GO SEE THE EAGLES AT THE SPHERE
You won’t be sorry, I guarantee it!
The wife and I dove to Las Vegas for a writers conference. While there we attended an Eagles concert at the Sphere at the Venetian Hotel.
If you are a fan of the Eagles (the band) or concerts in general, my advice is to run, don’t walk, to see this extravaganza. Warning, if you are planning on going already, you may not want to read further.
I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, plays ballgames and movies in my life. I was at several Bulls games, including playoffs, when Michael Jordan was playing, which I thought was pretty special. I was at both Elvis Presley’s and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s (original band) last Chicago appearances before they passed away. I was at a Santana concert when Carlos proposed…to his drummer! I’ve seen a Rolling Stones concert at the United Center in Chicago. I rested my elbows on a stage in Philadelphia with Sir Paul McCarthy performing about four feet in front of me. I’ve seen Eric Clapton 7 times, Carlos Santana and the Allman Brothers each six times. On television I’ve seen the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Cubs, and my beloved Green Bay Packers win championships. I’ve been at venues from New York City to Tampa Florida to Phoenix Arizona and on up to Seattle Washington, and a whole bunch in between. Heck, I’m old enough to even been at a Chicago Bears playoff win on the way to winning their only championship in 1985. I’ve rarely been disappointed…except when I slept through the play Wicked. Having said all that, nothing, and I mean absolutely, positively nothing to the nth degree, has ever compared to the experience of an Eagles rock concert at the Sphere.
This was the fourth time I’d seen the Eagles in concert. I am a casual fan of the country/rock band, although they are not a top ten rock and roll outfit in my opinion. They have always put on a great show and the wife likes them, so we usually go if they are in the area.
If you are not familiar with the Eagles, they started out as a backup band for Linda Ronstadt and became the Eagles band in 1971 after Henley met Fry at the Troubadour Night Club in Los Angeles, a popular haunt for musicians trying to go big time. Sadly, only drummer Don Henley remains as the original member. Bernie Leadon quit the band in a huff in 1975, and both Randy Meisner and Glenn Fry have passed away.
The current group lineup consists of Henley, Vince Gill, Deacon Fry (son of Glenn Fry), Tim Schmidt, and the iconic Joe Walsh. Ironically, Henley, Schmidt, and Walsh are all the same age – 77, and they played for two solid hours. (Had Fry still been alive, he too would be 77 years old!) Back up members include Scott Crago, Will Hollis, Michael Thompson, and Chris Holt, who all contribute tremendously with various instruments and backing vocals. The band played flawlessly all night, something that could not be said the last time I saw them play when I counted five guitar mistakes from Walsh.
The Eagles have sold over 200 million albums since their inception, making them one of the most successful acts in music history. Their Greatest Hits album is the fifth top selling album in music history, followed by their Hotel California album at sixth. By the way, Hotel California is not in California, it is in Cabo Mexico and you can add that to the list of things I’ve seen.
The Sphere at the Venetian hotel though is unlike any concert experience anyone has ever seen. The Sphere, essentially an enormous round metal ball, was built for $2.3 billion by the Madison Square Garden Company. It seats 17,600 people on five different levels.
We had been forewarned to spend a little extra money and get seats on the 3rd level, perhaps the best level for the experience. As we first sat down we were dubious of the advice we had gotten as it was a long ways down to the stage on the ground level. All our doubts were washed away when the music started as the special effects of the sphere are nothing short of spectacular. I wish I had a better word than just “spectacular” – it was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
The video/effects screen behind the band towers over 366 feet high and 516 feet wide. The screen uses 16K resolution – by contrast, most new televisions are 4K resolution. There are over 164,000 speakers in the viewing area. You might want to go back and read that last line again, as it was not a typo.
As we settled into our seats, we were looking at a montage of Los Angles iconic sites, such as the Troubadour Bar, Whiskey A Go-Go, Hotel California, Beverly Hills Wilshire, ocean beaches with the tide gently ebbing and flowing to my left and the iconic Hollywood sign up in the hills to my right.
When the band began to play, starting with Hotel California – their best song in my opinion, the seats rumbled as the screen played montages of various scenes, some of which appear in this story, giving the audience 3D effects that were just “mind blowing.”
Their set list of songs, that night went as follows:
Hotel California / One of These Nights / Lyin’ Eyes / Take It to the Limit / Witchy Woman /
Peaceful Easy Feelin’ / Tequila Sunrise / In the City / I Can’t Tell You Why / New Kid in Town /
Seven Bridges Road / Best of My Love Life’s Been Good to Me (Joe Walsh solo) /
Already Gone / Boys of Summer (Don Henley solo) / Life in the Fast Lane / Take it Easy /
Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh solo) / Desperado / Heartache Tonight
Each song had its own back story on the screen, none the same. At one point during the show, there were six guitar players performing on the stage, unequaled guitar work in rock concerts.
Incredibly, Sphere montages also appear on the exterior of the round building, of which we could see from our hotel window and the next day on the Wynn golf course.
Dead & Company (with John Mayer) will be playing at the Sphere in April. You can bet I’ll be there for that! Hope to see you there.
