Well, the Talon gig finally came round on Saturday 9th May, and as I had promised a bit of a review then I guess I had better deliver, so here goes.
The venue was a place called "The Matchroom Suite" in Plymouth, best known as a local Snooker hall, but with a concert venue alongside, it is a regular gig for many tribute performers, but they are mainly fairly cheesy solo artists doing Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash etc, so not of great interest to a full band enthusiast such as me, however they are recently putting on more of the national touring tribute bands, and Talon a regulars visitors who normally sell out the place.
So to the band, 5 key members, augmented by 2 additional musicians, and Sound/Light guys who really know what they are about. The musicians seem to be all multi skilled, and it was only the drummer who did not change instruments, but stayed at the back providing a very solid foundation for the others to build the show on. All of the remaining guys are also vocalists, with 3 of them being very, very good solo singers, and able to cover the full range of voices required to create the sounds of Henley, Frey, Schmidt, and Walsh, and when they did the block 5 voice harmonies it was truly a sound to raise the neck hairs.
Musically they covered the full range of the extensive eagles back catalogue, from "Take it Easy", "Already Gone" through "Tequila Sunrise", "Lying Eyes" and "Hotel California" and on to " somebody" and "Long Road Out Of Eden" every on delivered perfectly, and with some entertaining engagement with the audience between songs.
Though it would not be right to compare the actual show presentation with TAPFS, as the Eagles were never a hugely visual act at any time, from a purely musical perspective, these guys are to The Eagles, as TALFS are to Pink Floyd, the very same note for note determination to recreate the original sound and feel is very evident, to anyone who enjoyed the west coast sounds of the Eagles during the 70's TALON are a must see!
The same venue has Whole Lotta Led and Limehouse Lizzy coming in the next couple of months so Happy Days!
