Nancy's Review of Mt. Pleasant (with Lissa and Bree)
Date: July 20, 2006

As we approached, we got more and more excited. Hitting Michigan started it, then hitting Mt. Pleasant, then of course hitting the casino and seeing that marquee as "Partytown" came on my little Road Trip iPod.... we were losing it. We parked the car in the parking lot and pretty much freaked out for five minutes, a kind of ear-splitting cacophony of shrieking and cheering that hopefully was contained by the car so as not to cause alarm to passing casino guests. What a feeling. We were really there, about to see Glenn Frey solo live. I never thought it would happen, it was the furthest thing from my mind... ok, I’ll stop that now.

I made us all walk to the marquee because I wanted to take a photo of it, and wound up getting a little video of it. We then tromped over to the casino itself. We were fairly early – about 3 hours in fact – and spent a bit of time walking around the casino, getting a couple drinks for the bar (and yes, I got a Tequila Sunrise. What can I say? I’m a dweeb). We went in as soon as the doors opened.

That was when we saw the tour merchandise. “He’s selling T-shirts! Hats! We must get some! I never thought he would have merchandise!" etc. etc. The people at the counter certainly found our hyper excitement amusing, obviously unfamiliar with the behavioral patterns of that beast known as the Hardcore Superfan.

I have to say that these shows were just about everything I wished for. I wished he would do a song that was a rarity; he did. I wished that he would do songs he’d never done before; he did. I wished that he would play the keyboard more; he did. I wished that he would sing a song without the guitar; he did. I wished that he would sing YBTTC with minimal falsetto; he did. I wished he would do Smuggler’s Blues the rockin’ way and he did. IT WAS AWESOME. I could not have been more thrilled (well, maybe if he had played "River of Dreams"!)

This show had its share of hard cores (I guess because of the proximity to Detroit) and overall was responsive. They gave him a standing ovation when he came out, and during the course of the concert, pockets of people would stand up to clap occasionally (hey, this is a casino, that’s about as good as it gets). Many times we heard people call out things like "Don’t forget 'Strange Weather'!" "Do 'River of Dreams'!" (that wasn’t me, but I agreed!) One guy even hilariously yelled out at a quiet moment, "'LET’S GO HOME, GLENN!'"

The first songs were soft and slow and wonderful: "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Lyin’ Eyes." After "Peaceful Easy Feeling," he said something to the effect of "We're not done yet, but I can see the train at the end of the tunnel... But you know, I have time to talk to all of you. And I don't get to wear these suits with the Eagles. Now wherever you all have come from... I know some of you have come a fair distance... thank you." Intro-ing "Lyin’ Eyes," he made his “Key of G" joke and dedicated it to 'Plaintiff' – big surprise there!

As you may have guessed, our excitement at “Some Kind of Blue” was up in the stratosphere, especially when I saw he was moving over to the keyboard. Before he sat down, he joked, "Now, you know, I don't want to sound bitter. I'm a Happy Eagle... I’m on this new miracle drug they give to people who have teenagers. It’s called Dammitall." Hehehe. "Anyway, this next song is one from my solo album Soul Searchin' which just tore up the charts..." He paused, grinning sardonically, then continued, "...and we haven't done it in a long time, but we thought we'd do it for you tonight." It was gorgeous. Since he was over to the side a bit to play the keyboard (we were second row, extreme right in the center section), we looked at the screen to see his face. He was really into it and we loved it.

He intro-ed "The One You Love" with "While I'm here at the piano I'll do another song from my solo career. This was from my first solo album and features Al Garth on sax... This is from when the Dead Sea was only sick." A guy behind me chuckled to his wife(?), “Musician and stand-up comedian!" The audience was very responsive to it.

We're not sure, but we think it was here he did his General Motors rant. I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like, "I'm not going to bash Bush tonight... why would I need to do that when General Motors is right here? You know, I heard that GM was only worth [some amount, sorry, I can't remember, but it was the millions] and they have no hybrids or anything. Toyota has hybirds and things like that and is worth [some amount that was in the billions, again, I can't remember precisely.] But why do they have to make hybrids look so bad? Put the body of a Camaro on a hybrid and THEN people would buy it. Why is is that if you want to be a conservationist you have to drive something that looks like it belongs to Mr. Peepers?" [Big laugh.] "Aw, we're all going to hell in a Honda anyway." That also got a big laugh.

