LIVE: ARC PRESENTS HOTEL CALIFORNIA – Perth | Boorloo, 24 June 2026

LIVE: ARC PRESENTS HOTEL CALIFORNIA – Perth | Boorloo, 24 June 2026
The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Tia Pinnegar
Photography by Pete Gardner

ARC (the Australian Rock Collective) presented us with their Eagles tribute last night in Perth at the Astor Theatre, proving that you can tell when a tribute band loves the material they’re interpreting – and this was definitely one of those bands.

This 7-person band was led by 4 bonafide iconic Aussie rockstars, including none other than Kram from Spiderbait, Darren Middleton from Powderfinger, Mark Wilson from Jet and Davey Lane from You Am I. Having just toured Australia, they ended in Perth with hearts full, Kram introducing Take It To The Limit in Act 2, “this is my favourite Eagles song and it might be the last time I get to sing it so make some fucking noise!”

This awesome show was split between two acts, number 1 was the Hotel California album in its entirety and number 2 was the band’s greatest hits, mostly from ‘72 to ‘75. They opened with Kram on the mic for Hotel California (who impressively carried the show while behind a drum set as well) obviously making the audience wild. Kram carried on to sing the majority of the set list, although a handful of songs were sung by Middleton and a few by Lane.

Melbourne singer songwriter Eileen Hodgkins complemented the band on this tour around Aus, supplying gorgeous backing vocals most of the night and also luckily had a solo moment performing Desperado – lucky for US because her voice is incredible.

Although the stage presence of the musicians were somewhat lacking at times, the music never took a hit. The guitar riffs especially were brilliant and perfectly performed, paying homage to the Eagles. Kram bantered with the audience in place of the absence of atmosphere with song introductions like “This is the best rock song ever written by the Eagles” (to preface Life In The Fast Lane) or “don’t do drugs unless you’ve got some of the Eagles’ cocaine from the 70s” (following the same track).

Wasted Time (as well as the reprise) was a highlight of the show, performed so skilfully that it really got the audience to receive the music as though we were listening to the original. Act 2 was opened with Take It Easy which was also a brilliant rendition, the band wrapping up with the slight departures of Don Henley’s solo hit Boys of Summer and Joe Walsh’s James Gang ripper Funk #49 before epic close Heartache Tonight. Incidentally, the band discussed Henley’s attempt to lay a cease & desist on them ahead of the tour, before reneging and giving their show his blessing, their primary takeaway was that “we were so hyped an actual Eagles member contacted us!”

These guys may not be the Eagles, but living up to their essence is a pretty huge task and they’ve given it their all.

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries