Eddie Van Halen Up To Old Tricks?

I recently got an email report from a good friend of mine in Florida who went to see Van Halen in concert. Even though Eddie is his idol and he is a shredder himself, he said he was surprised at the sloppy playing thoughout the concert. I went to the 3rd show on the tour way back in the fall and he was on his game then. I took "Still In Rio"'s opinion to heart as he would know better than anyone how the playing was. He's seen Eddie live numerous times and has been playing his riffs since he was in Jr. High. I was kind of hoping maybe it was a one-time bad performance, but then I read this. Wow. I have another good friend who has tickets in March to see them in Hershey. He is going to be pissed if they cancel.

Time Machine

It's an image I can't get out of my head. I see it night and day. In my sleep. During work. Doing my daughter's homework.... I see it, Dave's Botox'd face. Homeboy cannot stop smiling. He looks like Nicholson's Joker from Batman. It's creepy almost. I relived another part of my youth last night - attending Van Halen's 3rd show of their reunion tour. As Dave put it "We're 3 parts original and 1 part inevitable". Indeed. If you knew me between the ages 13-18, I was a hardcore Van Halen fan. Heard my first cuts on vinyl in my basement playing ping-pong with cousin Boomer after he bought Fair Warning. I was hooked. I put the brakes on my Kiss collection and started buying VH. By the way, that stereo we listened on? My dad took another turn-table apart and build a new cabinet for it and individual cabinets for the speakers......and yes, it had a quarter taped to the arm to weigh down the needle. Now where was I.....oh yes....my foray into VH.... I couldn't believe it when Dave left. I was shocked. I loved his first solo album and the work by Steve Vai, but I also liked 5150 by Van Hagar. However - after the feuding, bad song writing that came later and childishness, I decided to stop buying anything new and I returned to only listening to the original 6 LPs. I've been waiting for this concert since I was in college. Last night was like a dream....except Dave doesn't look like this anymore....

Every note wasn't perfect, but he was more than capable. If I have one complaint about Dave last night, it was that in some places he was too "schticky". He can't stop smiling and he doesn't prowl the stage anymore. He sings a line seriously and when you look up - he's just smiling away like he's so damn happy he just can't stand it. It was amusing. He did kick ass at the end when he performed some martial arts moves with a flag pole after waving it leading into the encore. Dave is still in fine shape but for whatever reason, instead of seeing the Rock God of the late 70's before me, I kept seeing Fraser Crane. Ed - Ed is a totally different story. Cancer free and supposedly off booze - he looks like the crypt keeper these days. He can flat out play his ass off, but he doesn't have an ass to give away. If I had a son, I would show him what 30 years of hard partying and living does to you. Witness. Yup, that's him. From where I was sitting (and I had fantastic seats, 4th row floor risers) you could trick yourself into thinking Ed looked the same....until the Jumbo Screen put up the close ups. I could still see the very characteristic facial features and smile - but they're hidden under some deep ass wrinkles. His playing is still phenomenal. Other-worldly. Sick. Crazy. At times he willed sounds out of his instrument. With Wolfie on bass and Alex on drums, I was rattled in my seat for songs like "Hot For Teacher" and "Aint Talking 'Bout Love". They played 25 hits. I could have done without two of them. I would have gladly traded "I'll Wait" for any number of songs from 1984. Forced to choose I would have replaced it with "Drop Dead Legs" or "House of Pain". I think I may have yanked "Jamie's Crying" as well. I really missed "Take Your Whiskey Home" and would have loved to heard it instead. On that note, maybe "Jump!" wasn't the best encore song either. To really hardcore VH fans, 1984 is probably their least favorite studio album with DLR on vocals. I think "Everybody Wants Some" should have ended the show as it r-o-c-k-e-d as well. Not sure I can name my favorite song from the night, but again, if forced, I'd say "Unchained" which has always been a favorite of mine. My first garage band "Meltdown" played "Unchained" with Slick Rio not missing a note on the picker, but for whatever reason (youth?) we could never seem to all hit the syncopated beats in the chorus at the same time. I'll never forget that our guitar hero, Rio, wrote the lyrics out incorrectly to this song before we practiced it (no Google in 1987) and we gave him a lot of shit because of it. I remember what he wrote to this day. Instead of "blue eyed murder in a size five dress" he translated "blue eyed murder on a sci fi trail". Those were the days, man. Dave tells a story about growing up with the VH brothers and practicing in bands while strumming blues chords then leading into "Ice Cream Man". He says "I remember it just like it was yesterday and it was September 1972" and the place went crazy. Well, I remember those practices as 4 young guys who loved their rock heroes and worshiped at their feet every chance they had to get together and lay it down. Last night I was the kid again with pictures in his bedroom of Van Halen, KISS, Rush, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, AC/DC and many more. Now that I've seen Van Halen live, I've seen all my favorites at least once and that includes Page/Plant tour in the mid 90's doing mostly Zeppelin material. Not quite sure who I'll target next. Oh yeah, here's Eddie 2007....and that's the BEST picture I could find. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff so I'll do more tomorrow on the concert. My boys and I had an All Van Halen day today at work as I played every song from the studio Roth albums in order to the folks in the test lab. I also suggest reading "Crazy From The Heat",Dave's autobiography. It will need some updating, but it's very informative. Borrowed that from Pat Phin who text messaged me last night in the middle of the concert to tell me how "kick ass" it was. Yes, it was. Have you seen Wolfie's grades?

