The east coast was just digging out from a nor’easter, with another expected in a couple of days, but Saturday night was dry and Atlantic City was hopping. The Borgata was hosting two shows. The crowd at the Don Felder show in the Music Box was a bit anemic. Maybe the Foreigner show in the Event Center upstairs , maybe it was the weather. Or maybe word just hasn’t gotten out that Mr. Felder puts on a great show! Either way it was a shame to see so many empty seats.
The former Eagles lead guitarist hasn’t lost a step. Some of the most recognizable riffs in rock history have come out of his guitar and he recreated most of them for the crowd. From “Life In The Fast Lane” and “Witchy Woman” to “Take It Easy” and “Already Gone”, the set included most of the Eagles greatest hits. He even did my favorite, “Those Shoes”, and no Don Felder show would be complete without the iconic “Hotel California”. In addition, Mr. Felder did some solo songs from his latest album, the title track to the movie “Heavy Metal”, and “Pride and Joy” in tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn. His voice was spot on as well. Back in the day, Frey and Henley had a running feud with Felder over allowing Felder to sing lead on any songs. Frey and Henley didn’t feel Felder’s voice was up to the standards of the band. While it is different, it's certainly worthy. His band provided excellent backing vocals, and fantastic harmony on “Seven Bridges Road”.
The one thing about this show that was disappointing was the rather sedate crowd, which seemed to take a bit of the spark out of Mr. Felder’s performance. Whether it was the small size or the demographics of the crowd, I don’t know but people were content to remain sitting and rather quiet. One couple near the stage did get on their feet to dance, but were quickly told to sit back down by security. I can honestly say I have never seen that before. Toward the end of the show, Don encouraged people to get on their feet, which they did (and security allowed this time) so we could close the show out in proper fashion - dancing and singing along.
I only had a cell phone for this one, so the photos are not quite as sharp as I would like.
