Eagles’ Classic Catalog Is More Vivid Than Ever at Night 1 of Las Vegas Sphere Residency: 6 Best Moments
You’ve heard about that “dark desert highway” for many years. However have you ever ever clear it?

Eagles (L to R: Vince Gill, Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Deacon Frey, Joe Walsh and traveling guitarist Steuart Smith) at evening 1 in their Sphere residency on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Las Vegas.
Chloe Weir
For greater than 50 years, the Eagles had been portray bright footage with their track, from the unlit desolate tract freeway of “Hotel California” to the billion stars throughout of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” to the chilly, chilly town of “Life in the Fast Lane.” On Friday evening (Sept. 20), the ones pictures got here to intense age at Las Vegas’ Sphere, the place the era of 2024 after all stuck as much as the band’s enduring artistry and created a technicolor show valuable in their vintage, illustrative songs from the Nineteen Seventies and past.
The California country-rock staff – shaped through Don Henley and the overdue Glenn Frey in 1971 – will have by no means imagined this month for itself as a result of this type of game-changing venue merely didn’t exist of their heyday. The primary evening of the Eagles’ five-month Sphere residency proved there’s one thing in particular captivating about pairing songs that experience this deep of a historical past with a brand-new medium to revel in them. Lots of the fanatics within the development for opening evening may have looked at a oppose of The Long Goodbye Tour over the hour year-plus, however although the setlist wasn’t too a long way off (with some important swaps – extra on that underneath), this display was once worlds excluding any Eagles live performance earlier than it. The gang nonetheless boasts the untouched harmonies, tight guitar licks, and general pastime that belies their veteran situation; it’s simply that now you’ll additionally tug a literal go back and forth right into a spooky woodland for the otherworldly “Witchy Woman,” so it’s no longer simply the unnerving manufacturing surroundings the macabre temper.
The band – made up of Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Vince Gill and Glenn’s son Deacon Frey, in addition to a workforce of longtime traveling musicians – was once by no means overpowered through the Sphere’s floor-to-ceiling seeing since the 20-song eager made up solely of hits at all times held its personal towards the immersive spectacle. Visible the Eagles catalog sponsored through this shining show simplest enhanced simply how undying and impactful those songs are.
Underneath, in finding Billboard’s very best moments from Eagles’ opening evening at Sphere.
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Origination With ‘Hotel California’
Is there any larger flex than kicking off a live performance along with your signature accident? Some fanatics may have anticipated the Scorching 100-topping name observe in their 1976 magazine to come back nearest within the display, or possibly at the same time as the overall encore track, however as soon as the countdown clock crept to 0 simply next 8:30 p.m. PT, it was once the usual lines of the 6-minute-plus radio staple that rang around the Sphere. The seeing eager the pitch for the night time, starting merely with headlights touring i’m sick that infamous “dark desert highway” earlier than opening up into the haunted halls of the resort, filled with faceless figures at an extended dinner desk and white mask peeking i’m sick ominously from the ceiling.
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Deacon Frey Comes Into His Personal
Glenn Frey’s 31-year-old son Deacon first performed with the band at 2017’s Classic West live performance, stepping in next his dad’s 2016 demise at date 67. Now, greater than seven years nearest, Deacon is a full-fledged member of the gang, seamlessly harmonizing with peerless vocalists like Henley, Gill and Schmit and optimistically taking on manage on Glenn’s liked signature songs, together with “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Already Gone” and “Take It Easy.” Maximum telling is Deacon’s willingness to turn up his dad’s well-worn melodies to position his personal spin at the classics, appearing his relief stage onstage with a band full of legends.
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Paying Tribute to Jimmy Buffett & JD Souther
The Eagles took a generation on opening evening to accomplish a twofold tribute for fallen buddies, forming out with Henley’s solo accident “Boys of Summer” for the overdue king of summer season Jimmy Buffett, who died in September 2023 at date 76, and upcoming transferring directly to “Heartache Tonight” to keep in mind the track’s co-writer JD Souther, who died Tuesday at date 78. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge a couple of people, one of whom we lost a year ago this month, Mr. Jimmy Buffett,” Henley started the tribute. “We’re dedicating this next song to him. And then the song we’re going to do after this next song, I want to acknowledge the co-writer of that song, who we lost three days ago, Mr. JD Souther. JD, as some of you may know, played a pivotal role in the Eagles. He wasn’t in the band, but he certainly co-wrote some of our biggest hits, including ‘Best of My Love,’ ‘New Kid in Town’ and the one we’re going to play after this next song called ‘Heartache Tonight.’ So these songs go out to those boys, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Souther. Sing it so they can hear you.”
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From Underwater to Outer Area


Symbol Credit score: Chloe Weir The best way the Sphere display really envelops the degree lets in the community to be transported each musically and visually, and the Eagles’ display took a progress from below the ocean to above the clouds (with some terrestrial stops in between). One of the vital maximum admirable perceptible shows incorporated a pair’s beautiful underwater choreography for “Boys of Summer”; a elevated cityscape rising over the community earlier than collapsing i’m sick into the garden for “In the City”; and a bus riding all of the method into the cosmos and right into a meteor bathe for “Take It to the Limit.”
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The Becoming Lyrics
For “Lyin’ Eyes,” one of the most Eagles’ purest nation tracks, the large display put the focal point at the track’s storytelling, separating every lyric layout through layout and raining the phrases i’m sick onto the community. The focal point was once additionally at the lyrics nearest within the evening, when two strains surfaced that felt like very best suits for the once-in-a-lifetime residency: “We will never be here again” from “Take It Easy” and “This night is gonna last forever” from the overall track of the night time, “Heartache Tonight.”
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The Troubadour Involves Vegas
Like U2 and Dead & Company did earlier than them, there could also be a fan revel in for Eagles concertgoers within the adjoining Venetian Hotel – with this one re-creating the vaunted Troubadour membership in West Hollywood the place Henley and Frey were given their get started within the early ’70s. There are several of particular treats on the Vibee-created Third Encore fan revel in, together with Henley’s first-ever drum package from when he was once a child (emblazoned with the title of his junior band Felicity) in addition to jerseys, posters and alternative memorabilia from the band’s non-public assortment and unique merch simplest to be had on the pop-up.
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Night time 1 Setlist


Symbol Credit score: Chloe Weir Resort California
One among Those Nights
Lyin’ Optic
Whisk It to the Prohibit
Witchy Lady
Non violent Simple Feeling
Tequila First light
Within the Town
I Can’t Inform You Why
Pristine Child in The city
Seven Bridges Street
Those Sneakers
Past’s Been Excellent
Already Long gone
Boys of Summer time
Past within the Speedy LaneENCORE
Whisk It Simple
Rocky Mountain Approach
Desperado
Heartache This night -
Eagles’ Difference Sphere Dates
Sept. 21
Sept. 27
Sept. 28
Oct. 11
Oct. 12
Oct.18
Oct. 19
Nov. 1
Nov. 2
Nov. 8
Nov. 9
Dec. 6
Dec. 7
Dec. 13
Dec. 14
Jan. 17
Jan. 18
Jan. 24
Jan. 25