UnChained

Well, if you read here regularly, you'll remember that I was jazzed to hear Diamond David Lee Roth was reuniting with Van Halen to tour this year. Then it fell apart, then it was on, then it fell apart, then it was on.....it was just like old times. Dave "left" around 1984 while the VH brothers picked up Sammy "The Red Rocker" Hagar to front them. While I admit I like some of the Sammy material, there has never been any doubt in my mind that classic Van Halen was the only way to roll. I purchased 5150 and OU812 and it ended there. After reading Dave's book and hearing countless interviews from all involved parties on Stern - the dynamics between all of these grown children is FUBAR. Now Michael Anthony is out and I don't know how that will effect the harmonies as it's part of the VH sound. Michael Anthony and Sammy currently play together and Sammy has new music coming out. Oi Vey. I've seen some great guitarists live: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Angus Young...but I've never seen Eddie. I know Dave's voice is practically shot, but when I'm there listening, I'll be hearing it in my head like it was 1981 all over again. When I went to get tickets this morning, I was bummed out by the process of course - Comcast is in bed with the Wachovia Center and they aren't allowing Ticket Master to sell the tickets in Philly. Comcast's website had the best tickets up for auction! They are taking out the Ebay and scalper crowd for the premium seats by simply auctioning off the front floor seats! They only allow a certain number of net sessions at one time so if you don't connect after clicking "Buy Tix" by the VH information, a countdown starts and your browser will try again in 60 seconds. I started trying to connect at 9:30 and got right in but couldn't click the SUBMIT button after selecting my price threshold. When I came back at 9:50, I couldn't get on. It took me a few minutes to try another browser session and it started another countdown so I started up 6 sessions! I felt like an old lady playing BINGO as I continuously clicked between them checking times. At 10:04 I started to think I wouldn't see the one band I missed that I really wanted to see when I was younger. I wasn't going to outbid anyone and I wasn't going to pay $250 per seat on Ebay. Most high profile concerts sell out in 10 minutes. I got through and selected 2 seats in the middle price rape (....I mean range) of $79.50. They are actually incredible seats as I've sat in the floor risers before for a Disney production. I got seats 1 & 2 in floor riser section 108A row D! Mission accomplished. Moor Cowbell has had his fill of Van Halen Tom Foolery and does not want to go. He got to see them twice "back in the day" and much like me - HATES these high ticket prices. I wanted to see The Police but flat out reFUSED to pay those prices. After seeing AC/DC and KISS together - our childhood reunion concert tour will stall for this edition. Call me the next time Maiden tours! This 2 hours to me will be almost as good as seeing KISS back in 1996. It might be a train wreck, but if it is, it will be a nostalgic train wreck of one of my favorite bands of all time. Dave, to me, is the epitome of rock and roll front man. The lyrics aren't serious, the music is loud and fun and I know all the words. If Chrissy Two Coats doesn't gobble up the other ticket - I'll open it up to the rest of the pack. If the tickets in 108A start selling for $500 a pair on Ebay.....I'll have to seriously consider cashing in and buying the concert DVD for Christmas!

Runnin' With The Devil

Well, for all the fun I make of reunion tours - I'm finally in the market to go see one. Howard Stern reported this morning and several websites are confirming that Van Halen will tour this summer with David Lee Roth back in the fold. The only lineup change is that Eddie's son Wolfgang will be on bass instead of Michael Anthony. Talk about reliving a different time in your life - sometimes there is nothing I like more than putting on a classic Van Halen song like "Take Your Whiskey Home" or "Unchained" and pounding them out on my drums. I absolutely loved the original lineup of Van Halen and I still listen to all their music right up through 1984. I liked some of 5150 and all of "Eat'em and Smile", but it ends there. I never wanted to see Van Hagar live and I refused to see some of Roth's latest tours although I would have went to see the lineup he had for Smile. The original lineup of Van Halen to me exemplifies sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Dave is THE classic frontman and there will never be another one like him. He just wanted the music to be fun and he wanted to be over the top. I read his book "Crazy From The Heat" and I really enjoyed it. I always thought it was kind of silly for these two huge egos to not put their differences aside and continue to make music together. I have a feeling that if they did, they would have remained like Rush and their core fans would have continued to buy their music right through the Nirvana phase of music. They may not have had any more hits or multi-platinum albums, but I would have bought every one of them and I'm sure a million other people would have also. Now let's just hope Dave doesn't piss Eddie off before they make it to my area.