The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Eagles concert in Santa Monica, CA was the evening of June 21, 1973. This concert was part of the Desperado tour, and David Blue opened the show for them. David Blue wrote ‘Outlaw Man’, which the Eagles performed. Glyn Johns had produced the Desperado album, and it would be their last album with Johns as the producer.
The two black and white stage shots below show everyone wearing different shirts in each. The difference in shirts is kind of explained in the articles below from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Arcadia Tribune. The Tribune states “after running and changing into T-shirts, the band came back with ‘Take It Easy,’ ‘Early Bird,’ and ‘Witchy Woman’ a much extended ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling,’ and encored with ‘Chug All Night’.”
Los Angeles Herald Examiner (Los Angeles, CA) – June 23, 1973
Arcadia Tribune (Arcadia, CA) – July 5, 1973
A few days later the Eagles had their performance at Wollman Rink in New York City, which aired on the “Good Vibrations from Central Park” TV show.
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Eagles Concert
Randy Meisner
Flipside Studios photography
Randy Meisner, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, & Bernie Leadon
Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, & Bernie Leadon
(after changing their shirts)
Don Henley
Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon
David Blue and Glenn Frey at the Lookout Management office, which was David Geffen’s office.
Photo by Henry Diltz – June 1973
San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, CA) – June 17, 1973
“Meisner was a member of Poor, Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band.”
Valley News (Van Nuys, CA) – June 15, 1973
“At Santa Monica Thursday, the Eagles performed all the songs from ‘Desperado’ in sequence. To add to the impact, the group used a scene of a Western main street as a backdrop and a few taped sound effects (such as galloping horses or howling wind) between songs.”
LA Times concert review (Los Angeles, CA) – June 23, 1973
“Eagles, a group that perhaps best typifies the current trend to mate rock and country, devastated a capacity Santa Monica Civic Auditorium audience Thursday night.”
“After a brief intermission the four Eagles reappeared in funkier garb than the quasi-western outfits they had worn for the first part of the show and delivered an abbreviated version of the concert set on which they depended for the first year of their existence.”
Los Angeles Herald Examiner (Los Angeles, CA) – June 23, 1973
“One thing is certain though: the Eagles carried their message to a sellout crowd of enthusiastic fans at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium last week.”
“And when they needed something extra, the backdrop was removed, revealing a 13-piece string section that accompanied the Eagles on two of their numbers.”
Santa Ana Register concert review (Santa Ana, CA) – June 28, 1973
“After several numbers the backdrop was raised to show a complete string section which played on two or three songs including the ‘Doolin Dalton/Desperado Reprise’ — the finale of the first part.”
Arcadia Tribune concert review (Arcadia, CA) – July 5, 1973
“Other outstanding tunes included ‘Outlaw Man’ and ‘Desperado,’ the title cut to their new LP. Group should continue to emerge as major concert attraction.”
Cash Box concert review – July 21, 1973
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium – capacity 3,000
I like the way Mark Sutton from the Santa Ana Register described the Eagles by the way they work together as a unit and rotate lead singers. So many articles of the early Eagles are described this way. Thanks, Diana!
They were a great team in the beginning
I agree! It’s too bad they lost sight of that.