Worcester, MA 11-26-08

[TimothyBFan]

Here's a good review --this review gets it and loves it!!!!

http://www.telegram.com/article/2008...811270293/1116

[Freypower]

That was a very nice review.

I do wonder why Glenn can't be given a bit more space in some of these reviews. He doesn't just tell corny jokes.

[glenneaglesfan]

Welcome to the Border, Jeff! Enjoy the concert, and hope you'll find time to give us a review.

[DonFan]

Great review, TBF--thanks for posting it.
I am in complete agreement with the writer, Nancy Sheehan. Especially this part:

"But it was our man, Don, who got the biggest ovation when introductions were going around. It was positively thunderous, an honor that often goes to band clown and perennial crowd favorite Joe Walsh. It wasn’t just that Henley saved nearby Walden Pond in Concord from trashy doom by forming a foundation and a Web site (walden.org) and organizing fundraising concerts, several of which were staged right here in Worcester. The clapping actually died down just a notch — and only out of respect, we choose to believe — when he briefly plugged that close-to-his-heart topic. We would have to poll the audience to know for sure, but we suspect his popularity arises from that fact that, whether solo or banded with the Eagles, almost everything the man has ever publicly done, drummed, said or sung has helped us see the world more clearly or made us feel a tad better about things. Then there’s his integrity factor, a refreshing concept in our current collapsing era of greed and corruption. I’ll clap for that."

So will I, Nancy--so will I!!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Well, it was a positive review, but seems like the critic may not be all that familiar with Eagles shows. She says they played for nearly two and a half hours and that the Eagles don't always do encores!!! Unless they cut out some songs, my bet is that the show was quite a bit longer. As for the comment about the encores - .

I don't think it's surprizing that the crowd may have been a bit Henley-centric - after all they were in 'Walden' country.

[eaglesvet]

I'm still trying to determine which concert I loved more last week--Hershey or Worcester--but I can't. As I mentioned to Stars, I think that Hershey was more musically, vocally, and visually perfect; but Worcester had a bit more "personality." I was surprised by a few surprises there. And yes, Dreamer, they played their usual length show, about 3 hours.

Since it was the most travelled day in the year (Thanksgiving Eve), I made sure to leave plenty of time to travel. Although I did hit some bottlenecks, it only took 5 hrs for a 4 hr drive, which I thought was pretty good. I arrived with about 3 1/2 hrs till showtime, so I looked around the local area of Worcester, which I learned later is the 2nd largest city in New England (surprise) after Boston. Nothing too dramatic to see or do near the arena, but afterwards I had dinner and made my way to the box office. I wanted to pull a "semi-Soda" since I was still an hour early--see if they had a better seat to exchange my 10th row for. Well, the best they could do was row 13, and I even checked back a little later with a different clerk. So I guess it doesn't work everywhere.

I had asked ahead of time about camera policies, and the arena was allowing "non-professional cameras without exchangeable lenses." Now my camera (that is no longer in production, ie, old) was jimmy-rigged by my local camera shop to hopefully work for this concert since my pix of Hershey were. It certainly fit the bill of non-professional, but I had my telephoto lens on it this time. Other than that, I was travelling light this time...no sweets, no signs... Wouldn't you know that the security guard really rifles through my tote and catches me on the camera lens?? But, luckily I remembered another Border member mentioning just going to another security guard, which is exactly what I did. I went out and around to another entrance and found the slacker guard, and he didn't check a thing. I was in like flint. I hesitate to mention the several large signs in all their glory that I saw other patrons carrying in the main lobby. I assume they made it in, although I couldn't bring myself to look--the memories of my last sign attempt were just too fresh.

I had planned to enter the arena early to do a little investigating. I wanted to see if I could determine the fate of my Hershey Kisses from 3 nights earlier. I sat in my seat (this time, all the way on the left side aisle) and scouted out the goings-on of the roadies. Once I determined who I felt was the head roadie, I went up to the roped-off area in front of the stage and asked if he knew if the guys had received any large Kisses at the Hershey show. Not having any difficulty keeping a straight face, he answered that he had no idea, because they pack it up and leave immediately after each show (I think I remember something about that from Jackson Browne.) I wish he would have offered to go back and ask an Eagle, but his demeanor was so serious I wasn't going to push it further.

Once I returned to my seat, I found that the seat next to me was now occupied by another "aging Eagles fan" who was also seeing the concert alone. It was her first time for LROOE (she had seen HFO), so I told her she was in for a great show!

I'm sending this on now to avoid a computer shut down of my work like last time...

[eaglesvet]

I'm a little hesitant to restart, because my computer didn't go into its automatic update phase yet, which I know happens around this time. Once again, this is a night when I fell asleep early for a few hours and now I'm wide awake. It's definitely the most peaceful time in my house to get something like this done!

Overall, the crowd in Worcester was a bit rowdier than in Hershey...I bet because the surrounding area (including Boston) boasts a ton of colleges. There were people of all ages at the show, as usual, but my guess is that this crowd may have had a slightly younger tilt. Even so, the floor crowd in front of me was not big on dancing until much later in the show--similar to Hershey. In fact, there was one woman smack dab in the middle of my section who was a lone dancer/arm-waver from the minute she arrived (slightly late), and one security guard made it his sole duty to go over to her row and sit her down every song of the first half of the show (unless everyone was up and dancing at the same time.)

