Atlanta, GA
Don and Stevie will be appearing at the Gwinnett Arena on June 16th. Tickets will be handled by Ticketmaster. If you have questions about this show or find other fans attending the show, please use the comments button below. Remember to return here after the show to share your review, setlist and photos.
Sillykat & I just got back from the show--it was fantastic. No opening act--at 8:10 Don walked out, and he was in a great mood, really chatty. He said he was happy to be back in the South, and said "Wasn't I just here a few months ago?"and we all screamed, and then he said, "Maybe I should come back in the fall too," and we all yelled, "YES!" Then he said he loved Georgia peaches and all the girls yelled, (not me of course :), but then, I am an Alabama peach--ha) and he grinned & said, "I meant the ones on the trees." He said he had been here for several days in an Atlanta recording studio singing on Kenny Roger's new album. He said Kenny helped him get his start and he was happy to sing on his albums anytime.
For the first part of his set he wore a black shirt & pants with a denim shirt over it, then he came out in Stevie's set wearing the black shirt with embroidery and opened his black coat so we could see it. Then he wore a white shirt for the L&L and So You Wanna be a Rock Star encore. I loved hearing him sing Gold Dust Woman and Stop Draggin my Heart, and watching them interact with each other, especially on L&L, was just wonderful. He is a really good dancer too--when he danced with Stevie they did this little turn and twirl together. LITFL and BOS and ASWTDID rocked, and so did Stevie's Edge of Seventeen.
His voice sounded terrific, and this was the first time I had ever seen Stevie and I was very impressed with her set. She sounded great too, and she was very warm and engaging with the audience.
It was a fabulous show and I wish I could see them again!
Posted by:Dana/fortysomething | June 17, 2005 at 01:11 AM
Hello. I have to say this show was amazing, except for the asshole security though. Don's set was really good, I had never seen him live, and at first was only really going to see Stevie, but by the end of the show was also mesmorized by one Mr. Don Henley also.
Although I didn't know the words to "The Genie" I thought Don did an excellent job of it. His second song "Witchy Woman" really got the crowd pumped, and I couldn't help but think of Stevie when he was singing this song. Stevie came out during Don's fourth tune "Hotel California" to much applause. She came out wearing a long skirt/shirt over skin tight pants with studs on the sides, completed with platform boots. She looked great, and has obviously lost a lot of weight since the Fleetwood Mac tour.
They sounded great on "Hotel California" "New York Minute" and I thought especially "The Last Worthless Evening." During the "time time ticking away" Stevie was doing these hand motions with her fingers back and forth that everyone in the audience seemed to be mocking, including myself. So Stevie left with a big wave, and Don said "She'll be back."
I don't remember the exact order of Don's set but the highlights for me were "End of the Innocence," "Heart of the Matter," "Life in the Fast Lane," "Desperado," and "Dirty Laundry." Dirty Laundry really got the crowd pumped. The fans would put up when Don pointed up during "kick em with their up" and point down, was really fun. He seemed to be having a blast.
During his "encore" he said "We're gonna do a few more songs for you, so we aren't gonna do any of that bullshit where we leave and you all scream and we come back.." so I thought that was funny.
He was in fine voice, and looked great. I personally had not seen much of him since the Hell Freezes Over DVD, except a few of his performances with Stevie here and there...but I much prefer his spiked short hair on him, than that greasy mess from Hell Freezes Over. I surprisingly really enjoyed his set, and didn't want to see it end. I met a few very cool Eagles/Henley fans, and had some nice chats--they were asking all kinds of Stevie questions, "How old is she?" "What songs will she sing?" Etc etc
I thank I LOVE ALL ACCESS who scored me 5TH ROW center tickets, through the 4-star package. I very much expected to have like row 20 since that is all you are guaranteed with the 4-star package. The pen sets were also very cool.
So Don left after "Desperado" which was just fantastic, one of the best versions I've heard of it..and there was probably a 15 minute intermission. They took down a lot of the stage, and rotated Stevie's bands' drumsets around.. It was interesting to see how quick those guys are.
So the lights dim and "Bootilicious" by Destiny's Child is played over the loud speakers. This got some screams when it first came on, for the obvious reason that it samples the riff from Stevie's "Edge of Seventeen." After that the new "Dreams" remix played over the speakers, which features new and recently recorded vocals by Ms. Nicks. During the remix we saw the band enter the stage in the dark, Waddy Wachtel was obvious with his trademark long curly hair. I have to say Waddy's guitar playing sounded superb last night.
