Eagles soar at Birmingham concert

Eagles

Birmingham NIA

Review by Ian Harvey

If you are going to see the Eagles at the NIA tonight, you won't want to read this review from last night's concert.

You won't want to know that somehow these veterans of almost four decades of music making still have the voices of young men or that the songs from their most recent album stand shoulder to shoulder with their better known hits

You won't want to know that by the time Don Henley ended the concert with the heartbreakingly beautiful Desperado there wasn't a dry eye in the house and that after a superlative near three-hour show the audience could have stayed for three hours more.

The Eagles had opened bravely with three songs from 2007's UK number one Long Road Out of Eden album before giving an unexpectedly early outing to the legendary Hotel California, with its Tijuana Brass-style intro and thrilling guitar finale.

The band's ace is having four superb singers in Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, all able to take a lead vocal or combine in rich, deep harmonies, and each a talented instrumentalist in his own right.

They rocked with Life In The Fast Lane and In The City, took it easy with Peaceful Easy Feeling and Lyin' Eyes, and found time to vary the mood with Henley's The Boys Of Summer and Dirty Laundry as well as Walsh's solo hit Life's Been Good and The James Gang's Funk #49.

While they may not be the most thrilling band visually - the dramatic stage and the madcap Joe Walsh apart - the dynamics are all in the music and the vocal interactions, especially in the a capella No More Walks In The Wood, a song which evokes the spirit of the similarly blessed Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

With tickets costing up to a recession-busting £100 the Eagles had to deliver - and they did. Glenn Frey joked that they are "the ancient ones" but the Eagles still take flight.