Welcome to "Eagles 101."

Not unlike a graduate-level seminar, VH1 "Behind the Music" telecast or Ted (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talk, the Eagles demonstrated how it's done before a sold-out crowd of 10,000 cheering and adoring fans for the Sept. 12 opening public event at PPL Center, Allentown.

The arena lights went down at 8:09 p.m. At 8:12 p.m., one by one, Don Henley and Glenn Frey, walked out on stage left and song by song, the Eagles played from a catalogue of some 27 hits.

By the conclusion of the nearly three-hour and 20-minute "History of the Eagles" concert (including a 20-minute intermission), those attending were well-schooled in the Eagles' bouncy folk-rock anthems, pristine harmonies and scintillating guitar solos.

Henley, sitting on a guitar amplifier, and Frey, sitting on a wooden stool, opened the concert on acoustic guitars with "Whatever Happened To Saturday Night" from the "Desperado" album (1973).

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to 'The History of the Eagles.' And welcome to your new arena," Henley said after the song.

Henley then talked about the summer of 1971 when the band formed, rehearsing in a garage off a parking lot behind a liquor store in California's San Fernando Valley. Henley and Frey played in Linda Ronstadt's touring band. She introduced them to Bernie Leadon. With that, Leadon walked on stage, guitar in hand, and sang "Train Leaves Here This Morning" from the Eagles' debut album (1972).

Next out was Timothy B. Schmit, on electric bass guitar, for "Peaceful Easy Feeling." Then, Joe Walsh walked out unannounced on stage right, brandishing a V-shaped electric guitar for "Witchy Woman" (both songs are from the Eagles' debut album).

At 8:38 p.m., the black curtain went up to reveal a full band of drummer-percussionist Scott Crago (alternating with Henley), lead and rhythm electric guitarist Steuart Smith and three electric keyboard players, Richard Davis, Will Hollis and Michael Thompson, and nearly stage to ceiling large vertical panels on which images thematic to the songs were projected.

And so it went, one hit after another, with two from "Desperado": "Tequila Sunrise" and the title cut; two from "On The Border" (1974): "Already Gone," "The Best of My Love," and three from "One of These Nights" (1975): "Lyin' Eyes," the title cut and "Take It to the Limit," until intermission at 9:18 p.m.

The Eagles, one of the most successful rock bands of the 1970s notched five No. singles and six No. 1 albums, and has sold more than 150 million records. No band sold more records during the 1970s, including 42 million of "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)" and 32 million of "Hotel California."

The Eagles' wrote, recorded and perform quintessential pop-rock story songs. The songs poetically convey a California of days gone by, after The Beach Boys' endless summer crashed on the shore with the Manson murders.

Coming off the tumult of the politicized and cultural upheaval of the 1960s, many twentysomethings sought solace in the 1970s. While Eagles' album art projects the mythology of the Old West and Native Americans, the songs inside provide a sanctuary of bluegrass-based acoustic guitars, reassuring bass, peppy drums, exuberant lead vocals and willowy harmonies.

Eagles' songs still beckon. They harken to a yearning for connection, a desire for inclusion, a need for vulnerability, yet with an awareness of the warning signs that danger lurks just one wrong turn in the fast lane.

In concert, Eagles' arrangements are meticulous, the playing is superb and the high harmonies are surprisingly intact, considering the Eagles' ages: Henley, 67; Frey, 65; Walsh, 66; Schmit, 66, and Leadon, 67.

The second half began at 9:36 p.m. with Joe Walsh on "Pretty Maids All in A Row" from "Hotel California" (1976) and continued in the darker, more arena rock band vein that typified the Eagles at the height of their seven-year chart-topping run, including "I Can't Tell You Why" (from "The Long Run," 1979), with a wonderful vocal by Schmit, and "New Kid in Town" (also from "Hotel California") with Frey noting, "My dad's entire family is from Nazareth, Pa. I've been coming to the Lehigh Valley since I was five-years-old." Frey gave a shout-out to his relatives in the audience.

The second half was somewhat of "The Joe Walsh Show," which was fine as it added energy, arena rock sound and humor, with three from "The Long Run": "Heartache Tonight," on which Walsh rocked out; "Those Shoes," with Walsh on talkbox (which gives a synthesizer sound to vocals), and "In the City," with Walsh wailing on a salmon-colored metal-flake solid-body guitar.

For "Life's Been Good," a 1978 solo hit, Walsh donned a cam cap, roamed the stage and captured images of the audience that were projected on large television screens that flanked the stage.

"Funk #49," a 1970 hit for Walsh's band, The James Gang, became a guitar showcase for Walsh and the group's guitarists, as did "Life in the Fast Lane," which concluded the concert at 10:58 p.m.

The Eagles encored with "Hotel California," "Take It Easy," "Rocky Mountain Way" (originally by Walsh's band Barnstorm, 1973) and "Desperado," concluding at 11:16 p.m.

The "History of the Eagles" presented at PPL Center takes its name from a 2013 two-part Eagles' authorized documentary that aired on Showtime. The concert set list, synched to impressive visuals, varies little.

After Allentown, the Eagles' tour continued with two Boston dates, Sept. 15 and 16, the latter a Walden Woods Project (founded in 1990 by Henley to protect Henry David Thoreau's Walden Woods) 2014 Global Environmental Leadership Award event honoring Robert Redford; Madison Square Garden, Sept 18; dates in the west including California and Texas, and Australia, starting in February.

When he introduced "The Long Run" at PPL Center, Henley said, "This is a song of survival, of keepin' on keepin' on until good things happen, like this arena."

You couldn't have said it better, nor asked for a better opening act for PPL Center than the Eagles.