So the beat to "Outside the Rain" began, and the lights came on and there came Stevie from the wings with her flowing black dress, leg warmers, and sneakers on. Her hair was blowing in the wind from the fans on the stage, and she looked radiant. I could tell some of the Henley fans didn't really recognize this song, but us Nicks fans of course did because she's opened with this song for every solo tour except two. This was an amazing vocal performance by Stevie, especially when she bent her mic down to wail the line "well is there anyone else in this whole wide world that could ever replace me?!? " which the crowd loved. Outside the Rain, as usual led directly into "Dreams" which garnered much applause, as everyone seemed to know this song of course. Stevie did a funky hula dance thing in the middle of "Dreams" which I had read about in a lot of the reviews, and was an absolute trip to see. After "Dreams" she said "Welcome ATLANTA GEORGIA!" and punched her fist into the air.
After this song was "Rhiannon," which at first I was disappointed to hear because she had been doing "Enchanted" after "Dreams" so I thought she had dropped it, but no it came after Rhiannon last night. "Rhiannon" was great, she came out in her trademark winged top for this song, She hit all the notes, better than she has done in years, punching her fist into the air near the end. "Enchanted" was a blast as always, Stevie grabbed her tambourine and rocked out to this Wild Heart album classic. (I also noticed that Don plays A LOT of tambourine in his solo shows, I never knew that!) After this song she went back to change again, and she and Don came out for "Stop Draggin my Heart Around" which was great. Although I love Waddy's guitar playing, I think Don sounds much better filling in for Tom Petty's parts than Waddy! This song went over well, the crowd loved it, Stevie and Don sang it to eachother and seemed to be having a blast together.
Next was "Gold Dust Woman" a classic song, and one of my all time favorite Stevie/Mac songs. Don began the song with the line "Rock on Gold Dust Woman..." which I thought was odd, but cool. I just remember thinking how cool but kinda weird it was for Don Henley to be singing a Fleetwood Mac song. Stevie watches Don a lot when he sings I noticed, and mouths the words he's singing away from the mic, which is cool to watch. She was great also in this one, had her gold shawl on (for you Nicks fans reading this shawl is different than the usual "Gold Dust Woman" shawl). She did the wail in the middle of the song "and go hooooooooomeeeeee" etc. Don sang the ending also "Ooh pale shadow, of a woman." and Stevie in the end did the "baby baby baby baby..you cant see me now, you should see me now" which first made it's appearance in Vegas in May, and I love.
In the end of "Gold Dust Woman" Don and Stevie slowed danced while the band played, and Don lifted her arm to twirl Stevie, and she twirled in circles while holding onto his right hand. Very nice!
Next was "Circle Dance" which I loved. Stevie introduced it as a song she had loved, and was just so sure Don Henley wouldn't like it, but he loved it too, and they decided to do it. She said "Thank You Bonnie" to Bonnie Raitt who wrote the song, before they began. Listening to the bootlegs I was expecting to hear a lot of crowd chatter during this one, but fortunately did not. Everyone sat during this one, but they all seemed to be atleast watching/listening.
Stevie then said "Don Henley!" he bowed and walked off the stage. Stevie then introduced the band, which she always does. I can't remember her new pianists' name, but he was very good. She introduced Sharon Celani as "Sharona" as she always does and said she was "their teacher, without her we couldnt do this every night, literally." Brett Tuggle on keyboards and according to Stevie "Whatever else we can make him play" haha. She talked a lot about the 135 shows from 03-04 Fleetwood Mac just did during the band intros, everytime she introduced someone who was also on that tour, like Brett Tuggle, Carlos Rios, background singers, and Taku Hirano. She did mention that backup singer Jana Anderson only did HALF of the 135 shows.
She mentioned that Carlos Rios was someone who "when I wasn't doing so well" helped her stand, when she didn't think she could anymore. I have to say Waddy got the biggest applause, and it's obvious Stevie adores him also. So, Stevie left the stage to change again..and the drum solo to "STAND BACK" began, which I was excited to hear.
When the synthesizers began the crowd went wild, and rose to their feet and Stevie came out in her polka dot "Stand Back" shawl dancing away. She did the great high kick in the end of the song, which was great and walked off stage right after kicking (obviously to change clothes again!). She then came out for "Beauty and the Beast" wearing the awesome black gown she's been wearing for this, which is off the shoulder, and her hair pulled up into a bun. She sounded magnificent on this. It was also cool seeing the clips of the old black and white Beauty and the Beast film projected behind her, that made for a cool effect. She was absolutely radiant, and really got into this one, with her vocals.
