Long time rocker Walsh is kind of a homeboy for me since I grew up in Northeast Ohio listening to and watching his early career in the late 60’s and early 70’s blossom with bands like the Measles and the James Gang, both from that part of the country. Not sure if I could count or actually remember how many times I’ve seen the James Gang but I do know that this was only the second time I had seen Joe Walsh since then, so my anticipation was pretty high for this show.

Fortunately, for me anyway, he wasn’t dragging around the Eagles and propping them up this time around. Walsh is so much better on his own and from what I heard the other night he verified it with every song featured.

Walsh opened the show with one of his many classic numbers, “Welcome to the Club”.   This song pretty much set the pace and the crowd knew what to expect as JW proceeded to play many numbers from his extensive catalog.

The second tune, “Life of Illusion” found Walsh brandishing a fine cross-cut curly maple topped acoustic guitar. This guitar was the second of many used by Walsh through out the evening. For every song that followed he used a different instrument and appeared to have plenty more guitars on reserve on the side of the stage.

As mentioned, I’m more from the James Gang school of Joe Walsh and thankfully a few standards from that era were featured. The two most recognizable songs from The James Gang catalog were “Walk Away” and “Funk #49”. A more obscure song from that time period was “Personal Manger”, a real string bending bluesy number that Walsh really excelled on.

“Rosewood Bitters” which was penned by one of Walsh’s Cleveland cronies Michael Stanley, was also featured, kind of solidifying my homeboy thing even more.

“Turn to Stone” had to be the highlight of the evening. Walsh’s back up singers and the rest of the band along with JW himself gave this song a memorable treatment resulting in an incredible performance.

It had to happen sooner or later and it did. If Walsh had to play an Eagles song “Life in the Fast Lane” was a pretty good one to feature.

Other classics included “Life’s Been Good to Me So Far” and “Over and Over” along with “I Shall be Released” and “All Night Long” as the encore numbers.

After twenty years since his last album, Walsh will be releasing a new solo effort in February entitled “Analog Man”. More long awaited classics from the Ohio homeboy I’m sure.