The Eagles Rocked! at the RBC

(Update: Thanks, Beleg -- it was the RBC not the airport!) :)


Went to the Eagles concert last night -- I was awed by the great shape (vocals, instrumentals, physical condition) of The Eagles!

Imagine a massive 17,000-people strong hootenanny! YES! 17,000 people singing together with the Eagles.

(I hereby admit a strong bias for Joe Walsh. It's always been there. His playing is better now (what's he now, 60?) than back then! He did some rifts that knocked my socks off!) (and, that mug of his.. heheheh!)

I'm TRYING to not say a whole lot about the concert because I don't want to blow it for anyone else yet to see it.

From start to finish -- superb! I didn't experience a single "slow" moment.

ENJOY!!!!! GET THOSE TICKETS!

Having grown up in the rock scene of the San Francisco late 60s, all 70s, 80s, and 90s -- I had a few startling moments which came out of the blue concerning my new fellow concert goers in N.C.

I've never had as much fun with concert attendees as I did last night. Not for a single moment did I feel on-my-guard-against some drubbed-out, moonbat, drugged, or oversexed prowler.

Politeness, friendliness, helpfulness, "upbeat" was the nature of the crowd.

On the way home? Outta nowhere.. a single image popped into my head: Not for a second throughout the entire concert experience did "sex" appear. Not hetero, not homo sexuality. If there was beefcakin' going on, it certainly wasn't apparent. It didn't cross my mind at all. Why? SEX wasn't/isn't an issue. Like it always was in the SF Bay Area. I didn't see the usual hetero or homo trollers anywhere at RDU. I didn't see people holding hands, even. Laughter, friendliness -- people going to a concert.

And this is what blue-staters make fun of? People going to a concert to actually witness a performance they have paid for; as opposed to the "attendees" of the concert being part of the "celebrity/inclusive/performance art" of the event. WOW.

WOW!

YES. This is a first for me. A first. People not being outrageous and in your face and distracting from the performance I paid to see.

WOW.

But then, there's also the music and essence of The Eagles. When you review their hits and you realize so many of their hits are still playing in so many venues as "current" -- you realize The Eagles were always "there"... growing up alongside those of us from the 60s and 70s (I attended: Kinks, Stones, Dead, Zeppelin, The Who, Johnny and Edgar Winters, Grand Funk, BB King, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Marshall Tucker, Hot Tuna, Sly and Family, Santana, Elvin Bishop, Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Steve Miller, Stoneground, Jimmy Buffet, Billy Graham Day on the Greens, Winterland, Fillmore, Cow Palace, Keysar Stadium, Berkeley Amphitheatre, Pepperland, Sleeping Lady, Monterey Jazz Fest., etc. etc., etc.,). Their songs were always stabilizing against the highs and lows of the music scene. But certainly Not Muzac.

Throughout the 60s and 70s, while I can't say I was a rabid Eagles fan, I certainly knew most all their songs -- you did too. There they were running alongside us day in and day out as we mucked our way through our lives, always resounding a stable theme: Life was good. It had its ups and downs. But to always look for the bright sun to appear. Stay focused on the lighter and brighter side of life. The Eagles didn't self-absorb via their music. They didn't delve into the acid-rock self-absorption of so many bands. Nor did they attempt through outrageous performance art to bump their status.

No, they were there rocking alongside us as we all grew and aged, politely picking up and referring to au courrant political and sociomovements, but never going so deep into the tempest they lost their ability to readily right themselves as a band.

In essence, The Eagles picked up where the Beach Boys dropped off. The theme and sounds are familier.

Imagine 5-part harmonies being sung out amid 17,000 people as we soared alongside The Eagles, the past, and the future.

They performed their opus to 9-11. It's not a great song. It's not a kicker; but it brought mist of tears to my eyes. And so poignant. About the hole in time which provided the opening for the 9-11 assault. And how that must not happen again.

You know me well, as the song was playing: I, of course, thought about the holes in our country's intelligence. About the holes in our National Defense which permitted 9-11 to happen.

And how we must not allow it again.

The last image: Yes, 17,000 people singing along with the Eagles. You might quibble that this was attendeed performance art. Here's the kicker. At one point, I realized I *was* singing along with The Eagles. I looked around me, and through binocs, and saw a wonderful sight on the sea of faces in that stadium: I doubt anyone was aware, in the "ego" sense, that they were singing along with The Eagles. The focus was upon The Eagles -- and you could see it in all the faces. It wasn't about audience members. It was about pure enjoyment and appreciation of the music the Eagles have brought to us all over the years. The looks on the faces of attendees, was rapt, and pure "grok". Rapture, might be another term to describe what I witnessed in the attendees. Pure enjoyment. And the words and tunes just poured out of the soul to not overwhelm, to not upstage The Eagles. Or even self-awareness that any kind of audience "performance art" was in play.

It wasn't worship of The Eagles: It was appreciation and pure joy.


'nuff said. Good concert.

On another note: I'm "educating" again this weekend. I'll blog if anything significant or "updatish" comes up! Loves!