When this was over, the drum solo for "Edge of Seventeen" began, and as the security guards with the white shirts had told us in the beginning, Stevie requested that the first 6 rows be allowed to come to the stage during "Edge of Seventeen." Well there was a lot of confusion over that, some big headed guard in a maroon shirt kept pushing us back and saying "GO BACK TO YOUR SEATS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" (Sorry to all the people I kept having to walk in front of.) I know the Henley fans didn't know what was going on, but this is a 20+ year tradition for Stevie fans, but some security seemed oblivious to it. He was a complete ass, and I ended up getting into a altercation with him. He told us to go back to our seats, which I thought was stupid, to make us walk in front of everyone, and squeeze back to our seats--and of course within 30 secs to do it again, after the let the fans come up. It's not like we were bombarding the stage, the security had already told us that we could come up, but this guy didn't seem to know that this drum solo was even for Edge of Seventeen I guess. So I got up there, and my oh my was it amazing up there. "Edge of 17" rocked hard, Stevie did the scream in the middle, and was literally jumping and shaking her shoulders throughout the song. Waddy as usual sounded fantastic. At one point in the song one of the backup singers messed up and came in too early which obviously annoyed Stevie, and she kind of shook her head and just closed her eyes and let them finish out that line. She wore a cream colored skirt, with a black top, and black duster type thing, she looked so good.
So Stevie did usual "Edge of 17" stage walk/fan greet in the end, and came to my section, and I couldn't reach her hand, for the stupid lady security guard who insisted on having her back up against the stage in my way (Sorry I'm bitter over Atlanta security last night!)...but then Stevie came to the right of me and I moved down some and got to grab her hand. That was an amazing, my life is now complete. I have been trying to do this for YEARS..And I did, she's so awesome. So after Edge security made us go back to our seats, and Stevie and Don came back out (yes Stevie had changed again)..the fans erupted when they came out hand in hand. She said something like "this is a song we do you might remember" or something. I called my aunt during it and let her hear, it was an aamzing performance, lots of Don/Stevie interaction during it. They closed with "So You Wanna Be A Rock n Roll Star" which I didn't think would be that good, but surprisingly is a great ending.
It really works for these two huge rock stars to close with this..singing in sequence "so you wanna be a rock n roll star, listen now to what I say..." like they are the Professors of Rock, was kinda cool, the lyrical meaning there. I loved it. I know Stevie played tambourine during it, I think Don did too I'm not sure. But they both rocked out, and sounded awesome together. In the end, they said thanks and Stevie, Don and Stevie's band all bowed, and left the stage--I was sad to see them go.
I really don't hate security guards I promise, I've usually had great experiences with them, but it just seemed in Atlanta they were over the top. Some guard lady tried to take away my cell phone during "New York Minute" and came over to me to say "let me have the camera, no pictures, let me have it" I was like "LOOK LADY IT'S A CELL PHONE!" and held it up to her, idiot. She was also the one who told the little 5 yr old girl to not stand on the seat, as if she was even blocking anyone's view.
Overall this is probably my favorite concert ever, and I've been to many. The feeling and vibe was just great, and I really felt like I got my money's worth seeing two huge stars on one stage. Don has really loosened up a lot it seems since the first few shows. It was an amazing show. Thanks Don and Stevie!
Posted by:Chris | June 17, 2005 at 11:53 AM
more henley needed in atlanta !!!!!! I just cant get enough of his music
Posted by:darlene sims | July 01, 2006 at 05:39 PM
more henley needed in atlanta !!!!!! I just cant get enough of his music
Posted by:Darlene Sims | July 01, 2006 at 05:41 PM
I just found this site, and I just want to say this was an awesome concert..Don Henley was outstanding, and Stevie Nicks is never to be missed if she is touring. She is great with Fleetwood Mac, or whoever..SHE ROCKS. Thank you I Love All Access-we had front row tickets!! Don Henley was right in front of us,he was very friendly with all of us here in the Atl., his set was superb, and to top it off, Miss Stevie comes out and sings Hotel California, New York Minute, both enchanting. Stevie's set was next, and I won't go thru all of her songs, but Outside The Rain, Dreams, Beauty and the Beast were simply beautiful!! Don and Stevie, Thank You so much for the wonderful concert. I also was lucky enoungh to get to the stage and be able to shake Stevie's hand-simply the thrill of a lifetime-security here in Atlanta needs to lighten up, learn what the artists allow, she always lets the first 5-6 rows come up, so stop ruining the concert for all of us fans!! Again, THANK YOU DON HENLEY AND STEVIE NICKS!! A STEVIE FAN FOREVER, C.Wheatley
Posted by:c wheatley | August 08, 2007 at 11:12 PM