Peaceful easy feeling

We had a quiet Sabbath because we wanted to rest up for last night: The Eagles at Madison Square Garden. We went to synagogue in the morning and played two games of Rummikub in the afternoon and Barry won one of them!

Neither of us can quite remember when we were last at Madison Square Garden, but sometime between then and now it has undergone a fairly significant renovation and, like so many places in New York City in recent years, it is actually quite a bit nicer than we remembered it. Our seats were fair, but these days with the big screens you can actually “see” the band quite well. We had stopped on the way in to pick up some earplugs, so we were all set.

This show was part of the band’s “History of the Eagles” tour, and that is exactly what it was. They basically went through all of their most popular music, sprinkling in only a few less familiar tunes. The first half was largely folk-inspired, beginning with just Glenn Frey and Don Henley on acoustic guitars, then gradually adding others including Timothy Schmit and Joe Walsh, who joined for such hits as “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Witchy Woman.” The volume was cranked up for the second half of the show but it never became painful and we never even used those earplugs!

The full house was quite enthusiastic, at least as much as we aging baby boomers can be. I doubt there were more than a handful of people under 50 there. There is a part of me that wonders how depressing that must be for the band: despite having continued to create new music throughout their 40 years together, the crowd really just wants to hear the first few years of their repertoire. It brings to mind a line I shared once before from a James Taylor song,

Fortune and fame’s such a curious game,
Perfect strangers can call you buy name.

Pay good money to hear “Fire and Rain,”

Again and again and again.

But, like they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! And the music that brought the Eagles to fame back in the 1970s is still, to quote one of their songs, “the best of their love.” We are left with that peaceful, easy feeling.

In a complete change of gears, we are going this afternoon to a concert at the 92^nd Street Y that would have likely escaped my notice if not for the music class I am taking there:

Exclusive New York engagement
Hagen Quartet
      Lukas Hagen, violin
      Rainer Schmidt, violin
      Veronika Hagen, viola
      Clemens Hagen, cello

BEETHOVEN:
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2

The Hagen Quartet will be playing all of Beethoven’s string quartets in a series of a half dozen concerts, but this was the only date that worked for us. Because I am enrolled in a music course there, we even got a discount!

Have a good start to this week.

Love,

Rebecca