It’s not all that easy being the Eagles these days. Co-bandleader Glenn Frey died in 2016, and since then, Dallas-based singer Don Henley has spoken honestly about his own vocal problems.
Despite the obstacles, the band keeps touring, and despite the changes, the fans keep coming. Performing before a capacity crowd Saturday night at American Airlines Center, the Eagles 3.0 tackled some of the challenges by throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the show: a 44-piece orchestra, a five-man brass section, even a 22-person choir from the University of Texas at Arlington that showed up to sing on one song.
They were all nice touches, especially the orchestra, which rose magically from below the stage to sweeten up a half-dozen songs without drowning out the band. But the glue holding it all together was Vince Gill’s singing, as well as that of Deacon Frey, son of the late Glenn. Both new members joined in 2017.
Gill flexed his high, sweet tenor early on during, fittingly enough, “New Kid in Town,” the second song in the group’s start-to-finish rendition of its 1976 album, Hotel California. By the time Frey joined him on “Try and Love Again,” originally sung by Randy Meisner, it was clear the new blood could pick up any slack and leap right into the Eagles’ trademark vocal harmonies.
The hour-long Hotel California opening set was a mixed bag. It opened with a bang — the mysterious title track, “New Kid” and the ripsnorting “Life in the Fast Lane” — but it drifted during the album’s ballad-heavy B-side. After an intermission, however, the Eagles came roaring back for two hours of greatest hits.
Frey got the second set rolling with a near-perfect version of “Take It Easy.” He might look like his dad did in the early ‘70s, but his voice was all his own. Gill nailed the high notes perfectly in “Take It to the Limit” and again in the set-closing rocker “Heartache Tonight.”
Henley, the band’s resident soul singer, did a decent job of working with a voice that’s grown rougher with age. At 72, he could still hit the falsetto notes in “One of These Nights” and “Witchy Woman.” However, later in the set, his voice trailed off noticeably during “Those Shoes” and “The Boys of Summer.”
Longtime singer-bassist Timothy B. Schmit sounded solid on his two vocal tunes, “I Can’t Tell You Why” and “Love Will Keep Us Alive.” But the greatest hits set belonged to Joe Walsh, who injected swagger and talk box virtuosity into a string of solo hits and James Gang classics like “Funk #49” and “Walk Away.”
Walsh’s gnarled voice has always been an acquired taste. But his snarling, off-the-cuff guitar solos and salty slide guitar were the liveliest points in the show.
Longtime touring guitarist Steuart Smith gave Walsh some serious competition with brilliant, jazzy solos in “The Boys of Summer” and a half-dozen other tunes. With Walsh and Smith providing so much firepower, Gill — an accomplished guitar soloist himself — had to settle for playing rhythm guitar most of the night.
The show began on a retro note, with an actor dressed as bellman placing a dusty old copy of Hotel California on a turntable and placing a needle on the vinyl. But the more important bit of ‘70s nostalgia was the (relative) lack of fans holding cell-phone cameras in the air throughout the show.
The Eagles requested the no photo or video policy and extra ushers were hired to enforce it. And for three all-too-brief hours, the audience remembered how magical concerts can be when you’re not too distracted to actually watch and listen.
The Eagles perform again tonight at 8 p.m. and on March 17 at American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. www.ticketmaster.com
