Desperados

The Acorn Theatre in Penzance (surely the most westerly venue in the country) is a converted chapel that now serves as an arts venue, hosting comedy, theatre, and music acts. The place is largely run by volunteers, which enables it to stay open and offer some much-needed "small venue" entertainment in this part of the world.

Tonight we have Desperados, an Eagles tribute band from Scotland with a big reputation, and we can't wait. We're sitting in the balcony (it's all seating tonight and standing downstairs tomorrow) with a fantastic view, what better to open the show than Take it Easy..

The sound is great in this room, and the guys are immediately impressive. They have the look, the musical expertise and the voices to carry this off, it seems, without putting on fake American accents, which is a relief. In fact, they come from Scotland and have apparently had a 10-hour drive down here today after playing Newcastle last night. Guys, sack the tour manager!

Early in the set, we get Peaceful Easy Feeling, Witchy Woman and Tequila Sunrise. It soon becomes apparent that the Eagles have a lot of quality in their back catalogue, that's not really a surprise, eh? But when you hear the songs banged out back to back, it's clear what legends they were, and in fact still are. These songs are performed with passion and dexterity. Desperados have such a full sound, bass, drums and keyboards, fronted by 3 guitarists, two of whom share lead vocals and the whole crowd are quickly mesmerised and relax and sing along all night.

The first half of the gig (we get a drinks interval, so nobody misses anything) seems to comprise mainly the more chilled-out Eagles songs, the highlights being Take It to the Limit and the beautiful Lyin' Eyes.

Fresh back with a tasty Cornish craft ale in hand, we're promised and ready for things to rock up a bit, and we're not disappointed. Songs like New Kid in Town and One of These Nights are lapped up, but as well as Eagles tracks we get a few solo offerings too. Joe Walsh classics Rocky Mountain Way and the huge Life's Been Good go down a treat, and of course, Don Henley's Boys of Summer, what a tune. We're reliably informed, written by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and turned down by Tom....but hey, he did ok, right?

We get a lot of between-song banter and interesting titbits as well as the music tonight, and the musicianship is outstanding. Desperados leave the stage after finishing with Life in the Fast Lane, and of course, Desperado, but they haven't played Hotel California yet, so we have an inkling they'll be back on.....They play the Eagles probably best-known song and head off to their next gig, let's hope it's less than a 10-hour drive away...

The whole crowd leave happy tonight, sometimes a good singalong does wonders for the soul. This place has events on most nights. We're looking forward to Ozzy's Blizzard and Sabbra Cadabra later this month, but check out the Acorn, Penzance website for more details on what's coming up.