Eagles Fly High as Audience Crows for More

August 1978' reviewed By Dale Anderson

The Eagles swooped in and out of Memorial Auditorium Friday night with an early-bird concert that saw them fly the coop before 10 p.m. while some 15,000 fans stood and crowed for a third encore.

The county-rock quintet had nudged the starting time ahead an hour – to 7 p.m. – to accommodate the final leg of their migration to Toronto, where they flew immediately after the show to prepare for a Canadian National Exhibition date Saturday.

This 14-city tour is a midsummer break for the band, a chance to loosen their load and take it easy after slaving in the studio over the successor to their hugely popular “Hotel California” album. Wednesday they played Minneapolis. Thursday they played softball.

But there was little laziness in their 90-minute set. This being the eighth stop on the tour, their flourishes were crisp and occasionally elegant, as when they diminished “Dueling Daltons” to a single amplified harmonic.

Their guitar-laden attack and their three- and four-part harmonies on ballads like “Lyin’ Eyes” suggest that the Eagles have, for all intents and purposes, taken the promontory that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young once occupied.

The mostly mild, melodic manner of the band’s nucleus – guitarists Glenn Frey and Don Felder and drummer Don Henley – found a refreshing counterpoint in Joe Walsh, the fun-loving heavy-metal guitarist who once fronted the James Gang.

Walsh, who has his own successful solo recording career, injected high decibels and crunching rhythms into the proceedings whenever he stepped forward to do one of his hits. It was his first encore, “Rocky Mountain Way,” that whipped up the frenzy for the second one, “Take It Easy.”

The Eagles drew from both their early and latter-day hits. “Hotel California” opened the show, but the album was not heavily represented. It was almost as if they’d left empty slots for new material, though no new songs were introduced.

The early start meant that the college-age crowd was picking its way to its seats throughout the opening set by Jesse Winchester, whose songwriting accomplishments far exceed his public exposure. On this tour, he’s making up for it.

Backed by a quintet, the gently drawling Winchester alternated slow and fast numbers until he struck a familiar concern in “Twigs and Seeds,” provoking howls of delight. He followed it with his best ballad, “Yankee Lady,” and exited to “Rhumba Man” with a funny little dance into the wings.