This crowd was much more into the sing-along, however, and much earlier in the concert. The crowd singing was noticeably louder as early as Hotel California, and possibly even on Guilty of the Crime--and it seemed almost to never let down after that. That must be very gratifying for the performers, I would think.

When Glenn first welcomed us, he specifically thanked us for coming out on Thanksgiving Eve. Timmy did the same later during one of his blurbs.
The woman next to me and I had specifically been discussing this earlier as well. I mentioned that I thought we would only get one encore (thankfully, the show started very close to 8pm), because obviously the band would want to be rushing off to get to their Turkey Day celebrations. Then we started musing as to where that actually might be, realizing that even with a private jet, that put the guys out West at an unreasonably early am arrival. So we thought they probably would be visiting relatives here on the East...perhaps the Freys and Quinners in Nazareth, PA? Or Timmy's in-laws in Philly? We both jumped at the chance to offer them a ride south if needed...

Some unexpected surprises at this show: This was the first time that I heard Glenn tell the Don Tana's story about how Lyin' Eyes came about from the drama that he and Don witnessed daily at that restaurant. He actually referred to the place as a "nesting ground for beautiful women." He then said how they used to do "everything" fast in those days ; and how what took them 2 days to write then would take 2 years now. He still tacked on the plaintiff joke, which prior to this show was the only intro I had ever heard for this song. I really wish he would do more story telling before the songs--it is soooo interesting to hear that, and makes the songs so much more meaningful (not that they aren't full of meaning already, but we would understand more of what was in their minds at the time they wrote it.)

There was what I think might be a "LROOE first" during Lyin' Eyes--at least I've not heard or read of any other show where this happened. At one point when Glenn sang "You can't hide your lyin' eyes...", Joe turned around and put on silly glasses (kind of like the ones with the fake nose and mustache attached, although I couldn't see if that was the exact type or not.) It only happened for a few seconds and then he took them off, so if you were watching someone else, you missed it. It was pretty goofy!

The next surprise was on everyone, including the band members. When Boys of Summer began, Don might as well have been playing charades--because his mike was completely DEAD-- only moments after Glenn had been singing on it the previous song. It was too weird to hear the instrumentation, and see Don moving his lips and his body, and hear absolutely nothing come out. Audience members, myself included, were trying to yell to him that the mike was out and to start over, but it was well into the song before he realized it--I would say for almost a minute or so. Then he moved to Joe's mike, and voila, the vocals came on mid-song. Since that is one of my favorite songs, I was very glad I had heard it in Hershey...I would have been very disappointed if the Worcester version was my only chance to hear it. After Don moved over, Glenn slapped that mike to prove it was dead, and then he went around and slapped the other main mikes. It was funny to see, although he didn't find it funny, I'm sure. Actually, neither Glenn nor Don showed any sign of annoyance on stage. The only time Don made mention of the Mike Incident was near the end, right before Desperado during our one encore. He made a few comments about Walden Woods immediately after saying "Good, at least this mike is working" and then he sang the final song of the night.

Glenn, too, mentioned Walden Woods earlier in the night during the band introductions. Before introducing Don, he said quite a bit about how the Massachusetts area (home to Walden Woods for those of you who may not know) and Worcester specifically was instrumental in the early days of the Walden Woods project's fund-raising. Apparently, some of the first concerts to aid the Woods were held in that arena, and Glenn went on to name some of the musicians (other than the Eagles) who performed, such as Bob Seger. Of course, all of this got a loud ovation, as did Don. Also a very loud ovation for Scott Crago, the other drummer, who hails from Mass. And finally, I got one line of singing of My Girl when Timmy introduced our fearless leader!

A couple of other moments: An unplanned Glenn joke during the botanical portion of the show, as he was reciting the names of the songs the band had just sung, he said, "And that was No More Waiting in the Weeds," and realizing his mistake, "It's all running together on me now!"
Earlier in the night on The Long Run, Don substituted "debutantes from Boston" and got a crowd response from that. Why wouldn't he say Worcester, I wondered, given that it is the 2nd largest city in New England? That was a slight on his part, IMO. (And it does fit syllable-wise...the town is pronounced 'Wuster' with a soft 'u' as in 'bully'.)

Anyway, that's all that was new, different, and surprising from what I guess is the last Northeast LROOE concert...hope the rest of you Eagle fans enjoy your shows to come!

[TimothyBFan]

Thank you once again EV for a great review. So glad you made the long trip to see them once more.

I am anxiously awaiting any reviews today from Houston, but know this is it till after the first of the year and I will not be able to live vicariously thru everyone else's reviews for awhile. I guess we will all just have to comfort each other and entertain ourselves with old stories and pics.

[sodascouts]

What a terrific read. Thanks for all the little details! I've never heard of Joe doing those glasses during Lyin' Eyes before - I do think it's a first! Don't be too upset about the "debutantes in Boston" thing. Unfortunately, Worcester and Boston and kind of considered synonymous by a lot of people!

[eaglesvet]

Don't worry Soda, I'm not upset. That was the first time I've ever set foot in Worcester city limits! Boston is actually my favorite city that I've ever been to...I practiced my first 2 years out of vet school in a town about an hour south called North Dartmouth, so I spent quite a bit of my free time up in Beantown!