After doing a nice version of "Tequila Sunrise," he got up and did a "new" song, which was written by a guy named Larry John McNally. He intro-ed it with, "This will be on the new album, or it should be.... We're not totally sure yet, we have about 7 or 8 songs in the can but we're not sure when it will be done and when it's coming out... Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to put it on... [insert funny little exaggerated deep voice here] Glenn Frey, Prelude to Obscurity." We loved how he did it without the guitar, just clutching his fists and singing at the mic. He sang it with such conviction that I can see why he chose it. I was glad that he turned to the right because it allowed us to get a great view of him as he sang this song. We sat in our chair oohing and aaahing, and stood up afterwards to applaud. As the audience clapped, he kind of chuckled and said modestly “Just words and a melody” and half-shrugged with a grin.

"No More Cloudy Days" was intro-ed with "This will also be on the Eagles album; we do have a studio version of this and it is also on the Farewell 1 DVD. This is dedicated to my daughter, Taylor." Before "Take It to the Limit," he joked, "I mentioned my first wife, Plaintiff, earlier. My second wife calls this the credit card song." It was thrilling as always. Unlike with the Eagles, he plugged it in, and it gave it a more dramatic edge. It was a nice change.

The next song he introduced with, "This is another new one... Hey. Anything after 1994 is new, baby! This was one I pulled out of my demo file. This is by a fellow named Eddie Hinton, from Alabama [or someplace down south, we can’t remember exactly]. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that I haven't just been resting on my laurels, you know, doing carpool and not much else." That’s when he launched into "I’ll Come Running Back to You." It was catchy and we enjoyed it a lot. [Note from Nancy: The song was actually written by Sam Cooke in 1956.]

"You Belong the City" was next. I loved it. He did it in a very strong voice; only the bridge was falsetto. The audience ate it up. Afterwards, Glenn said, "Okay, switching to Red Bull now....this seems to be the new senior rock drink. It's like speed with B vitamins." (Later he would do this with Gatorade). At this point, someone screams, "Where's the Jager?!" Glenn looked over towards them and said "Later.”

I was even more ecstatic when he introduced "Smuggler’s Blues" with something like “The past few years I’ve been playing this next song acoustically, but I’ve decided this time to go back to the Hell Freezes Over arrangement.” I knew exactly was he meant and was already whooping and clapping when I heard the opening riffs of "Smuggler’s Blues." I had been positive we would get the "swamp blues" version which sounds to me like the Smuggler took some Valium. Now I know there are a lot of people who think that's really cool, and to each his/her own, but as for me, I like it to rock. Loved it, and so did everyone else.

When he intro’d "Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed," he said that it was off of his solo collection. Then he turned around to face the band and joked, "All this stuff is out of print!" The audience enjoyed it a lot, swaying, which I thought was great since it’s likely most of them hadn’t heard it before.

"The Heat Is On" was his biggest solo crowd-pleaser. He intro-ed it with something like, "Cops dig me. Don't know why... I was very, very lucky to get this on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack - I don't know how that happened. I think I was the only white rocker guy on there - everybody else was monster rhythm and blues and then there was me.” More people than usual stood up to applaud that one. It blew folks away!

Then it was time for "Heartache Tonight," an even bigger crowd pleaser. A cute moment: Scott Crago raised his drumstick high in the air during the line "Some people like to stay out late." Glenn said goodbye during the end of "Heartache Tonight" and before the song was even over, he was getting a standing ovation. Of course it wasn’t long before he came back.

Once back, he said he wasn’t going to go on and off stage anymore because his knees couldn’t take it. Paraphrasing: "We're changing up the setlist a little tonight. I'm going to ask you all to sing these with me - you should know them - and then I'm gonna go sit down. You know, the legs just aren't working tonight. The voice works, but the legs..." Then he just shook his head and laughed.

When he started singing "Some Kind of Wonderful," I was eager to sing along as instructed – too bad I had no idea what the lyrics are to it. At least I was able to chime in on the title line in the chorus. He also did "I Hear You Knockin’" and, again, the crowd had a good time with it. And I DID know the lyrics to that one!

He closed with "Take It Easy" and, of course, "Desperado." Again, I never thought I would see him do it live with my own eyes, loud and clear and powerful. It was magnificent. The crowd sang along and it was a great closer, after which he got another standing ovation. As our first time seeing Glenn solo, this concert will always be extra-special for us. I know I will never forget it.

Solo Tour Index :: Prelude to Obsurity Tour Index :: Mt. Pleasant 2006