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Eagles, Dixie Chicks throw open Nokia's doors
It's a
hopeful sign for the new downtown L.A. venue that its first audience felt comfortable enough to dance.
By Ann Powers,
Los Angeles Times
THE Nokia Theatre, the
blindingly bright new gem of downtown Los Angeles night life, turned out to be two things Thursday during its opening night,
the first of six shows by the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks. To the ears and well-cushioned backside, it was a high-class concert
hall, with excellent acoustics, comfy upholstery and nearly flawless sightlines.
For the soul, the theater offered
something else -- the excess stimulation only arena shows provide. Pulsing with screens, awash in colored spotlights and free
of the haute-bourgeois aura that can sometimes make pop shows feel strange in older, more ornate theaters, the Nokia made
it easy for 7,100 concertgoers to forget the steep cost of the night's tickets (face value of nearly $300 for orchestra seats)
and cut loose.
As
the Eagles boogied through two hours' worth of new songs and beloved hits, guys clinked cups of beer across the aisles. Couples
pressed together, swaying to the music. Dads and teenage daughters linked arms and sang along to Don Henley's "Boys of Summer":
"Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac."
This kind of raucous behavior
does sometimes happen in theaters, but it's the essence of the arena-rock experience. It's a very hopeful sign for the Nokia
that its first audience felt comfortable enough to dance and carouse; great pop shows run on the energy of an inspired crowd.
A venue can as easily deaden the spirit of an audience as fuel it. The Nokia's atmosphere proved conducive to excitement.
This
wasn't completely evident during the Dixie Chicks' set, which highlighted the theater's other strong qualities. The trio,
augmented by a small brigade of sidemen, was rather staid at first, perhaps because this was the first show they'd played
since winning five Grammy awards in February. Their vocal harmonies and rich, warm instrumentation showed off the hall's acoustical
properties. But only after sprinting through the bluegrass breakdown "White Trash Wedding" did the band really come together.
Emily
Robison's chops finally kicked in on banjo, and Martie Maguire followed suit on fiddle. Singer Natalie Maines hit her stride
singing "Not Ready to Make Nice," which has become her "My Way." The set's highlights were all newer songs; the Chicks are
definitely done with Nashville, and want to focus on their new, California-bred sound.
After the Chicks departed without
an encore, the band that set the rules for that sound took the stage to instant pandemonium. The Eagles are consummate arena
rockers: They have a repertoire fans adore, an extroverted performance style that flaunts their prowess as a band and a great
sense of how to put a set together. Thursday's show built steadily by mixing hits with relative obscurities; the hits got
everyone singing, while the lesser-known songs, mostly by guitarist Joe Walsh, let the Eagles turn into a jam band.
The
set began with four songs from the band's new album, "Long Road Out of Eden," to be released Oct. 30. With one sung by each
member, these newbies offered assurance that the Eagles sound remains intact. Don Henley offered "Busy Being Fabulous," a
typical slice of moral outrage; Glenn Frey took the lead on the current single, the '70s J.D. Souther song "How Long." Walsh
and bassist Timothy B. Schmit did well on their turns too.
Then a trumpet call signaled a trip down a warm desert highway.
"Hotel California" was made even grander by the contributions of eight sidemen, including a horn section. Guitarist Steuart
Smith played the leads made famous by the now-absent Don Felder. From behind the drums, Henley spat out his famous lyrics,
sounding as tough and spooky as he did in 1976.
Frey then took the microphone, playing the natty foil to Henley's penthouse
prophet. The interplay between the relaxed Frey and the intense Henley is a major factor in the Eagles' appeal. Put it this
way -- Frey wrote what might be the best song about free love, "Peaceful Easy Feeling," while Henley wrote the best song about
freebasing, "Life in the Fast Lane." Both sounded great during this set.
Frey and Henley played ring toss with their
hits, but they also gave a lot of room to Walsh, whose wacky persona (he made a reference to his "new teeth," making light
of the inevitable decay of a once hard-partying baby boomer) charms Eagles fans, but whose songs aren't quite as indelible.
Live,
however, it was Walsh who helped the Eagles to explore new terrain. His songs are blues- and funk-based, and allow his mates,
especially the lithe-fingered Schmit, to stretch out and groove. The tight harmonies that emblematize the Eagles sound were
beautiful in this room, but the full-on jams were more surprising. At one point, the Eagles almost -- almost -- sounded
like George Clinton's band Parliament-Funkadelic. If the Nokia Theatre led these old birds to try that new trick, it's truly
an inspiring room.
Eagles
With Dixie Chicks
by Brian Lowry,
Variety
The Eagles followed the
Dixie Chicks on Thursday, but both of them were opening acts, as it were, for the night's headliner -- the gleaming new Nokia
Theatre, an impressive 7,100-seat venue where, appropriately, the cellphone reception is just swell. Bearing a marginal resemblance
to the Universal Amphitheater, the site isn't nearly so cavernous as the nearby Staples Center and, at least based on the
opener to this six-night stand, features topnotch acoustics and accoutrements, although one had to pity the poor ushers assigned
to keep enthusiastic baby boomers from taking their tepid dance moves into the aisles.
Laid out so that 60% of the seats are in the orchestra and the furthest spot is a mere 220 feet from
the stage, the Nokia helps out the side boxes and mezzanine with large TV screens above, on either side and (in the case of
the Eagles) behind the stage. There have already been talks to designate the venue as a regular home for the Emmys, and given
the size and location, it should quickly siphon away events from some more tattered mid-sized local venues, beginning with
the Shrine.
As for the show itself, the Eagles' latest "Yep, we're back again" tour began with a workmanlike string
of four songs from the band's new CD, which the audience listened to politely. After that, it was karaoke night, as the group
delivered a parade of classic material from "Hotel California" to "Desperado" in a nearly-two-hour set that managed to be
both predictable and pleasing.
Admittedly, not all the Eagles have endured the test of time equally. Don Henley still sounds terrific,
and his rendition of "Boys Of Summer" -- augmented by a cool spotlight effect -- was perhaps the night's signature moment.
By contrast, Joe Walsh's voice -- not exactly a finely tuned instrument in its best days -- has devolved into a painful wail,
and when he belted out the new CD's "Guilty of the Crime," the title seemed particularly descriptive.
Still, the group has such a terrific library of songs that it's hard to go wrong, even inspiring the
heavily tilted assemblage of VIPs and media to get on their feet and stay there once the best-of repertoire kicked in.
That crowd dynamic was slightly less hospitable to the Dixie Chicks, which kicked off the night with
a crisp hour-long set highlighted by lead singer Natalie Maines' powerful version of the recent Grammy winner "Not Ready to
Make Nice." Even addressing an L.A. crowd predisposed to respond to that politically charged anthem (notably, the trio made
their entrance to "Hail To The Chief"), the performance pretty much blew away anything the Eagles could muster later in the
evening.
That said, there were a number of conspicuously empty seats when the Chicks started playing (their
first outing since the Grammys, Maines noted), prompting her to marvel about an audience that paid nearly $300 a ticket showing
up that fashionably late for the new theater's coming-out party. "Only in L.A.," she said.
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