“There’s gonna be a heartache tonight, a heartache tonight. I know.” So goes the refrain of one of my favorite Eagles songs. For Christmas this past year, my beautiful daughter Mary got me a ticket to see the Eagle’s concert at Bankers Life Field house and she was to be my “date.” It was a wonderful gift. The Eagles have a list of hits that is so long that it’s hard to remember them all. Starting in the early 1970s, they sang and played their way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have become cultural legends. They are the classic Baby Boomer icons.
The early evening of the concert we decided to go down town a bit early to get a place to park and grab a bite to eat at one of the B&G’s close to the venue. It was obviously a popular idea because it seemed that everyone in Marion County that was of the Woodstock generation had the same idea. We decided to go get our seats and get some concession stand food. Our seats were high up almost to the rafters but they were located right over the stage so we could see everything that was going on. My climb to my seat was an exhausting adventure but I made it and the effort was worth it.
As I sat I was able to observe the crowd filling the hall. If it wasn’t a sellout, it was close. I could also see people with canes, people with two canes and hear the rattle of participial knees and hips.
There were gray beards and white rimmed bald heads and the men didn’t look any better. My daughter confided in me that she enjoyed the fact that at age 44 she was one of the youngest fans in the crowd. Canes, Icy-Hot, hearing aid batteries, and denture cream were being sold at the concession stands and doing a brisk business. I will say this for my fellow geezers — we all survived and thrived.
The show started and to my relief it was the Boys of Summer themselves. There was no opening act. Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy Schmidt, Vince Gill, and all the regulars were there. Glen Frey, the founder of the group, passed last year, but his son Deacon Frey has ably taken his place. They sang “Witchy Woman,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Take it to the Limit,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “One of These Nights,” and, of course, “Heartache Tonight.” Walsh sang “Life’s Been Good” and played the 4 minute echo solo.
Before we all knew, it two and half hours had gone by. The exhausted band members waved goodbye and deserted the stage. However, we in the crowd knew that this couldn’t be the end, it wasn’t completed. So en masse we stood and stomped, and clapped and cheered. Sure enough, the boys came back out for an encore. There was a beautiful trumpet solo and then Henley launched into the band’s legendary anthem “Hotel California.” The moment was so amazing that it sent shivers up and down my spine. After the song was over, again they left the stage and again they returned for their final number, “Desperado.” And then our night was history.
The first live concert I ever saw was The Beach Boys at the Colosseum in 1963 with my friend Rob McCoy. The Kingsmen were also on the program. Since then I have seen Neil Diamond, the Fifth Dimension, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Mary Travers, Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, The Association, Gordon Lightfoot, 38 Special, The Turtles, The Byrds, and a number of other classic rock bands and performers. The Eagles were right up there with the very best concerts. I was also very proud of my fellow Boomers. We came, we saw, we endured. We can still rock.
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