Nancy's Review of the Roxy Show
Date: April 11, 2008

What a show! We (Kay, Lissa, and I) had never been to the Roxy before, and when we walked in we were surprised by its small size and the low height of the stage. The area in front of the stage was open, and a few yards behind that area was the VIP section with booths and tables. There Glenn Frey sat, with his wife and other friends and family, waiting until it was time to perform with his son Deacon.

Tthe first to come out were the ninth graders who had organized the event. They were obviously nervous but very earnest in their efforts. I admired their passion for an important cause at such a young age. When the projector suddenly stopped working, the girl who was doing most of the talking - I think her name was Cameron? - controlled her momentary panic and they kept going in a professional manner. As someone who has taught presentation skills, I was impressed. When she proclaimed that her generation would not stand by when such suffering would happen, I embarrassedly thought that I was not of her generation and felt very old!

Nick Shapiro's group came out first, with an outrageous name that was blamed on the bass player, also named Nick. The boys all played solos and I was impressed by every one of them; the keyboardist looked a bit older and had a couple solos. I sang along with their cover of Light My Fire, although I honestly don't know the song too well. Shapiro got everyone clapping along at the end. They played a total of three songs and did very well.

Once they left the stage, Daniel Powter came on. He brought back out Nick Shapiro as well as a couple other boys to play with him, saying he'd never forget how Chris Isaak did the same for him when he was young. Don Was also came out, and both lavished sincere praise upon the boys. I was next to the friends of the drummer (I think his name was Jarod) who were going positively wild for him.

I was familiar with Powter's "Bad Day" but it wasn't until listening to some of his music in preparation for this that I began to appreciate him. He plays the piano with a great deal of sensitively and has an emotive voice. He sang "Song 6," "Free Loop" and "Bad Day," which he said he hadn't played in a year. I sang along as did most of the crowd to his well-known and catchy hit. Then it was time for the Freys! They were introduced and came out with Don Was and Nick Shapiro. Glenn joked that "Here we are, Don and Glenn - but this Don is more mellow than the one I usually work with!" Everyone laughed and he added, "I love 'em both, though." The drummer was one of the boys from the first band, with wild long blond hair. His name was Henry. Deacon's guitar was very cool-looking by the way, kind of an odd shape. It seemed to sparkle in the spotlight.

When Glenn started playing the slow and bluesy opening notes for "Get Over It", I thought "Hmm, 'Smuggler's Blues'?" I never expected that Deacon would go up to the mic and start singing a Henley vocal, as he then did! I hurriedly got out my camera - I only have enough memory on the card for 10 minutes so I was gonna wait to see if Glenn did a special song before I started filming. I wasn't going to waste half of it on "Smuggler's Blues" if something more special was coming later. However, Deacon singing lead on a song was definitely special enough to use up that memory! I got the whole thing after the first bit. I glanced nervously at Glenn to see if he would motion for me to stop - I was in full view of him - but he didn't seem fazed at all.

"Get Over It" is really hard to sing with its fast-paced torrent of lyrics - I know this from attempting to sing along with it in the car - but Deacon did a great job and played the rockin' guitar part flawlessly to boot. Dang! Glenn was positively beaming.

Glenn introduced the next song by talking about how both he and Don Was were from Detroit, "where mother was half a word," and joking that it was "the birthplace of country rock." He then went on to say how they loved the blues and I recognized the opening of "I Hear You Knockin'." Once again I assumed Glenn would do it, once again I was wrong as Deacon took lead. This night was his showcase. I captured it on film as well, and thought that Deacon must like the blues since he since he was giving the vocal a lot of soul. Michael Thompson got a solo for this song. Glenn introduced the next song by telling everyone it was a classic, and to sing along if they knew it. In an ironic reversal, I figured Deacon would be singing lead again, but this time it was Glenn. The song was "Some Kind of Wonderful." I couldn't sing along very much, as this is one of the few songs that Glenn performs which I don't know the lyrics to. The reason is simply because the only time I hear the song is at Glenn solo shows! It's a great song, though, and Glenn does it up right. I enthusiastically joined in on the simple chorus, the only part I knew.

At one point in the song, Glenn called to the guys in the audience to raise their hands if "they had a sweet little woman like mine." I turned my head and couldn't help but smile as I saw some boys in their early teens earnestly raising their hands. I wondered how many of them had their girlfriends right next to them at that point, since most of the boys had decidedly kept their hands at their sides for that question. Ah, youth!

The next song was "Take It Easy," with the crowd eating it up. I was glad that Glenn's record of playing that landmark song at every performance was unbroken, as I adore it! I did, however, put away the camera. I knew it was getting close to the end.

Glenn introduced the band, saying that as usual, he was the third best guitarist on the stage. He thanked Michael for being there on his break. As we all fanned ourselves, he told one of my favorite jokes of his - "It sure is hot here. I'm sweating harder than Eminem at a spelling bee." LOL! The audience loved it too, of course.

When it was time for the final song, Glenn once again told us to sing along if we knew it - that "this is gonna be exciting." As soon as the notes started I knew what he meant - Deacon was going to do "Hotel California"! I once again pulled out my camera, but captured only a teensy bit before the card was full. I later cursed myself for wasting it on the opening when Deacon and Shapiro did their guitar duet, which would have been much cooler to capture. Oh my gosh, it was terrific! Glenn looked so proud!

Afterwards, they said their goodbyes to great applause. Glenn thanked us for coming out. What a night!