Former Eagles Soar at Nautica Show
Author: Jane Scott
Publication: The Plain Dealer
Date: July 13, 1993

The Glenn Frey-Joe Walsh show Sunday night may have set a Nautica record for the longest intermission. It lasted more than an hour while the former Eagles waited to see if it was safe to play in the rainstorm that lasted about two hours.

Cleveland may be Joe Walsh town, but the sold-out Nautica crowd welcomed the duo in their shared show, the first tour that the two friends have played together as co-headliners with a 12-member band behind them. The two hadn't seen each other in seven years, Frey said, and they were having all the fun of the Eagles days without all the bull.

Frey and Walsh were a fascinating contrast.

Walsh came on stage to sing the fourth song, his "Ordinary, Average Guy," in a tan suit with a starred red, white and blue tie, a coonskin cap he found in Tennessee and a glow-in-the-dark stick hung around his neck. Frey, with his short haircut, T-shirt and dark trousers was the jock, looking as fit as a race car driver. He was the straight shooter; Walsh, kind of a delightful kook, mugged and stirred the audience. But it was Walsh who had the innovative guitar licks and little strumming stints.

It was the former Eagles' producer, Bill Szymczyk, who helped Walsh and Frey set up a record. "They did two new songs, one for the first time," Szymczyk said after the show. "We recorded them and you can bet I'm going to put them on their upcoming record."

Both songs were a surprise smash. The first, "This Rock Won't Roll," written by Frey and sung at Roanoke, Va., the preceding stop, was a direct hit, a rocky rockabilly style that had the audience singing along from the beginning.

Walsh asked the fans to participate on his song with Joe Vitale, "When I'm Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Take This Shovel and Dig a Hole," but he needn't have bothered. It soon caught on as well.

True, the rain gave sound man J.D. Brill a little trouble. There were occasional cracky sounds. But the good old country/rock strains of Eagles songs "Take It Easy," "Lyin' Eyes," "New Kid in Town," "Desperado," "Heartache Tonight" and "Life in the Fast Lane" came through sweet and clear.

Frey sung "Desperado" without a guitar, hands outstretched, occasionally clenched. Each performed solo. Frey hastened to add that he wrote "Sexy Girl" long ago, before he knew it was politically incorrect. One of his best was "Smuggler's Blues" from the "Miami Vice" sound track.

Walsh had old-time fans on their feet for his 1970 "Funk #49," from his James Gang Days, and scored with his satirical "Life's Been Good" and the tuneful "In the City."

At the end it was Frey who wound up on a kooky note. He wore a colorful dinosaur head during the finale, Walsh's 1973 "Rocky Mountain Way." It was the first time and the last time he'd do that, he said later. It was hot under there.