the pair and eventually the rest of the band on stage to perform various tracks throughout the set. While I was hoping for Randy Meisner to also join the band for a performance of Take It To The Limit, my hopes were dashed as Glenn began to perform the track after wishing his former band member well wherever in the world he was and launching into a pretty spot on performance of the 1975 hit.

The band was at their absolute best when delivering their most famous hits; Hotel California got a well-deserved standing ovation – as did many of the bands signature pennings as they were delivered to the sold out Qantas Credit Union Arena crowd. The song was accompanied by large images of the iconic album cover as the track was performed almost exact to the original recording.

Everyone has their favourite Eagles songs and their favourite Eagle. While Glenn and Don are the obvious winners for most of the bands fans and while I regard the two above most in the music industry, I have always had a bit of a soft spot for cool and casual bass-man Timothy B Schmit who’s key contributions to the set came with the flawlessly performed I Can’t Tell You Why and the sweet Love Will Keep Us Alive from the bands 1994 mostly live ‘comeback’ album, Hell Freezes Over.

While Glenn and Don are regarded the backbone of the band and the leaders of the famous quartet, the solo material spotlight was handed to the acts legendary guitarist and wild-boy Joe Walsh who delivered some of the best vocals of the night on tracks from his own repertoire including the lengthy Rocky Mountain Way and the catchy Life’s Been Good. Joe’s vocals we also the best quality throughout the set with the long-haired musician’s voice sounding unchanged and unweathered and despite the musician being in his late 60’s he was still able to hit some truly impress high notes. The videos that were played on the moving screens behind the band also showed the expected eccentricities of the rocker as we saw him dressed in a Godzilla outfit during one number and then dressed as Superman as he few above some mountains during his performance of Rocky Mountain Way.

The Eagles are one band that everyone needs to see at one point in their life and if there was ever a tour to be a part of – this is the one.  Expect to move along with full-throttle performances of classics like Hotel California, Life In The Fast Lane, Heartache Tonight and One of these Nights; get all nostalgic over early gems like Already Gone, Witchy Woman, Doolin Dalton and Take It Easy and sway along to timeless crooners like I Can’t Tell You Why, Peaceful Easy Feeling, Take It To The Limit and Desperado which is delivered with angelic perfection by Don Henley and is one of the highlights of the show as it closes the set after a solid 3 hours. You will not leave disappointed from a show like this!

Setlist:
Saturday Night
Train Leaves Here This Morning (Dillard & Clark cover)
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Witchy Woman
Doolin-Dalton
Tequila Sunrise
Doolin’-Dalton/Desperado (Reprise)
Already Gone
The Best of My Love
Lyin’ Eyes
One of These Nights
Take It to the Limit
Pretty Maids All in a Row
I Can’t Tell You Why
New Kid in Town
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Heartache Tonight
Those Shoes
In the City (Joe Walsh song)
Life’s Been Good (Joe Walsh song)
The Long Run
Funk #49 (James Gang cover)
Life in the Fast Lane

Encore:
Hotel California

Encore 2:
Take It Easy
Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh song)
Desperado

Brendon Veevers

::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
Over the years he has been lucky enough to review thousands of music releases and concerts and interview artists ranging from top selling superstars like 27-time Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss, Boyz II Men, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Loeb and iconic Eagles front man/songwriter, Glenn Frey through to more recent successes including Newton Faulkner, Janelle Monae and Caro Emerald.
Brendon manages and coordinates the amazing team of writers on RenownedForSound.com who are based in the UK, the U.S and Australia.