Tonight a Randall, Homework, NK and I jammed into the Rock ‘n Roll Sedan for a ninety minute vacation at the Hotel California. This was the second such show for my cohorts, but my first time seeing the California-based band that bills itself as the preeminent “SALUTE” to The Eagles. You can view Rock Log 081411 for Randall’s take. Mine however, is slightly less flattering while teetering on nitpicky, I get that.
Hotel California stormed into The Den armed with eleven guitars, a mandolin, voice box, one bass, some keyboards and a drum kit (well two actually if you consider WV banging on the Air Drum). My first inclination that something was amiss is that each member of the group had a wireless microphone headset. I know I am old-school, but if you are a tribute band, pay tribute and replicate appropriately. All footage I have ever seen from The Eagles has Walsh, Frey, Henley, Schmidt, Meisner and Felder standing behind a microphone stand. Let this serve as nitpick numero uno.
The show began, appropriately enough, with the Jackson Browne/Glenn Frey composition “Take It Easy”, the first single The Eagles ever released. From the onset, I was a bit taken back by relatively sloppy guitar playing of the lead guitarist, whose name follows later in this review. Look, there are a mere handful of bands in the history of rock that are renown for the meticulous musicianship, The Eagles are one of those bands. Ever heard The Eagles live? Well they simply do not miss a note, this is a band that has perfected its craft, and Hotel California should spend more time trying to emulate that ethic versus spending their time e-shopping on www.wirelessmicrophones.com. Nitpick zwei.
From there it was much of the same. The Eagles have such a substantial catalog of hits that this band cruised through hit after hit, all of which met with the crowd’s approval. They also played three solo songs; one Henley, one Frey and one Walsh. Some songs were done well, namely Seven Bridges Road, Lyin’ Eyes and I Can’t tell You Why. However, there were also some clear misses such as Already Gone, Life in the Fast Lane and an abysmal version of Desperado, the latter was a bust on vocals. Speaking of vocals, these duties were shared between Wade and Scott (last names unknown). Wade, the Frey-Guy, was just off a little bit the whole night long, never really hitting on any song. Scott was money as the Henley-Voice. He was actually the lone positive in the whole band. The drummer was pedestrian, and the bassist was okay, had a shrill of a voice and wore a stupid ankle-length duster the whole show. I should not comment on wardrobe, but The Eagles were not a country band, they were a California band and as such the two cowboy hats and a duster were frankly out of character. Nitpick tri.
The set ended with Hotel California. The whole key to this song is the Walsh-Felder ax battle that occurs at the end of the song. If they missed that then this band should pack it up and rename as Thunder Rolls-The Ultimate Garth Brooks Tribute Band. Well, Hotel California did a fine job on Hotel California, which saved the show from mediocrity. Then, came the encore, which was a rollercoaster for me. I fully expected New Kid in Town to be the encore as they had not played it. How could you not, it was a number one smash hit and probably one of the top three Eagles songs. Well, they played All She Wants to do is Dance (Dance), which irked me. HOWEVER, before the song they introduced the lead guitarist…Dicky Lee Dickinson. Therein lies the beauty of this show. The dude is a full grown adult and goes by the name Dicky Lee Dickinson. This my friends, is the tasty nugget that will prohibit me from ever forgetting this band. I most likely will not go to see them again, but that name, that ridiculous name, will forever carom in my cranium. That and Loni Anderson in the bar with the cans.
Tonight, the vacancy sign was illuminated, but I never checked into Hotel California.
Vicky Lee Vickinson
