Van Halen - 4/19

[stewvee]

When I saw them in 1984 tickets were $20. It seemed like a fucking fortune.

[Knucklehead]

It was.

[stewvee]

huh. i musta been rich.

[sleyja]

When I saw them in 1984 tickets were $20. It seemed like a fucking fortune.

Saw them open for Sabbath in '78 ($8.50). Sabbath were good but Van Halen blew them off the stage. Tickets started getting pricey in the early 80's.

[stewvee]

You see them on the Fair Warning tour too?

[sleyja]

You see them on the Fair Warning tour too?

I wish. I did see VH II and the Women and Children First tour though. I didn't see them again until they came through town here a couple of years ago.

[badcarburetor]

I saw them in '84, too. Autograph opened. Why they got the spot I have no clue.

For the last reunion show at Philips, I decided to make my inner 13 year-old proud and spent $170/each for 12th row seats. That money? I should have just burned it. At least then I wouldn't have felt ripped off by one of my all time favorite bands. And fire looks cool.

As pissed as I was, if I wasn't trying to be semi-responsible with my money right now, I'd fork up and try it on again for this upcoming show. From what I've deduced, VH is totally hit or miss. Apparently, the show I caught was simply aimed far from the target.

I wrote the following in February 2011 right after the show. I was that pissed.



Up to and including Diver Down, I'm a huge VH fan. I think they embody the American goodtime spirit more than any other band. They are truly and completely define American rock to me. When I saw them on the 1984 tour they were past their prime and Eddie was obviously delusional, but they still put on a great show. DLR proved that he is the standard against which frontmen are to be measured (along with Bruce Dickinson and Freddie Mercury, but that’s a different thread). Even if he took his style straight from Jim Dandy, he made it his own and I love him for it. His autobiography is one of my very favorite books and I'm not kidding or being in the slightest bit ironic about that. It's an awesome fucking book, second only to The Dirt.

I was really looking forward to this show and...rather than a kickass night I feel like I got mugged in an alley.

The stage set-up was pretty cool. A sparse line of EVH stacks and overhead a giant widescreen TV set-up that only showed one live shot at a time with very few goofy effects. I liked the live feel of not having competing images and silly canned shit on screen.

Wolfgang and Alex made a tight enough rhythm section. The least blame for this fiasco lies at their feet. But to be honest, it really only requires competancy to lay down the VH bottom line - that's no slight, either. I certainly could have done without the drum solo (which included some strange canned horns that didn't fit in or make any sense), and, maybe I blinked, but I never saw the gong in action and it certainly wasn't flaming. At the end of the solo when Alex stood up, it was obvious that he's pretty enfeebled. Wolfgang was certainly competent, but definitely not arena ready. I do wonder how he managed to sing Michael Anthony's exact back-ups though. That kid must be way talented.

Eddie looked much better on the screen and energy-wise than I would have expected. He put on a good show, pulled off some trademark jumps, did some dancing and smiled the whole time (without a cigarette). His playing was on point and I dug checking out his Frankenstein guitars on the overhead monitor. Everything has an EVH on it, but he's got some cool shit going on with the Charvel necks, dog-clipped-on straps, rear only humbuckers and he still plays corded. No one does that. The only problem was he was constantly fighting with the cord and and it was too short to reach much of the stage. The funniest fucking point of the night was when the PA died for no less than 3 minutes of his, probably, ten minute guitar solo. I thought the crowd would have a meltdown because all that could be heard was a tiny bit of stage sound. He wasn't the only one plagued by technical difficulties, but there's some particularly amusing about a PA dying during an Edward Van Halen guitar solo. Oh, and while they were trying to fix the PA, some incorrect button was pushed and bunch of drum backing tracks started playing for no apparent reason. Wonder what purpose they were intended for? Alex must be more enfeebled than I originally thought...

David Lee...what can I say? For a 53 year old man he looked alright. The hairplugs are good, even classy, and the big chops really suit him. From a distance he’s still pretty hot. He was dressed like a dandy all night, lots of hats (one was totally made from the remains of Dorothy's shoes) and a few costume changes. He was doing his best to put on a show for the crowd; did some cool tricks with the mic stand (and blew several attempted cool tricks with the mic stand) and even pulled off a couple careful roundhouse kicks (but nothing like the old days when he did them off the drum riser). He was obviously having trouble with his in-ear monitor and missed many ques. In his defense, the arena PA (and seemingly his in ear monitors) repeatedly squealed major feedback. That's gotta suck when it's shooting straight down your ear canal. Several times after a burst of feedback, he had this look on his face like, "Fucking, really?" and grabbed his ear as if he was in pain.

