Eagles Tribute Bands

[Delilah]

Therefore, I wonder if it holds true that there is more interest in tributes to bands that are not active for whatever reason (as well as Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin spring to my mind) than ones for bands that are still active?

According to the article, the band Hotel California has been around since 1983, but they have been exceptionally popular over the last decade when the Eagles have been active. However, they don't look like or dress like the real band members. I'm guessing they were in demand b/c they were a less expensive alternative to the real thing. I speculate that tribute bands that do look and sound just like the Eagles will become more popular in the future. When I first saw the picture in the article, I thought there were 4 guys trying to look like Timothy.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Hi all,

Just wanted to pop in briefly to say I've just got myself a ticket to go and see the Illegal Eagles at the Liverpool Empire this Saturday. I didn't know they were playing until last weekend but after reading reviews of their shows I knew I wouldn't want to pass them up. Really looking forward to seeing their show! Tickets weren't too costly either.

I'm probably not ready to come back fully to The Border just yet, but might reconsider a month or two down the line. I have no idea if anyone else on here (regular poster or otherwise) is going to this show but if by any chance you are going I'd be happy to say hello - I'll almost certainly be wearing my Don Henley T-shirt! Part of the appeal to me is that I know will be surrounded by people who share my love of this great band.

Jonny

[thelastresort]

Should be good, saw them in High Wycombe years ago and they were superb, the setlist particularly stood out for me. I still can't face going to a tribute act after seeing the real thing, so I'll have to give them (and the equally-good Talon) a miss these days sadly! Let us know how it goes. Good to see you, albeit briefly, back in the fold too!

[Glennsallnighter]

Hi all,

Just wanted to pop in briefly to say I've just got myself a ticket to go and see the Illegal Eagles at the Liverpool Empire this Saturday. I didn't know they were playing until last weekend but after reading reviews of their shows I knew I wouldn't want to pass them up. Really looking forward to seeing their show! Tickets weren't too costly either.

I'm probably not ready to come back fully to The Border just yet, but might reconsider a month or two down the line. I have no idea if anyone else on here (regular poster or otherwise) is going to this show but if by any chance you are going I'd be happy to say hello - I'll almost certainly be wearing my Don Henley T-shirt! Part of the appeal to me is that I know will be surrounded by people who share my love of this great band.

Jonny

Please let me know how it is JCL. They will be playing in Dublin in September so I'm interested in going.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Thanks - I'll do a write up and put it up here. Getting excited now with just a couple of hours before the start of the show!

[Jonny Come Lately]

Just got back from the show now, had a fantastic evening. I was very impressed by their vocals and musicianship and also their setlist - they played almost all the hits and found room for some slightly more surprising inclusions. I also met the band to get my programme signed and briefly spoke to all of them, which made it even better! I'm tired now but it has been a great day.

[UndertheWire]

I've just searched this thread for references to The Alter Eagles. They are booked to play a local arts centre in the autumn. I found that Secret Squirrel has seen them at least once and thinks they are good, so I'll probably give them a try.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Okay, here's my review of the Illegal Eagles show at the Liverpool Empire on 10th June!

I'll start by posting the setlist:

1. Hole In The World (one chorus only)
2. How Long
3. Busy Being Fabulous
4. Peaceful Easy Feeling
5. New Kid In Town
6. Ol’ 55
7. I Can’t Tell You Why
8. Already Gone
9. One Of These Nights
10. Witchy Woman
11. James Dean
12. Silver Dagger
13. Take It Easy
14. Wasted Time
---Intermission---
15. Hotel California
16. I Dreamed There Was No War
17. Try And Love Again
18. Love Will Keep Us Alive
19. Lyin Eyes
20. Take It To The Limit
21. Rocky Mountain Way
22. Boys Of Summer
23. Heartache Tonight
24.The Last Resort
-------------------------
Encore:
25. Life In The Fast Lane
26. Desperado

On a personal note this was the first time I’d ever been to a concert on my own – I had a pretty good seat in the stalls near the front of the stage. The show started at 7:30 PM, when the band members walked on to the sound of Journey of the Sorcerer – although I think this was the version from the 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide movie rather than the Eagles recording (not sure on this though). The opening surprised me as they started with an acapella performance of the first verse of Hole In The World, before launching into two LROOE tracks – How Long and Busy Being Fabulous. I enjoyed both of these, the former especially (and it was nice to see this album get some love!) I really knew I was in for a great night though with Peaceful Easy Feeling, a beautiful performance which got the harmonies and guitar solo pretty much spot on. A flawless New Kid In Town maintained this high standard (having never heard this song live before it was quite funny to hear my username being sung right in front of me!). Ol’ 55 was, if anything even better, and stood as one of the absolute highlights of the show – they totally nailed it, with an absolutely spot on combination of piano and pedal steel. The man sitting next to me said ‘that was quality’, which for me summed it up perfectly.

