Can anyone confirm (by first hand experience) that the Eagles...

[fetchmybeer]

Like Lynyrd Skynyrd, they played the concert NFN just like the record. Kind of amazing to witness actually, but cold and sterile live IMO.

I saw them around a decade ago and that was my take as well. It was almost too clean and too perfect, but then again, they'd only been playing those songs for 100 years by then. They SHOULD sound that good. I think that autotune and backing tracks have just made me instinctively skeptical that anybody could perform that well.

I have no idea if they were able to pull that off in their earlier days, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Jon C]

Stuart Smith

He's much more interesting when allowed to play out of the box, saw him with Rodney Crowell in the 90's but he does cop the original stuff great.

Yeah, a benefit of being in No Va is that it’s Steuart’s home base so one used to be able to hear him more here.

 

[Babow2]

The second time I saw them was on the Hotel California tour (first time was with the Doobie Brothers shortly before they released One of These Nights). It was note perfect. You could close your eyes and swear it was the record. It was a boring show, as far as entertainment goes. No banter, no ad lib, no creativity or mashups or free flowing solos. They stood still and delivered the songs as recorded. It was great and disappointing at the same time.

I saw them a few years ago, before Glenn died. They had a guitarist off stage handling all the “hard” parts so that Joe and the guys could have more fun. In general, Joe brought some lightness to their live shows. It was better entertainment.

 

[dohootowl]

Yes. I've seen them twice. A friend has seen them over 40 times and I think, "why". It's like watching the same exact show 40 times. Only change might be which solo tunes they let Joe have.

 

[tweedeater]

This is too funny. I saw The Eagles back in 1973, and my reaction then was how much they sounded just like their record!

 

[lemonman]

They've always insisted on playing it note for note, or probably more accurately, Henley insisted on it. Joe Vitale wrote in his book about spontaneously playing a funky fill coming out of the guitar solo in Those Shoes, just jamming like he would have all those years playing with Joe. All the guitar players turned around and smiled at him, and he was all proud of impressing them. That night at the hotel he gets called to Henley's room, where Don opens the door a few inches and tells him, 'That drum fill you played in Those Shoes? Don't do that.' Click.

Next day at sound check the other guys were giving him crap about it, asking if he was going to play the fill again. Didn't happen.

 

[Pondhawk]

 

[Defunct]

If you haven‘t seen it, check out the ‘Hell Freezes Over’ concert DVD from when they first reunited. There’s a scene backstage before they go on where they warm up by singing perfect four part harmony, perfectly in time and in tune. It knocked my ass out of my chair. No backing track, no Auto Tune and no Vocalign.

Never understood the haters other than just chalking it up to jealousy. The level of talent in that band on all fronts was just staggering and whether it’s a style of music you’re into or not, you’d have to be deaf not to appreciate how skilled they were at what they did.

I’m not a fan of Yngwie or neoclassical shred guitar but I would sound like an idiot to my own ears to say that the people that play it ‘suck’ or ‘ruined‘ music just because it’s not what I’m interested in. They didn’t get that good by accident and at the least I can appreciate the effort put into developing those skills at that level. Who wouldn’t?

 

[BADHAK]

... were really THIS precise live?

I mean I watch something like this and I can clearly hear that it is not the studio record but it still sounds like a studio record, and I am aware of pretty much everything you can do to improve a "live" record if it has been tracked accordingly.

So, has anyone with a critical ear seen them live, maybe back in the day and in a setting where an assessment of them mad skillz was possible?

There's the chicka-chick reggae lick that I don't think is being played by anyone on stage. You notice it when Felder and Walsh play the harmony lines in the verse and there's only Frey left and he's playing acoustic.

 

[Doode]

Interesting read so far.

As a fan of the "almost note for note"-standard (listening and playing), what really impresses me is the lack of screw-ups. Playing NFN, you can't hide them. On the other hand, playing those songs exactly the same hundreds of times also helps not to make mistakes.

However, what probably amazes me most with the Eagles isn't even their performance but their live audio quality, which probably also has to do with the right levels (as opposed to "as loud as we're allowed to go"). However, I'm still sceptical about the (lead-)singing when it comes to varying distances and angles to the mic: with a little experience you just hear this kind of stuff - but I don't on Eagles live records.

