Waldbuhne Berlin June 23rd, 2011

[Annabel]

Nice one Steph.

[StephUK]

OK, so here's my review(sorry it's not very good). I'll post 3 or 4 photos here soon & give you a link to the rest(if they're any good).

BERLIN 2011 - EAGLES SHOW REVIEW

Left home at 2:30 am & I got to Berlin at about midday. Unfortunately my luggage didn’t! So I had to spend ages in a queue at the ‘lost & found’ office. My luggage was still in Paris & would be put on the next flight to Berlin which would arrive at around 4:00pm & be delivered to my hotel, but they wouldn’t guarantee a time. I had to go round the few shops at the airport to get some undies & a T-shirt to wear in the evening (it was humid & I felt sticky & dirty & just had to have some clean clothes for the evening).
I left the hotel at 7:10pm (still my luggage hadn’t arrived!) and walked the short distance to the Waldbuhne. Very nice venue – known also as the Forest Theatre – lots of steps down to the front seated area (standing only around the outside). At a guess, I would say it was 75 - 80% full for the show. My seat was in the middle section, front row, in front of Timothy.
The Eagles came onstage at 8:00pm. Glenn was in a Yellow shirt, white T-shirt & jeans & looked very nice. Don was a bit dull in his grey shirt by comparison. Joe was in a red shirt & Timothy was in purple.
The sound seemed a little different to other shows I’ve been to, but perhaps it was the acoustics of the venue. The keyboards were quite prominent, which sometimes they’re not.
The audience were appreciative, but I thought the seated ones were never going to get onto their feet – but they eventually did.

Sitting just behind me was another Eagles fan from England called Ellie, so we got talking & she introduced me after the show to Annett who lives in Berlin(I think) – they told me they are both regulars on the ‘FastLane’ message board. It was fun to chat & laugh with them after the show.

It rained as little during the show, but not enough to worry about & there were a few flashes of lightening.
I forget about the stress of the day – who needs luggage when you have the Eagles?

A cute bit for me was when Glenn introduced Will. He told us how Will is now doing some lecturing in Modern Music at the Uni of Southern California, and called him ‘Professor Hollis’ then turned to Will and bowed a couple times. Will shook his head and laughed & then did the ‘cut’ sign under his chin.
Joe did the bit where he sings a tune & tells the audience to sing it back to him, before Life’s Been Good. Joe was his usual self; he’s a real one-off.
Timothy as usual was the serene presence on the stage. Very cool. Love the purple shirt.
Glenn was in fine spirits and was very lively & flirty.
Don seemed too much in the background . He only really spoke to the audience once, before The Long Run. Glenn dominated as the front man, and Don kind of got lost amongst the rest of them. Being in dull coloured clothing didn’t help. Now that he has let his hair go grey & has the grey beard, he does need to wear a more colourful shirt. I was in the front row & felt he was not prominent enough so for the audience further back he must have all but faded away!
What does anyone else think, who has seen the recent shows?

Will looked SO beautiful. Scott MUST ditch that cap (forget the receding/thinning hair Scott, we love you just as you are). The band all did their bit to support our wonderful Eagles boys(as usual).
Glenn missed out some of the old jokes, but had a lot of general chatter between songs & when doing the band introductions.

Another highlight for me; at the end of the show Glenn was stood right in front of me when he put both his hands to his lips & blew a kiss to the audience. I caught his eye just as he did that, so I blew him a kiss back & curtseyed as I did so. Glenn gave me such a lovely smile & laughed about it.
As you all know, my heart belongs wholly & devotedly to Will Hollis, and always will, but when Glenn is in flirting mood, oh boy, could he lead a girl astray!!!!!!!!

Sadly, a shorter set list, but still perfectly performed as usual. Wish I could have stayed on in Germany & seen another show.

SETLIST(I think it’s in order)
1. Seven Bridges Road
2. How Long
3. Take it to the limit
4. Hotel California
5. Peaceful easy Feeling
6. I can’t tell you why
7. Witchy Woman
8. Lyin’ Eyes
9. Long Road out of Eden
10. Walk Away
11. Boys of Summer
12. In the City
13. The Long Run
14. Life’s Been Good
15. Funk 49
16. Heartache Tonight
17. Life in the Fast Lane
Encore
18. Take it Easy
19. Rocky Mountain Way
20. Desperado

[Troubadour]

Wow, Steph! You only live once, hey? I'm glad you had a good time and thanks for the review.

As for this photo, can I second Willie's "freakin' gorgeous" comment? Except I'll direct it at a different band member...

[Freypower]

Thanks for the review & your comments about Glenn 'dominating' as frontman; but he doesn't dominate vocally, does he? The way they haved moved The Long Run down only emphasises Don's dominance even further. He doesn't have to talk to the audience. He's doing all the singing.

I would appreciate it if you could tell me how TITTL (moved up to third song in - let's get rid of 'em quickly) is performed. I assume that Don is down the front playing acoustic.

Now I'm going to shut up making these comments as I think my opinions on this are now well known.

[Troubadour]

I'm really not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers with this post - I'm just a little bemused by the whole "Glenn hardly features" thing. According to this set list, Glenn sings five leads and Don sings seven. I don't see a huge discrepancy there. Joe sings four. Glenn also shares lead vocals on How Long. As Steph said, he is front and center pretty much through the whole concert. He was absolutely the dominating force in San Jose (I mean that in the best way possible - he was charismatic, flirtatious, funny, animated and commanding.) Don does sort of fade into the background when he's not singing lead. He's certainly at the back of the stage an awful lot. That's not a complaint, just an observation. Truthfully, I spent far more time looking at and listening to Glenn during the San Jose concerts because he was RIGHT THERE.