The band followed this up with an excellent version of I Can’t Tell You Why, which successfully captured the magic of the superb HFO performance. After ICTYW, one of the band members said ‘now for some rock and roll!’ They delivered this by performing four consecutive pre-HC tracks – Already Gone, One Of These Nights, Witchy Woman and James Dean, all of which were performed very well. Next up was Take It Easy, I wasn’t sure how they would play it, but their take was very faithful to the original version – even down to the banjo coming in at the start of the guitar solo. They sang Silver Dagger before playing it, which made it even better. The final song of the first set was Wasted Time, which they did a fine job with. I spent the interval very much looking forward to the beginning of the second half of the show!
At the beginning of the second set, I noticed that one of the guitarists had brought out a double neck guitar, and this could only mean one thing… Hotel California! It was (perhaps predictably) given a rapturous reception, but this was fully deserved as it was a brilliant performance – the guitar work in particular was superb (the fills as well as the solos). After this song, almost all of the band members left the stage, and the one remaining guitarist played an absolutely beautiful rendition of I Dreamed There Was No War. I thought this was great because, apart from being a very powerful song, it was presented in a way that I think would enable people to enjoy it even if they’d never previously heard it.

The full band then returned to play Try and Love Again, which was a wonderful performance – the vocals and especially the harmonised guitars were handled perfectly. The next song they played was Love Will Keep Us Alive, which I’m not really a great fan of, although they performed it well. After this came the other two big hits from the One Of These Nights album – Lyin’ Eyes and Take It To The Limit. Both songs featured audience participation – we were asked to sing the final verse of the former (virtually everyone knew all the lyrics!) and the refrain at the end of the latter. I’ll be honest and say I think this was perhaps a little overdone, more so on TITTL, but the band performances were excellent (I loved their vocals on the verses on TITTL) and the crowd was really into both of these songs – especially Lyin’ Eyes, which got the second best reception of the night after Hotel California – so it feels a bit churlish to complain.

After the two big sing-a-longs, the crowd was on their feet and the volume was turned up with performances of Rocky Mountain Way, Boys of Summer and Heartache Tonight, all of which really rocked. RMW and Heartache were spot on – BOS was quite different from the way Don played it last summer (to my ears it felt like there was more guitar and less keyboard) although it was still very good. However, the real treat for me was the song that followed – when they introduced the final song of the regular set as ‘how the west was lost’ I was delighted. I was not expecting them to play The Last Resort and I absolutely loved their superb version. The band then left the stage before returning to play a superb Life In The Fast Lane, which featured an extended ending. They then played Desperado as the final song – most of the audience got their phones out for this and it was a great end to the night.
After the show, I stayed to meet all the band members, I got them to sign my programme and told them how much I enjoyed it. It was a delight to be able to speak to them – they are all massive Eagles fans. IIRC the bassist said during the show that they did plan to play every song on the Hotel California album during their current tour, so if you’re planning to go and see them soon there’s a decent chance you might get Victim Of Love and Pretty Maids All In A Row.

It was interesting how the band members spread out vocal duties, which were not along the obvious lines. For example, they had one singer who did New Kid In Town but also did Wasted Time, and another who sang TITTL and TALA while also handling lead vocals on several Henley songs such as BBF, BOS and LITFL (doing an excellent job with both). Also worthy of mention is their excellent attention to detail with their instrumental set up - there was a feature in the programme about their double neck guitar on Hotel California and the great trouble they had gone to in order to ensure authenticity, and the use of the B-bender on PEF greatly enhanced that performance. During the show the bassist (Trevor) handled most of the frontman duties – refreshingly he eschewed the ‘plaintiff’ and ‘credit card song’ jokes and instead used some other entertaining asides between songs.

Overall I thought the Illegal Eagles put on a great show and would recommend it to any Eagles fan. I would definitely go and see them again! My only significant reservation was the lack of songs from Desperado (which was represented solely by the title track), however this was easily compensated for by the inclusion of pretty much every Eagles hit (Tequila Sunrise aside, the only hits omitted were The Best Of My Love and The Long Run) alongside several album tracks which they performed superbly. On The Border was also pretty well represented, which was a nice surprise. I was glad that they mostly played Eagles songs, although the two solo songs they did play were excellent additions to the set list. If I had to pick one highlight, I would go for The Last Resort, although their fantastic take on Ol’ 55 pushed it very close. There were many excellent ones though!

I’m happy to answer any questions about the show, especially from anyone who’s planning or thinking about going to see them.

[New Kid In Town]

Johnny - Thanks for the great review. Sounds like you had an awesome time.

[Delilah]

That's a wonderful review, JCL. Now I want to go see them!