 

[leemelone]

There's the chicka-chick reggae lick that I don't think is being played by anyone on stage. You notice it when Felder and Walsh play the harmony lines in the verse and there's only Frey left and he's playing acoustic.

The reggae lick IS Frey's part. It's just palm muting the strings and can be done on electric or acoustic.

 

[Doode]

The reggae lick IS Frey's part. It's just palm muting the strings and can be done on electric or acoustic.

It does sound very electric, though. But then he has a SC pickup in his s-hole (yes, I intentionally wrote it like this).

 

[blong]

Seen 'em twice on Hell Freezes Over tour. They were the two best concerts I've ever been to. They were consummate professionals and nailed their music. It was pretty close to note-for-note, but not exactly, expecially Joe Walsh on his section of the show playing the tunes he was the major writer on. It was still electric in the audience and the greatest shows I've been to.

Bob

 

[Jorge E]

I vaguely remember during the Hotel California explosion that most live reviews lamented on Henleys struggling to sing and play drums . I never saw em . My sister did then and she said it was great but she was 16 then

 

[MadaFaka]

Unfortunately never had possibility to see/hear them live, but I'm sure that they were very skilled to put on a high quality performance just because of one simple thing... Back in days you spent months in the studio making an album, polishing all facets and working every detail out. They've made music as it should be. Hard working business.. Not just bunch of kids fixing a shizzel in two minutes at their little attic home studio.

 

[John Quinn]

I've seen the Eagles twice and Don Henley once - the shows were impressive for the accuracy of the playing and singing - but they were dull and hammers.

 

[squeally dan]

If you haven‘t seen it, check out the ‘Hell Freezes Over’ concert DVD from when they first reunited. There’s a scene backstage before they go on where they warm up by singing perfect four part harmony, perfectly in time and in tune. It knocked my ass out of my chair. No backing track, no Auto Tune and no Vocalign.

Never understood the haters other than just chalking it up to jealousy. The level of talent in that band on all fronts was just staggering and whether it’s a style of music you’re into or not, you’d have to be deaf not to appreciate how skilled they were at what they did.

I’m not a fan of Yngwie or neoclassical shred guitar but I would sound like an idiot to my own ears to say that the people that play it ‘suck’ or ‘ruined‘ music just because it’s not what I’m interested in. They didn’t get that good by accident and at the least I can appreciate the effort put into developing those skills at that level. Who wouldn’t?

I love the Eagles songs. I just don’t think I’d find that type of show very interesting. That’s a lot of dough to spend in order to go listen to some robots play the record that I can listen to at home for free.

 

[Fro68]

The Hell Freezes Over tour was my only Eagles concert and one of the best concerts I've been to.
I was a huge Eagles fan as a kid and still am.

 

[pete692]

For a long time, the goal of The Eagles was to replicate the album arrangements on stage. The were a note-for-note band for...themselves! The thinking being, we spent a huge amount of time working on the recorded arrangements, they're perfect, that's what people want to hear. They were proud of their ability to pull it off live.

When the MTV special came out, I was surprised that they redid "Hotel California" as an acoustic tune. But hey, Hell had frozen over.

Yeah, I believe the goal was to nail the harmonies, which in my opinion is the signature part of their sound. I mean it’s just PERFECT. I saw them in maybe 94 or 95 and came away just gob smacked. If you don’t have everything else playing wise committed to physical memory, I doubt you’re gonna be able to pull off those harmonies the way they do

 

[TubeStack]

If you haven‘t seen it, check out the ‘Hell Freezes Over’ concert DVD from when they first reunited. There’s a scene backstage before they go on where they warm up by singing perfect four part harmony, perfectly in time and in tune. It knocked my ass out of my chair. No backing track, no Auto Tune and no Vocalign…

I like Eagles' harmonies too and enjoyed that clip, but great bluegrass bands pull this kind of vocal stuff (or better) off all the time, all acoustic and no tracks or help.

It's funny we get so excited when it's a rock band doing it.