I understand that we all want different songs and we want our favourite member to sing more, but I guess I just don't quite get the level of anger and upset, particularly the comments I have seen previously along the lines of "if Glenn doesn't value himself and his ability anymore, maybe it's time to hang it up." I totally get the disappointment over dropping songs and, yes, Don sings two more leads than Glenn in this current set list - but, to me at least, Glenn still pretty much dominates/carries the shows. Not just with his voice, but with his guitar-playing, his presence and his charm. I truthfully don't see that he is devaluing himself at all.

Again, please nobody take this as a personal attack - I am purely curious and putting forth my general take on the whole situation. I welcome any discussion, and I apologise if I have hit any nerves. This is in no way a Don Vs Glenn thing! I love them both and I'd be more than happy for Glenn to sing a couple of songs more than Don. It's just that nothing I've seen from Glenn has shown me that he is bored/feeling down on himself. I don't quite understand where that comes from.

I am willing to be corrected.

[Freypower]

My main objection is to the long sequence of songs starting with Long Road Out Of Eden which goes Don/Joe/Don/Joe/Don/Joe/Joe. I suggest that should be broken up somewhat. I completely disagree with the way all Glenn's songs except for two are stuck at the beginning.

And the concerts you have been to, like the ones I went to, were the full show, not this 20 song set.

[Troubadour]

So it's not so much that Glenn sings less songs, it's the order of the set list? I can understand that. I suppose, though, it would be a bit difficult to break up the Joe songs... My personal opinion is that the whole "rock segment" works very well, particularly after the weight of Long Road Out Of Eden. Everyone gets warmed up in the second half. It makes sense to begin with some ballads and then get the audience up and dancing after the interval.

Despite that, I do think Take It To The Limit could do well nearer to the end. It's a big song and a great audience singalong. It might make sense to have it somewhere nearer to the encore.

My take is that I would imagine that it's very difficult to decide which songs to include (let alone to organise a set list) and that any decisions are made for the benefit of the flow of the show, rather than with any conscious thought about sticking all of one member's songs at the beginning. I appreciate the clarification, though, and I do understand your opinions better now.

As for the concerts I saw... you're right, they were the full set concerts, but Glenn's persona and leadership haven't changed. Steph saw this 20-song concert in Berlin and commented on Glenn's dominance and Don "fading into the background" in comparison. I know exactly what she means because I've felt the same way at shows before. All I'm trying to get across is, from everything I've seen and heard, I don't think we have to worry about Glenn's role diminishing into obscurity! Some of the comments I've read seemed quite concerned about that.

[Troubadour]

I'm sorry I dragged this off in a different direction. I know we have a brand new thread for these types of discussion now. I've just read it, and I realise my questions/opinions should have been posted over there. A lot of those comments make sense to me - I agree with some and disagree with others - but I can understand all of them. Again - apologies for hijacking the thread. It seems like a lot of people are feeling very disheartened and disenchanted at the moment and that makes me sad.

[StephUK]

When I talked about Glenn being much more prominent than Don at the show, I didn't mean song-wise, but more in general. Glenn did a lot more talking and interacting with the audience than Don, and as I said Don being in somewhat dull clothes when the other 3 were in colours meant that you weren't so drawn to noticing him visually. I didn't mean to suggest in any way they he didn't still make his huge contribution vocally & musically.
It was just a feeling I had at this show, which I haven't had at other shows. This is the first show I've seen with the shorter set list.
(Yes Freypower, Don was at the front for TITTL as usual).

As for the set list, I do understand what is being said about the Don/Joe vocals thing - but I would say that the show did 'flow' well with the songs in the order they were. I think they would view that as more important than which individual Eagle was taking the lead vocal. Also, regardless of who is on lead vocal, the others are all contributing to the overall sound with their backing vocals & harmonies. I often feel that although Timothy sings less lead vocals his contribution to the songs is immense if you listen to how much he is adding in backing & harmony with his very distinctive alto.

Of course, we don't like it being a shorter set-list - but it's not as bad as it might seem. It's still a great show. I have thought about whether they should drop some of the songs from their solo work & put more Eagles songs back into the set, but then you would lose some of the songs that really get the audience rocking e.g. Dirty Laundry, Walk Away . On the other hand, I would like to see Already Gone, Tequilla Sunrise, WITW, Best of my Love back in the set. So I can't make up my mind on this. Best solution - go back to the longer set!!

[StephUK]

I forgot to say in my review that while I was sitting in my hotel room minus my luggage, I remembered about the Eagles requirements for their hotels & about the grapes etc. It didn't do much to cheer me up at the time - they have grapes that haven't fallen off the bunch & I didn't even have my underwear!

Anyway, as promised here are some photos, and the link for the rest is:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1600467...7626922553013/



Eagles 2011 Berlin 2(6027) by stephclark62, on Flickr


Eagles 2011 Berlin 13(603 by stephclark62, on Flickr


Eagles 2011 Berlin 52(6077) by stephclark62, on Flickr


Eagles 2011 Berlin 84(6113) by stephclark62, on Flickr