I was there last night!! I'd never been to the O2 before, so that in
itself was an experience. There's no shortage of places to eat along
"Entertainment Avenue" in the arena.
The seating inside isn't as big as you think. The seating goes up
to the 4th tear, which is real nosebleed, but the floor seating is
relatively small, so everyone will have a good view. The place was
packed out though - no empty seats near me.
I've taken loads of photos, but the stage was good. At first I was
disappointed because there isn't a lot on there. Mike has already
described the stage backdrop as being 2 semi-circles, which turn out
to be screens. It reminded me a lot of the Millennium stage. Part
of the fun before the show started was watching the 5 lighting guys
climb up onto the lighting using a rope ladder! They all got a round
of applause! They were playing Katie Tungstall as we went in.
The boys came on a bit late, but they all looked very, very well. I
think Joe and Glenn have lost a little weight!! They were each
dressed in black suit and tie, with white shirt. They reminded me of
the Rat Pack. They started with How Long, which went down really
well. What surprised me, was that the some of the audience around me
were there because they knew the new album. Some people didn't even
know their earlier stuff. The first half was mainly the new album,
(the set list has already been posted) and the second half was
longer. Joe's voice wasn't in good shape, but he did explain that
when he came out. I'm sure Glenn had gone over to help him with some
of the high notes at one point, because Joe just couldn't reach
them. Tim had a bit of difficulty reaching a few notes on LWKUA and
I thought it took a while for Don's voice to warm up. He did a great
job on holding that note at the end on Desperado. Glenn's voice
seemed to be in the best shape.
The second half was definitely my favourite! The jackets came off
(Except for Joe for a while) and they played really well. They all
seemed to be getting on really well on stage and joking. Glenn and
Joe did a guitar Duel before Funk, and Glenn hammed it up when he
realised he couldn't keep up with Joe. There was a bit of
spontaneity with Joe's playing for a while. Long Road Out Of Eden
was very dramatic. They had the screens on at the back, and the
movie that was playing matched the song perfectly, note for note.
One thing that struck me about the show, is how well produced it
was. The back drops and staging was brilliant. For HC they had the
silhouette of the hotel behind them, but somehow it looked better
than it usually was. For some of the songs, they had funky guitar
patterns, or shaped patterns going on behind them. During Life's
Been Good it was the funniest though.... I was laughing out loud at
what I saw. Don was on the drums and signalled to the audience to
watch behind him, and you're not disappointed! As Joe went into the
song, it started showing old photos of Joe, most of which weren't
very flattering or were very funny. I hadn't seem most of them
before! They'd look really, really good on a DVD! ;) They went into
show photos of Glenn, who obviously doesn't mind making fun of
himself, and then they showed photos of the band including Bernie and
Randy as well. They showed some footage of them all, which was
hilarious. All this was while Life's Been Good was going on.
During Dirty Laundry (which sounded fantastic btw) they showed
another montage. You can tell they're in Europe and can get away
with it, because the footage was all of Rupert Murdock, Jerry
Springer, Dr Phil and loads of other trashy TV. They started showing
headlines from some of the trashy magazines we have over here too,
like Hello, OK, Chat etc. Someone has put a lot of work into that
film production. The end of the montage was each of the 4 members of
the band on their own front cover. "Tim auditions for Harry Potter
8", "Glenn Frey wins The Masters", "Don Henley solves global warming"
and "Monkey sues Joe Walsh." The audience found them all funny.
There was a particular dig at Heather McCartney in one of the shots,
and I swear Henley changed a few lines to 'she' - which had already
made me think he was referring to Heather. It would be interesting to
see if he mentions the case over the next few days.
