If you would have told the teenage version of me that one day I would be sway dancing to “One of These Nights” at an arena in Norfolk, Virginia, and that I was happy as a clam doing so, the teenage version of me would have stared blankly at you for a minute, nodded his head, then walked into the ocean until he disappeared.

Let’s just say I wasn’t always the biggest Eagles fan in the world.

I thought their lyrics were trite. Their melodies were too country for a kid raised on Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And their harmonies gave me that same ugh feeling I get when I see a dude who spends too much time on his hair.

I hated the Eagles. My dad was the undisputed king of the car radio when I was growing up, but if he granted me veto power over one band and one band only, it was the dreaded Eagles.

Then two things happened:

1. My favorite show at the time, Seinfeld, featured a spit-out-your-milkshake funny story line where Elaine dates a guy who needs perfect silence every time the song “Desperado” comes on the radio. (Elaine’s retort is that “Witchy Woman” is her song, and it deserves similar respect.) Anyway–and I know this makes me seem just plain dumb–but the look on that character’s face when he heard “Desperado” (it was like a cat being petted at it’s father’s funeral) made me realize that, God damn it, this music actually moves people, and I should give it a shot.

The UConn Store 24.

2. One day during my senior year of college I made one of my (many) late night trips to the Store 24 on campus to satisfy what we will call “an herbal-induced craving for delicious snacks.” I loved Store 24, and since I also had “an herbal-induced finickiness,” I would take my time and walk down every aisle one by one, choosing between Screaming Yellow Zonkers and Mac & Cheese, between fun-sized Fritos and classic Fritos. (As an aside, I will NEVER be as happy or free as I was those nights, but I’m cool with that. Really, I am.) Anyway, on this one particularly perfect Spring Connecticut night the kid behind the counter was playing “Take it Easy” through the loudspeakers. “Holy shit,” I said to my lady friend. “I love the Eagles. I had no idea.”

The rest isn’t exactly history, per se, unless you’re writing a history book about stoned epiphanies at the University of Connecticut Store 24, but I have maintained my affinity for the Eagles.

Okay, back to the concert at The Ted Friday night.

In brief: Don Henley (lead singer of the Eagles, for the uninitiated) still has it. He’s got that honey dipped voice. His voice, for you youngsters out there, is a little like Justin Timberlake’s falcetto. And you know what? Don Henley is smooth, funny, and self-depreciating. He handled a heckler shouting “Wrong venue” at the beginning of a harmless Richard Nixon story by ignoring him, then a couple songs later saying, essentially,  “Thank you for looking out for my well-being, but I know where I am, son.” He then listed some of his family members that have served the country to great applause.

At least one member of the audience would still die for Nixon.

(Side note: Do we live in a hotbed of aging Nixon die-hards and I didn’t know about it? Are there underground enclaves of men in gray suits and women in monotone dresses, all sad and crazy, drinking Kool-Aid, wishing for the good old days of Nixon? What was that guy so rankled up about?)

As you’d expect, the crowd was made up of people more likely to have children at ODU then be students themselves. And they were dressed to the nines.”I see a bunch of people that have bedazzled the shit out of their jean jackets,” was my second favorite quote from Hannah. I cannot print my first favorite quote from Hannah, but I can tell you what she said next.

“That would have been mean if I wasn’t telling the truth. I take that back. It’s mean because I was telling the truth.”

Let me just say that there were a lot of women with Virginia Beach boobs in crazy tight white sweaters, and apparently that’s not Hannah’s thing.

Henley and the Eagles had far too many hits to perform in one concert, but Henley hit many of them, including “One of These Nights,” “Hotel California,” “The Boys of Summer,” “End of the Innocence,” and even a spirited cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” When he played “Desperado,” I’m not going to lie to you: I told Hannah not to touch me, I sat down, and I got a little misty.

“I’m not the kind to smile and bow out gracefully,” Henley told the crowd.

Neither am I.

One of the zillion reasons we love music is that it takes us to a place and it creates a place. The Don Henley concert at The Ted took me back to Store 24, but it also helped create The Ted and late November in Virginia and where I am right now.

Don’t look back, Henley sings in “Boys of Summer.”

You can never look back.