Concert review: Joe Walsh opens tour at W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

WARREN — Joe Walsh may be an analog man in a digital world, but analog is a collector’s item these days.

Walsh kicked off a theater tour Wednesday night at Packard Hall, the first of two shows there. He’ll be back Friday night.

The iconoclastic electric guitar hero, still rangy and slim and with his trademark long hair, is in his upper 60s. More than ever he is singing at his own pace, cantankerously cracking wise, and playing some sweet, slowhand solos.

Walsh attended Kent State University and first made his mark in Northeast Ohio, so the Warren concerts can be considered his Ohio hometown shows. He went along with it. “It’s good to be home,” he told the crowd.

Joining him on drums and keys was longtime musical cohort Joe Vitale, a Canton native. The backing band also included, among others, Gannin Arnold on rhythm guitar, Tommy Simms on bass and Drew Hester on drums, plus three female backup singers.

Walsh wrote plenty of cool riffs in his long career. But the off-kilter tones he gets out of his guitar are what makes them stand out, and it seemed like Walsh used a different guitar for each song at the concert. Seriously, I stopped counting at seven.

During “Rocky Mountain Way,” he changed guitars in mid-song, going with one that was synched up with a voice synthesizer for the solo.

Walsh opened his 90-minute set — there was no opening act — with “Walk Away,” the 1971 hit from his James Gang days. After an equipment misstep on the first note, Walsh and Vitale started over. That was all that was needed to shake off the rust. By the third song, “Over and Over,” his voice was in mid-season form.

The set list included songs from all over his solo and band catalog, including stuff from the Eagles, plus one or two that he rarely plays. It included “The Worry Song,” an epic “Shadows” with some psychedelic guitar work, “Analog Man” from his 2012 album, “One Day At a Time,” “Life of Illusion” and “In the City,” with a slide solo that mirrored the original.

Before “Funk 49,” Walsh jokingly lamented that it is has become his lifelong duty to play the tune and cheekily told the crowd, “If you’re young, just know that your parents love this song.” He kept it fresh by inserting a ferocious, pounding DJ segment in the classic tune.

Fittingly, Walsh closed his set with “Life’s Been Good” before returning for an encore of the Eagles hit “Life In the Fast Lane.”