The Eagles land again in Sin City

The Eagles have been reunited for 16 years, longer than the period they were broken up (14 years) and longer than their first run as the quintessential California soft-rock band (nine years).

In a happy coincidence, Las Vegas casinos had just started to go all in for the concert market by 1994, when the band got back together. The years since have proved a happy synergy for two entities with a common goal: separating the baby boomer from his dollar.

As the Eagles return to the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday, we retrace the long road of their Las Vegas history.

December 1979 -- "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."

We couldn't find any earlier record of the band playing here in its "Desperado" days. Coke-snorting rockers generally weren't a good fit for casino showrooms, and rock concerts were under-reported in the local papers. (If you know of an earlier date, please share.)

But the Aladdin's 7,000-seater hosted great concerts in the latter '70s, including a Dec. 22 benefit during "The Long Run" tour when the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Chicago joined forces to back California Gov. Jerry Brown's run for president. There's no record of ticket prices, but the concert hoped to raise $150,000.

Eight months later, according to former guitarist Don Felder's tell-all book, "Heaven and Hell," group harmony was so bad that while they were playing "The Best of My Love" at another benefit, Glenn Frey whispered to Felder, "I'm gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage."

The group was officially done a year later.

June 1994 -- "All this whinin' and cryin' and pitchin' a fit, get over it."

The same weekend they were enthralled by O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco chase on TV, 30,000 Las Vegans witnessed the cheekily titled "Hell Freezes Over" tour at Sam Boyd Stadium.

A few weeks prior, the reunion kicked off with an MTV concert in Burbank, Calif. After the taping, a few reporters joined Frey, Don Henley Timothy B. Schmit and band manager Irving Azoff at a large table for a casual interview on the Warner Bros. lot.

The reunion was guided in part by a country tribute album. The Eagles remain the template for the still-exploding mall-country sound. "I think harmony and melody escaped the urban areas and went to the heartland," Henley noted.

"They've been throwing money at us for over a decade now, but that wasn't really the point," Henley said. "The point is, we're all ready to do this now. Our lives have converged in such a way that we can do this."

Much of the talk centered on ticket prices shattering the $100 barrier (but only for the best seats). Henley and Frey raised the point that "You can spend that for dinner now," then looked at each other for confirmation when that didn't ring home with the rest of the table.

But that, too, would be in Las Vegas' future.

March 1995 -- "Eager for action and hot for the game, the coming attraction, the drop of a name."

By hiring the Eagles to play a private show for the opening weekend of the cool new Hard Rock Hotel, developer Peter Morton pointed the way for his Las Vegas competition: big acts in small venues; prestigious evenings with the classic rockers that a new wave of high-rollers in their late 40s to early 50s grew up with.

The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan and others soon signed on for big-ticket -- if you could score one -- Hard Rock dates that gave VIP hosts big carrots to dangle for bigger players.

December 1999 -- "Somebody's gonna come undone, there's nothing we can do."

The "millennium" New Year's Eve of 1999 into 2000 offered some of music's biggest names some of their biggest pay dates ever. The Eagles saved Dec. 31 for the new Staples Center in Los Angeles, but played two shows at Mandalay Bay on Dec. 27 and 28.

"Now we're just pacing ourselves and enjoying it more," Felder said in an interview. The only way the five members will "step back into this Eagles environment (is if) everybody's fresh and excited and interested in doing it. Or else it becomes way too much like work."

There was rampant fear of the Y2K bug, but Felder promised, "If we can survive ourselves, we'll be back."

They were, he wasn't. Felder was fired the next year in a dispute, he claimed, over royalties for a boxed set.

June 2002 and August 2003 -- "You can go the distance, we'll find out in the long run."

The economic boom-to-bust is told in the Eagles' ticket prices. For another Hard Rock concert in 2002, tickets were $305 to $505 (compared with $57-$127 for conventional arena dates in other cities).

At the MGM Grand Garden the following year, the best tickets were a relative bargain at $82 to $257. And this time, they're a stinkin' deal at $55 to $220 (unless you popped $500 or more for VIP upgrades offering premium seating and "an exclusive gift").

The Eagles managed to get it together in the studio for a double-disc of new songs, "Long Road Out of Eden," in 2007.

Whatever the mood backstage, the Eagles have delivered a consistent, quality product these past 16 years; generous two-set shows laden with hits, willing to enlist solo-career crowd-pleasers -- Henley's "Dirty Laundry," Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" -- instead of forcing less-remembered album cuts from the group.

That's as it should be for a band where the songs are ultimately more important than the people singing them. As Felder noted before his dismissal, "The songs those guys write together have weathered the test of time and propelled this band through years of history. ... It doesn't matter if you hear them on a Muzak elevator or if some country artist is covering them. The songs are really great songs."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.