However, and this is a big however, all the effort in the world amounts to shit if DLR can't remember the words to...well...ANY...song... and that means this show shouldn’t be on the road. No shit, he must have missed more than half the lines. Sometimes he just didn’t sing, other times he scatted over what he forgot. I know he’s always done the scatting thing, but this was really to another level. How can anyone sing the first line to Panama and not remember the second? I've never intentionally played that song in my life and I could sing it in my sleep. It was shit like that ALL NIGHT. The band randomly rolled from verse to chorus to whatever, relying heavily on the back-up vocals (the ghost of Michael Anthony again?) to pull them back together or at least sort of together…. They were not a gelled package which unforgivable since this is a band has been on the road since, at least, last September. Like I said above, the rhythm section held it down, but Eddie and Dave had no idea how to play off each other and follow each other’s leads. It was like a train wreck of 15 year old kids playing in a suburban basement. The simply didn’t know the fucking songs. Seriously, Jamie’s Fucking Crying wasn’t played right. Not a little wrong. Totally wrong. While listening and trying to sing along with the FM tracks in my head I kept getting fucking lost. Like I was hella, hella drunk hanging-out-of-the-side-of-a-car-puking-and-still-trying-to-sing-like-a-pro lost.

For the most part, I simply blame Dave. If he had been on point, Eddie could have noodled to his heart’s content and they would have sounded like a real rocking live band. Instead, Dave doesn’t know any of the fucking words. Fuck. The only song that they made it all the way through correctly was Jump. And I hate that song. I’m not sure what was up with Dave coming out waving a giant red satin flag before it, but it looked cool, I guess. He did bring out the giant inflatable microphone at the end of the song and it was a suitably ridiculous ending to a ridiculous ass-raping-of-my-American-Express of a night.

If you've just read all this and are now saying, "what a dumb ass, what did she expect?" I'll tell you what I expected, FOR DLR TO REMEMBER MORE THAN 30% OF THE FUCKING WORDS.


However, they did play their all time best song, Little Guitars, and I scored a terrible bootleg t-shirt, so I had that going for me, which was nice.

[Knucklehead]

There is no competing with Sam.

[stewvee]

I saw them in '84, too. Autograph opened. Why they got the spot I have no clue.

For the last reunion show at Philips, I decided to make my inner 13 year-old proud and spent $170/each for 12th row seats. That money? I should have just burned it. At least then I wouldn't have felt ripped off by one of my all time favorite bands. And fire looks cool.

As pissed as I was, if I wasn't trying to be semi-responsible with my money right now, I'd fork up and try it on again for this upcoming show. From what I've deduced, VH is totally hit or miss. Apparently, the show I caught was simply aimed far from the target.

I wrote the following in February 2011 right after the show. I was that pissed.



Up to and including Diver Down, I'm a huge VH fan. I think they embody the American goodtime spirit more than any other band. They are truly and completely define American rock to me. When I saw them on the 1984 tour they were past their prime and Eddie was obviously delusional, but they still put on a great show. DLR proved that he is the standard against which frontmen are to be measured (along with Bruce Dickinson and Freddie Mercury, but that’s a different thread). Even if he took his style straight from Jim Dandy, he made it his own and I love him for it. His autobiography is one of my very favorite books and I'm not kidding or being in the slightest bit ironic about that. It's an awesome fucking book, second only to The Dirt.

I was really looking forward to this show and...rather than a kickass night I feel like I got mugged in an alley.

The stage set-up was pretty cool. A sparse line of EVH stacks and overhead a giant widescreen TV set-up that only showed one live shot at a time with very few goofy effects. I liked the live feel of not having competing images and silly canned shit on screen.

Wolfgang and Alex made a tight enough rhythm section. The least blame for this fiasco lies at their feet. But to be honest, it really only requires competancy to lay down the VH bottom line - that's no slight, either. I certainly could have done without the drum solo (which included some strange canned horns that didn't fit in or make any sense), and, maybe I blinked, but I never saw the gong in action and it certainly wasn't flaming. At the end of the solo when Alex stood up, it was obvious that he's pretty enfeebled. Wolfgang was certainly competent, but definitely not arena ready. I do wonder how he managed to sing Michael Anthony's exact back-ups though. That kid must be way talented.

Eddie looked much better on the screen and energy-wise than I would have expected. He put on a good show, pulled off some trademark jumps, did some dancing and smiled the whole time (without a cigarette). His playing was on point and I dug checking out his Frankenstein guitars on the overhead monitor. Everything has an EVH on it, but he's got some cool shit going on with the Charvel necks, dog-clipped-on straps, rear only humbuckers and he still plays corded. No one does that. The only problem was he was constantly fighting with the cord and and it was too short to reach much of the stage. The funniest fucking point of the night was when the PA died for no less than 3 minutes of his, probably, ten minute guitar solo. I thought the crowd would have a meltdown because all that could be heard was a tiny bit of stage sound. He wasn't the only one plagued by technical difficulties, but there's some particularly amusing about a PA dying during an Edward Van Halen guitar solo. Oh, and while they were trying to fix the PA, some incorrect button was pushed and bunch of drum backing tracks started playing for no apparent reason. Wonder what purpose they were intended for? Alex must be more enfeebled than I originally thought...

