Eagles began their Las Vegas Sphere residency at the weekend, with shows on Friday (September 20) and Saturday (September 21) – buy tickets to the rest of their shows here.
READ MORE: U2 live in Las Vegas: a dazzling opening night at the $2 billion Sphere
The Los Angeles legends followed the Sphere’s previous residents U2, Phish, and Dead & Company with a succession of two-hour, 20-track sets which saw them play some of their biggest hits, including ‘Hotel California‘, ‘Life In The Fast Lane’, ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘One Of These Nights’.
They also included a few covers from their respective solo careers in the setlist, which was the same on both nights. They included co-lead vocalist and drummer Don Henley’s ‘The Boys Of Summer‘, and lead guitarist Joe Walsh’s ‘In The City’ and ‘Life’s Been Good’.
On the opening night, they paid tribute to J.D. Souther, who died last week aged 78, when performing ‘Heartache Tonight‘, the final track of the set. The singer-songwriter co-wrote the 1979 hit, and worked extensively with the band over their career.
Henley told the crowd, “I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge a couple of people. I want to acknowledge the co-writer of that song who we lost three days ago, Mr. J.D. Souther. J.D. is someone 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.”
Eagles’ Las Vegas Sphere setlist was:
1. ‘Hotel California’
2. ‘One of These Nights’
3. ‘Lyin’ Eyes’
4. ‘Take It to the Limit’
5. ‘Witchy Woman’
6. ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’
7. ‘Tequila Sunrise’
8. ‘In the City’
9. ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’
10. ‘New Kid in Town’
11. ‘Seven Bridges Road’
12. ‘Those Shoes’
13. ‘Life’s Been Good’
14. ‘Already Gone’
15. ‘The Boys of Summer’
16. ‘Life in the Fast Lane’
17. ‘Take It Easy’
18. ‘Rocky Mountain Way’
19. ‘Desperado’
20. ‘Heartache Tonight’
The Eagles will be back at the Sphere this weekend for Friday and Saturday shows, before returning next month. They’ll be playing for two weekends each week until January, when they finish with a show on 25 January.
Originally, the band had planned for eight shows, with another eight then added, but “overwhelming demand” has meant they added another four, for a total of 20. It sees their ongoing farewell tour, the ‘Long Goodbye’ tour, extended. It began in September last year, and will now go on until early 2025.
You can find tickets to the remainder of Eagles’ residency shows here.
The Sphere opened in September last year, with U2 the first act to perform, playing a 40-set residency from September 29 to March 2. The residency, titled ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere’, focused on the band’s 1991 album ‘Achtung Baby’.
Over 600,000 fans were in attendance across the 40 shows, and it grossed $224.5million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing concert residency of all time.
In a five-star review of the first show, NME called it a “dazzling opening night at the $2 billion Sphere” and added: “This is just the start of a stunning residency which will only continue to blossom with each passing night in this city of blinding lights.”
Last month, the Irish rock icons announced a concert film, V-U2, directed by guitarist The Edge. It began screening exclusively at the Sphere from September 5.
The post Here’s what Eagles played as they kicked off their Las Vegas Sphere residency appeared first on NME.
