Take It To The Limit...

So, after a 4 day weekend celebrating Memorial Day that included what was, to me, the ultimate concert I've ever attended (within my limited realm of concerts) in the Clapton show, I returned to work to find an email looking for takers for tickets to the Eagles Friday night show at Madison Square Garden.

THE EAGLES?!!!

Holy Hannah in a Handbasket!!!!

FREE tickets in the Dow Jones LUXURY BOX?!

My very first thought was "I can't go...I don't have anyone to go with or any way to get down there". Then I wondered...there were a few tickets, and I was told there were NO takers...so would my parents like to go too? I knew my mother liked their music, but my father thinks music stopped after 1950. So I phoned and asked. Since they knew how much I wanted to see them, but how the cost was always so prohibitive, they agreed.

So, I scored 3 tickets to the Eagles...free...in a Luxury Box.

I did a happy dance!!

I decided to work thru lunch and leave the office at 4. Good thing I did, because of the crane accident up on 91st there would be mega traffic no doubt. We decided to drive, to avoid sitting in traffic in the city in a taxi with the meter running. We ended up sitting in traffic on I95! Took us almost 2 hours to get to the FDR Drive! Once on the FDR, it was smooth sailing to the Garden, kamikazi pedestrians notwithstanding.

We arrived at MSG around 6:15 and paid $43 for 10 hours of parking that I was sure I wouldn't need. We decided to get something to eat inside the arena, and waited for the doors to the Lux Boxes to open. Once inside, we had to take an elevator up to the 10th floor. There were 2 buttons in the elevator: 3 and 10. So, we pushed 10 and zipped upstairs to a nice open lobby. We then were directed to a narrow hallway. Our box number was 1024. We stood at 1000, and started our trek...uphill. Yes, we were indeed in the attic of Madison Square Garden. Even the ceilings were slanted like in an attic.

We got to our box and were the first to arrive. Inside a waitress was setting out chaffing dishes with hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken fingers in them, along with condiments and wraps. There were chips, dips, cheeses, crackers, fruits and bowls of M&Ms. There was also a fully stocked bar with top shelf liquor and juices and sodas.

The Lux box was at the very top of MSG. I swear, if I had the nerve, I could have reached out and unscrewed the bolts from the ceiling, thats how HIGH we were. And while I knew that MSG has the worlds largest suspended roof, I never knew it was concave. I know it now!! Wowza!

The one thing that freaked me out was the seating. The booth was open, with maybe a foot high piece of glass that came up to around my waist being the only thing between me and a certain freefall to the blue seats below. No thank you. There were two rowes of stadium seating, and I opted instead to sit at the bar behind those two rows. I kept my back against a solid wall and felt much better about it.

It started to get very warm in our box, and we looked for the air conditioning, but were informed that the Garden had turned the a/c off, as requested by the band. Thanks guys! Heat, as we all know, rises. So by the time the arena filled up and the band took the stage, we were doing a slow boil. But it was all worth it.

The Eagles took the stage at 8:30, wearing black suits, white shirts and black ties. They played for about an hour, a mix of their classics and some selection from their new album, The Long Road Out of Eden, their first full studio album in 28 years! They took a short break after about an hour, and returned, jacketless, to play a GREAT acoustic set! The rest of the night was a mix of old, new, and solo music. Joe Walsh brough down the house with his version of Lifes Been Good and I finally got to hear Boys of Summer live!

The ending was the best though. They closed on Desperado and the stage was dark, except for the spotlight on Don Henley, in his suit, singing. Just beautiful!

Heat aside, this was a fabulous concert. Not as musically awakening as Clapton was, though, because unlike that show, I knew 90% of the songs sung at this one! My father had NO idea how good they were and totally enjoyed the show. My mother was surprised at how much of their music she knew, but never realized it was them.

I loved it! The show ended at around 11:45 that night and by the time I got home, I was just exhausted...from excitement? or maybe heat exhaustion? Whatever it was, I dropped like a brick and slept until after 11 this morning!

I would SO go see them again, except this time in an outdoor arena where I have a chance of catching a cool breeze somewhere ;)