David Lee...what can I say? For a 53 year old man he looked alright. The hairplugs are good, even classy, and the big chops really suit him. From a distance he’s still pretty hot. He was dressed like a dandy all night, lots of hats (one was totally made from the remains of Dorothy's shoes) and a few costume changes. He was doing his best to put on a show for the crowd; did some cool tricks with the mic stand (and blew several attempted cool tricks with the mic stand) and even pulled off a couple careful roundhouse kicks (but nothing like the old days when he did them off the drum riser). He was obviously having trouble with his in-ear monitor and missed many ques. In his defense, the arena PA (and seemingly his in ear monitors) repeatedly squealed major feedback. That's gotta suck when it's shooting straight down your ear canal. Several times after a burst of feedback, he had this look on his face like, "Fucking, really?" and grabbed his ear as if he was in pain.

However, and this is a big however, all the effort in the world amounts to shit if DLR can't remember the words to...well...ANY...song... and that means this show shouldn’t be on the road. No shit, he must have missed more than half the lines. Sometimes he just didn’t sing, other times he scatted over what he forgot. I know he’s always done the scatting thing, but this was really to another level. How can anyone sing the first line to Panama and not remember the second? I've never intentionally played that song in my life and I could sing it in my sleep. It was shit like that ALL NIGHT. The band randomly rolled from verse to chorus to whatever, relying heavily on the back-up vocals (the ghost of Michael Anthony again?) to pull them back together or at least sort of together…. They were not a gelled package which unforgivable since this is a band has been on the road since, at least, last September. Like I said above, the rhythm section held it down, but Eddie and Dave had no idea how to play off each other and follow each other’s leads. It was like a train wreck of 15 year old kids playing in a suburban basement. The simply didn’t know the fucking songs. Seriously, Jamie’s Fucking Crying wasn’t played right. Not a little wrong. Totally wrong. While listening and trying to sing along with the FM tracks in my head I kept getting fucking lost. Like I was hella, hella drunk hanging-out-of-the-side-of-a-car-puking-and-still-trying-to-sing-like-a-pro lost.

For the most part, I simply blame Dave. If he had been on point, Eddie could have noodled to his heart’s content and they would have sounded like a real rocking live band. Instead, Dave doesn’t know any of the fucking words. Fuck. The only song that they made it all the way through correctly was Jump. And I hate that song. I’m not sure what was up with Dave coming out waving a giant red satin flag before it, but it looked cool, I guess. He did bring out the giant inflatable microphone at the end of the song and it was a suitably ridiculous ending to a ridiculous ass-raping-of-my-American-Express of a night.

If you've just read all this and are now saying, "what a dumb ass, what did she expect?" I'll tell you what I expected, FOR DLR TO REMEMBER MORE THAN 30% OF THE FUCKING WORDS.


However, they did play their all time best song, Little Guitars, and I scored a terrible bootleg t-shirt, so I had that going for me, which was nice.

Wild Turkey. It changes things.

[stewvee]

You see them on the Fair Warning tour too?

I wish. I did see VH II and the Women and Children First tour though. I didn't see them again until they came through town here a couple of years ago.

FUCK! How was the W&CF tour? Is that when Alex was playing the big silver sparkle kit?

[sleyja]

You see them on the Fair Warning tour too?

I wish. I did see VH II and the Women and Children First tour though. I didn't see them again until they came through town here a couple of years ago.

FUCK! How was the W&CF tour? Is that when Alex was playing the big silver sparkle kit?

I think it was the white kit with the black drum heads. I do remember the sound was great that night. Everything sounded heavy and clear.

[badcarburetor]

Wild Turkey. It changes things.

Trust me, I was way hammered.

[stewvee]

Were there two shows at Phillips, b/c I don't recall any of the tech diff??

But yeah, what with those backing vocals?! That was my biggest concern: Could Wolfie pull it off? I just didn't buy it. It sounded pre-recorded.

[badcarburetor]

You don't even recall the PA shitting the bed during Eddie's solo? That musta been some magical Turkey!

My memory is that there was only the one show at Philips that a lot of people I talked to thought sucked as bad I did. Then there was a show a few weeks later at Gwinnett arena that everyone seemed to agree ruled. I missed that show. Gwinnett is a way better venue, too. Only problem is that it's always crawling with popo.

I may have been been sloshed, but I still knew the words better than Dave.

If I can score some cheapo scalper tickets on the night of the show I might just go again, because I'm that kind of sucker for the real VH.

[stewvee]

Naw not really! I saw them in Charlotte, the first show of the tour, so I was tapped out and kinda drifted through the Phillips show.

Agreed on the drum solo too. Jesus. So lame. Especially after I've seen the motherfucker rock a monster kit into the ground. I want to hold onto that memory. Eddie was killer though. That's all that mattered to me. I just wanted to hear him play guitar and watch Roth act like a fucking nutcase. Mission Accomplished.