During In The City, the montage changed key again and went to a
Google map. The map honed in on NYC and the montage started. Again,
the montage was nearly as exciting as the song was! Henley didn't
talk very much, Glenn did most of the talking. He did the
'plaintiff' joke (hasn't he been doing that for like 10 years now?!?)
and the 'credit card' joke with Take It To the Limit. BTW, that song
sounded particularly good too, a lot of it was acoustic as I
remember. Boys of Summer was again really good, with the montage in
the background, but unfortunately, there was no guitar line up. I
was quite disappointed at that. I think the sound throughout was
excellent, and I'd even go as far as to say it was better than I
remember. It was excellent without being too loud - your ears
weren't ringing when you came away like most times.
I'd say it was well worth going to see the show, especially if you're
a bit fan of the new album. You could tell it was the first night
last night, so It will be interesting to see the show progress over
the next few nights. I'm at Saturday and Sunday's shows too, and
April 5th!!
Well Wednesday afternoon I wasn't going... but thanks to L&M's ticket announcement yesterday I was there about 6 rows from the front applauding the chaps on to the stage.
The 02 was full but not a sell-out. They're going to struggle to get fans in over the Easter weekend with nightmare traffic on both road and rail.
Because the concert started about 20 minutes late, I had to leave early to catch the last train back to my desolate outpost of Manchester!
I made lots of notes on the train back home;
All wearing black suits. Dark shirts for the back up guys, (there's a new chap in the line-up - Richard Davis, stage right, keyboards, seated percussion and lots of vocals). They all do lots of vocals 'cept Crago. He reminds me of Dr John. White shirts for Glenn, Joe, Tim (looks like a hip sixth form student) and Don (sporting his favourite shoes)
Harmony vocals have never been better. Glenn sounded great, Tim great as usual (3 songs!) Don sounded great except on the oddnd Joe's high notes during In The City were imaginary.
Don looked disgusted when he botched an early high note in One Of These Nights and made damn sure he hit all the right notes at the end of the song. Really struggled at the end of Witchy Woman.. I can't believe he still goes for them!
No More Walks In The Wood is much better than 7 Bridges IMHO and is proceeded with a Silent Spring "back to your seats" type instrumental prelude which I enjoyed.
GOTC and Somebody really rocked. In fact all the Walsh driven songs really rocked... and then some! Joe added extra bars to all his solos. Is it just me or is Don the worlds worst for rock guitar posturing?
LROOE was spoilt by roadies rushing around adjusting the stage during the mood setting intro which, sadly, I think was piped. I didn't see anyone playing doudouk.
As for guitars, I watched carefully so I missed what was on the screen, mostly Joe, Steuart during the "Petroleum Club" verse, Joe and Steuart both play the last part of the blistering solo then Steurt plays that fantastic mysterious eastern guitar bit that preceeds the next verse.
No spotlight on Tim during his bass doodlings and all stand statue still at the end.. except M Robinson who sneeks off back to the piano. (Maybe I was too close and wasn't supposed to notice.)
Don forgot the words at one point and seemed to start singing when he wasn't supposed to. I thought the performance of LROOE was very tense and nervy.
Lots of newsreel type stuff on the screen during Dirty Laundry and amusing band photos with a certain DF skilfully edited out during Life's Been Good. Steuart play's Joe's guitar solo during helmet-cam with Joe joining in when he feels like it.
Steuart was brilliant on One Of These Nights and Boys Of Summer. Set one had a very strong finish. Halfway through In The City, Joe ditched his slide and threw in a fingery solo before the horn chart starts.
Funk 49 starts with a little bit of humourous guitar interplay between Joe and Glenn.
Don sounds a bit weird singing Waiting In The Woods (an unusual key for him but the harmony singing by everyone is fantastic
I had to leave as Rocky Mountain Way started. I was devastated. It's probably the best gig I've seen them do.
There's probably stuff I've forgotten to mention, I should check my notes... sorry it's so haphazard but it's 7 in the morning and I haven't slept yet.
Good Morning.. oh that reminds me, that were Joe's first words.
Joe gave us a public information reminder that soon we'll have to adjust our clocks an hour forwards or an hour backwards he don't know which, and Glenn still introduced the credit card and plaintiff songs. I thought he might've dedicated Lying Eyes to Heather Mills (no longer McCartney). bye