CLEVELAND, Ohio - Early on in the Eagles’ two-hour plus set at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, band leader and founding member Don Henley stated the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s group’s mission for the evening.
The Eagles specialize in giving folks exactly what they want -- familiar songs that are embedded in fan memories, mostly played the way they heard them on the radio back in the day. The Eagles don’t do jams, or new arrangements and seldom extend their tunes in any significant way, and are purposefully disinterested in shaking things up musically in any way.
Walsh received the most love from the crowd and he gave it back with a rousing “In The City,” featuring drone shots of Cleveland on the big screen. He can still hit the high notes vocally and is a master of the fretboard. He also still makes some of the best guitar face in the rock and roll game. Walsh further satiated his fellow Ohioans with a swinging “Rocky Mountain Way,” complete with the familiar talkbox solo. The show ended with the not-hard-to-guess coupling of “Desperado,” sung wonderfully by Henley and “Hotel California” with Walsh and Smith taking us home with the famous guitar duet.