Musical Vagabond: The Eagles, Verizon Center

As I sat among the sea of 60-somethings, AARP members and other 20-somethings who’ve been brainwashed by their parents to love the Eagles and their music, I realized…wow, I am up very, very high.

I feel as if this a good way to start my FIRST BLOG EVER – a satire of all things artsy and annoying in the blog world – I just want to use this as a venue to say to my friends, family and other music lovers on this glorious Interweb, “Hey, I like music…A LOT. Hey, I go to a LOT of concerts. Maybe I should share all the fun I have seeing live music with them.” And that is what I intend to do.

There might be no better show to start this blogging adventure with my very recent experience at a concert for one of my favorite bands ever – the Eagles. I seek out the Eagles whenever they are in a 50 mile radius of the DC metro area, so finding out that they were a 10 minute bus ride from my home AND my lovely hippie mother had already bought tickets was music to my ears – pun much?

This show was extra special because it was part of the History of the Eagles tour, fashioned after their successful Showtime special, The History of the Eagles. The show was a complete historical – and I might argue religious – experience for any Eagles fan, spanning their entire career from the early days doing some serious California dreamin’ to their legendary Hell Freezes Over album. Glenn Frey acknowledged their California days with a nod to Saturday Night Live’s The Californians and their over-the-top explanation of directionality in California. Very special guest Bernie Leadon joined the Eagles for a majority of the show, especially for the early Eagles and Desperado albums’ portions of the evening.

One of the absolute highlights of the show was a new arrangement of Witchy Woman - funky in all the right parts, just how I like it.

The Desperado album is by far one of my favorite albums of all time, so to hear them play an entire set of songs from just that album was a real special treat. I was half inspired to get a motorcycle and have an Easy Rider quarter life crisis.

After this more mellow portion of the show, things started getting weird - and by that I mean Joe Walsh made his first appearance. Those of you who don't know, all the guys in the Eagles strike me as someone who could be friends with my baby boomer parents and are very 'California' in all the 1960s senses of the word. Joe Walsh completely breaks this chilled out, acoustic jam sesh mold. As my mother says, he looks "rode hard and put away wet". (Thanks for that visual, Pam). That being said, the man can jam on a guitar - ONLY if it's electric. He went through his rocker classics, like "Life's Been Good to Me So Far", "In the City", and closed with "Rocky Mountain Way". After hearing a little Joe Walsh speech, I know he's done his share of hard drugs, and perhaps there's some residual effects that come about when he's in the performance zone - or at least it sounded like it.

Glenn Frey was a stellar M.C. for the show, with Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmidt (of Eagles AND Poco fame) took a backseat to his and Joe Walsh's outlandish antics.

The show ended in classic Eagles fashion, with an encore of "Hotel California" and my personal favorite, "Desperado".

Throughout the show, I was impressed by these artists' ability to do these classic songs such justice. I listened to the Desperado album after the show and the songs sounded as if no time had passed. Much like Crosby, Stills and Nash or the Rolling Stones, these artists make an effort to keep their music timeless and nostalgic to their original - and new - fans, and they succeed in style.

My rocker chick mama, Pamela!