Concert Review, Straight Outta Texas

Of his erstwhile best friend and songwriting soulmate, Glenn Frey once commented: “No one can suck the fun out of a room faster than Don Henley.” Regardless of the relative merits one affords Frey (with tunes like “Sexy Girl” speckling his resume), the appurtenant Texan provided considerable fodder for the statement at his solo Chicago performance at the Rosemont Theatre November 9, 2009.

Clad in the unfortunate black-and-white button-up garb that has comprised the Eagles’ performance uniform since Long Road out of Eden, he offered little by way of improvisation but a great deal along the lines of doom, gloom and impending implosion. Mercifully, in significant contrast to his Eagles appearances, Henley seemed genuinely enthused to appear onstage forty years after turning LA on its side with the immortal road theme “Take it Easy,” thus enabling the suggestion of catastrophe to go down easy.

One wonders whether he, in frankness if ensured confidentiality, would concede the general substandardicity of LROE and his third solo album Inside Job. To the delight of this fan he touched neither, instead dotting his lineup with his well-worn and much-deservedly-heralded hits in addition to a few classic Eagles nuggets and three covers.

Henley blatantly mocked my reverence for piano-driven weepers in general and “The End of the Innocence” in particular by stretching the entire first verse into acapella double-time. Were it not an absolute classic; were its elegiac undertones not entirely dependent upon the haunting Hornsby piano sequence; were Henley actually a fabulous singer along the lines of Elton John; then, then, this introduction might have unfurled within the realm of the appropriate. Yet, my little ’80s-revering heart coiled itself into a pout when he finally acquiesced to the song’s normal beat and unleashed not the beloved piano chords that ceaselessly prick heartstrings I frankly had always presumed an urban legend (despite a man sitting at the stool of a piano, staring into space) but some cheesy keyboard-produced synth undertone that, in some third party idiot, might somehow slightly resemble the keynote melody.

As for the man himself? My father promoted several Eagles concerts during the infamous, hedonistic Long Run tour, and multiple subsequent Henley dates following each of his first three albums. I have heard tales of the man that would, I image, earn a nod of solidarity from Marquis de Sade. He has aged considerably since his eighties heyday and finally started to fill out. His voice, which I always found lacking compared to Frey’s, has literally grayed, cackling a bit around the edges. And the guy still captivates me. Perhaps his tidy, firecracker method of speaking that evinces a much quicker mind than basically any other rock star still alive? Perhaps the self-deprecating sense of humor, albeit rehearsed, that emerges in his between-song stories? Perhaps the sense of unrequited, restless longing that forms the foundation of every composition? The answer shall elude me indefinitely, I suspect.

Set List:

1- “I Put a Spell On You”

2- ”One of These Nights”
(BE STILL MY HEART. My favorite Eagles song, which nevermakes it on their set list. I CAN DIE NOW.)

3- ”September Song”

4- ”New York Minute”

5- ”The Last Worthless Evening”

6- ”It Don't Matter to the Sun”

7- ”The End of the Innocence”

8- ”Everybody Wants to Rule the World”

9- ”The Heart of the Matter”

10- ”Dirty Laundry”

11- ”The Boys of Summer”
Live: basically a religious experience. Everything fades to sepia. Peoples' hair starts billowing in a fictional wind. The air seems to glisten like the ocean depicted in the music video. Ahhhh. Wish I could crawl inside that experience and have a nap.

12- ”All She Wants To Do Is Dance”

13- ”Life in the Fast Lane”

14- ”Hotel California”

15- ”Desperado”

Encore
1- ”I Will Not Go Quietly”

2- ”Please Come Home For Christmas”


Quoteworthy:
As my father and I approached the bar at the Rosemont, I noted that all the other patrons exceeded my own age by at least three decades. Dad’s retort: “Well, they’ll all think I have a young girlfriend. Smile!” Hee.