SEÁN FLYNNreviews The Eagles' performace at the RDS in Dublin

WHEN THE Eagles last played Dublin three years ago, the band cruised their way through a lifeless set with hardly a glance towards their audience, let alone each other.

They rolled out the hits, hoovered up the cash and moved on.

Thursday night’s gig at the RDS in Dublin was no standout but it was a vast improvement on that dismal night in Lansdowne Road.

This time round, the sullen face presented to the Dublin public in 2006 was replaced by something all together more congenial.

Glenn Frey, MC for the night, was gracious and amusing.

Don Henley told how the old rockers had been woken at 4am by the hotel fire alarm, forcing them to assemble in the lobby in their bathrobes.

Back in the Seventies, he noted, the party was just about to begin at daybreak.

But these days the 60-plus rockers need their sleep.

Bassist Timothy B Schmidt, who has dual Irish/US citizenship, chatted about his Irish wife and his “wonderful seven days” in our glorious countryside.

All of this bonhomie was lapped up by the 40 and 50-plus dad rockers reliving those sunny days when Take it Easy and One of These Nights was cool, cutting edge rock.

Since then, The Eagles have drifted out of critical favour but this Dublin gig was a reminder of their songwriting power.

The highlights included a blistering Boys of Summer and Henley’s closing Desperado.

But two of the new songs – Henley’s Long Road out of Eden and Waiting in the Weeds – have the same driving melodies.

There were other great songs to enjoy – One of These Nights, Take it Easy, Life in the Fast Lane and, of course Hotel California.

And Joe Walsh, very much the band’s resident court jester (and guitar god), rolled out a memorable Life’s Been Good.

The perennial problem with Eagles’ gigs is that neither Henley or Frey has much in the way of onstage charisma.

Yes, some of the songs are terrific but, at times, the performance is too polished.

It would benefit from the kind of natural exuberance that made Bruce Springsteen’s recent Glastonbury performance so compelling – not to mention the primitive power of Neil Young’s gig at the 02.

The Eagles once supported Young during the Tonight’s The Night tour but that seems a very long time ago.

That said, the staging on Thursday night was spectacular. And the old band made good use of the latest visual technology, notably in a montage for Henley’s Dirty Laundry.

This was the third Dublin gig by the band since they reformed for the Hell Freezes Over album in 1994.

A scheduled gig in Galway was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Maybe, this was a sign of these recessionary times or maybe a hint that Irish audiences are tiring of the old routine.

Whatever, there were few empty seats on a sultry evening as The Eagles rolled out an enjoyable, if uneven, three hours of entertainment.

There may be wider questions about the sustainability of an act which relies heavily on the same old favourites.

But the Dublin crowd didn’t seem to mind, heading home from the RDS with that peaceful easy feeling.