The final time I noticed the Eagles, I instructed myself it could be the final time. They placed on a superb present, they’re considered one of my favourite bands, however I’ve seen them a couple of instances over time, and they’re costly. However that was earlier than the present. After the present — the primary of two nights on the COVID rescheduled reveals at Chase Middle in San Francisco, I posted the next to my Fakebook timeline:
This submit is a departure from canines, bikes and cigars, not the primary one and never that final, however it’s does run alongside the identical theme of innocuousness. There’s nothing unpleasant, controversial, adversarial, or, within the grander scheme of issues, notably essential contained right here. However, one may argue (I’d) that nothing is extra essential than these small day-to-day , pleasures, victories, connections and the like. So, that’s rather a lot to arrange this. For those who’re nonetheless with me, cool. For those who’re not, you may have in all probability simply skipped all the way down to the gorgeous footage and “preferred” away. Additionally, cool.
Final night time, the Eagles carried out the primary of their two nights on the Chase Middle in San Francisco. That is the Resort California/Best Hits Tour that was postponed for greater than a yr due to COVID. I’ll lower proper to the, um… “chase” and go forward and say that it was well worth the wait. Since reforming after Glenn Frey’s passing, I’ve seen them 3 times — their first present in LA on the Basic West in 2017, once more on their subsequent tour in Sacramento on the G1C in 2018 and final night time. All have been quintessential Eagles performances, however final night time was simply their finest — earlier than or after Glenn Frey’s premature loss of life, and prior, I’d say their finest tour was their final with him, the “Historical past of the Tour.”
Between Vince Gill and Frey’s son, Deacon, the elder Frey’s function just isn’t recreated, it’s reinvented, however in a method that pays homage to his legacy and, via his son, completely in his picture. But, it was final night time that your complete band, pretty much as good because it was proper from the beginning, actually got here collectively in “that” method that few teams ever do, in the best way the Eagles (nearly) all the time have — and now they’ve once more. There was magic on that stage. There was chemistry. Possibly it was alchemy, however no matter you need to name it, this band was really having fun with their night time, and their real appreciation for his or her followers’ — not simply final night time, however for greater than 50 years — revealed an authenticity that can not be faked.
I instructed myself this is able to be my final Eagles live performance. Whereas they’re considered one of my favourite teams, I’ve seen them rather a lot — sufficient, I figured — and they’re an costly manufacturing. Nonetheless, possibly this was not my final Eagles live performance. On the conclusion of the fourth encore tune (that’s proper, Sacramento, we received 4 — Henley’s “Boys of Summer time” was included within the SF encore set), I toyed, briefly, with the concept of going again tonight. I received’t, however when the following tour comes round — as a result of I significantly doubt they’re executed — you would possibly simply discover me again within the stands.
Cue the music…
I’m already gone…
I’ve tickets proper smack-dab within the middle of the 202 part within the new 4,500 seat venue (named, initially sufficient, “The Venue”) on the Thunder Valley On line casino in Lincoln, CA. They’re within the middle of the middle and shut,
nearer than I used to be on the Chase, at The Golden 1 Middle in Sacramento in 2018 and method nearer than the band’s resurrection after the passing of Glenn Frey for the Basic West pageant at Dodger Stadium in 2017 or the seats I had as a broke-ass grad pupil in Louisiana once I noticed them in New Orleans for the “Historical past of” tour in 2014.
These tickets have been near $500 every (together with all of the bullshit Ticketmaster charges), akin to the value of the seats I purchased for each the Chase Middle present final yr and the G1C present in 2018. Have been they “value it?” That’s a tricky query to reply. If I needed to put it on a bank card and I used to be paying these tickets off over the following few months (been there, executed that — by no means once more), then, no, it’s not. However If I’ve disposable money, then I determine what to dispose it on — generally I would “waste it” on motorbike components, others it could be an Eagles live performance.
None of this implies I’ll for certain use these tickets. I purchased them as a result of I may, figuring out the funding is protected (-ish; I assumed that in regards to the pre-Covid Chase Middle buy, too — then Covid occurred and I misplaced cash on my “funding” additional tickets). They made promoting the tickets slightly tougher by sending out precise, bodily tickets within the mail — if I promote, it will likely be an actual, not digital, transaction. However that’s solely silly Ticketmaster bullshit, not an insurmountable downside. And a minimum of Ticketmaster received’t get a double-cut that method. However I didn’t “want” the cash I spent and I don’t “want” to double or triple it, both. Nonetheless, I’ll get that if I promote them as a pair (no “buddy offers,” don’t ask), that’s the payoff for the funding and the danger I took.
However I additionally would possibly go. What I wrote a yr in the past — mixed with the truth that seeing the Eagles in a one-off small venue setting just isn’t prone to occur once more quickly — is fairly compelling. I imply, I will be fairly convincing. If I do go, that can depart open one essential query. Fortuitously, I’ve, actually, months to determine.
