Three Things I Learned at The Eagles Concert

What a show. What a concert. What a band. What a venue.

The Eagles concert at The Denny Sanford Premier Center was beyond anything I expected in Sioux Falls. That being said, I did learn 3 things at The Eagles concert.

1. We are addicted to smart phones. We're addicted to holding them instead of holding a conversation. It's ridiculous. On the way to the concert, I saw two young high school aged girls rollerblading. Instead of talking to each other, they were checking their snap chat, or something more important. As we walked into the building for the concert there was a loudspeaker playing a message. No pictures, no recording, no phones. Period.

Oh no! How are we going to update Facebook and Twitter! How are we going to take a selfie with our wife? How are we going to let friends in another state know that we're much more important than they are because we are here and they're at home!

Do-Not-Get-Ahead-of me. I was feeling that anxiety too. I'm one of those guys that only shuts my phone off for church. It was stressful. I did notice during the intermission that many people were actually talking to each other instead of checking texts and e-mails. Maybe the exercise of going off grid for a while was a jump start. Which leads me to:

2. READ THE ROOM. (I'm not always good at this) Reading the room comes with age and alcohol consumption. Drinking dims ones ability to read the room. Don Henley opened the show by saying thank you for turning off your phone and paying attention. If you were popped before that comment, it went over the roof of your head. I came ready to stand for the entire concert but you could see walking in this show was going to be different. At the risk of being a buzz kill, sometimes it's good to chill and let the evening come to you. That is exactly what happened. Eventually people dialed it back and connected with a great performance.

3. The Eagles are a great band on so many levels. They've been though hell. They've had breakups and makeups. They've had a lot to figure out and manage as individuals. I respect them playing very closely to the way the music was recorded. To be able to execute a recording in a live performance environment to near perfection in front of 11 thousand fans that's a whole new level of difficult.

I also liked how they let us up to have a good time. Funk #49. In The City. Joe Walsh wailing on Life's Been Good To Me So Far. Crazy good.

Kenny Chesney will be a different vibe. Luke WAS a different vibe as were Jason Aldean and Eric Church. Those are buckle up and hold on shows.  It's all about the evening, the crowd and the band. Not all concerts are created equally.

It was quite a night.

A different kind of night.

A more serene, sorta laid back, are you kidding incredible flashback to senior year of high school kind of night.