Official 6/12 Anaheim Meetup/Review Thread

[Light Em' Up!]

Another version....it appears this was a popular one to video :-)

[ALMOSTsaved]

Sorry about your car...sucks having days like that.

Thanks! It sure does. Luckily nothing too major. I'd rather pay to have it fixed than to have a car note right now.

[Light Em' Up!]

Shit...I have been browsing youtube all morning, and I am not seeing any videos uploaded....what's up with that? Lots of EVH solo, but nothing much as far as other tunes besides what I posted of Cradle. Where are all the videos at?!?!?

[sadaist]

Cradle Will Rock

Anyone remember a story about, idk maybe 10 years ago that said that song was the most mediocre rock song of all time. That it is the bar from which to judge every other rock songs status. if it is better than Cradle Will Rock it is a good song. if it is worse than it is a bad song. Cradle will rock is neither good nor bad. Just the bland mediocre bar setting between good & bad.

I never really loved it or hated it so I can understand the authors point of view. I dig the guitar sound and some of Daves funny quips, but if they never played it live I wouldn't really miss it either.

I didn't realize though how many people do like it and consider it a Van Halen gem. It's all good. Just means less of you buggering up Dance The Night Away from me.

[Light Em' Up!]

Well, Sadist, you are shit out of luck for video of DTNA so far....

[Light Em' Up!]

Finally a video!!! Yikes...sounds quality is shitty.

[Light Em' Up!]

DAMN! Look at all the energy!!!

[Momshell]

Well, Sadist, you are shit out of luck for video of DTNA so far....

See post #27!

[jhale667]

DAMN! Look at all the energy!!!

OK, can't crank it in the office, but correct me if I'm wrong: Dave just whipped out another epic scream ?/!!

[Light Em' Up!]

This one is better...

[Light Em' Up!]

See post #27!

Oooops....sorry sister....my bad :-) Guess Sadist is a happy camper...LOL!

[Light Em' Up!]

[Light Em' Up!]

This person got quite a few videos, but the sound quality on them is shitty....

[Catfish]

My thoughts on the June 12 Anaheim show:

PROS:
--They played exactly the set that I wanted. Opened with Unchained (thank Christ!!), Romeo Delight, HAIL and Women in Love were outstanding. Especially RD. We got Trouble with Never, which is one of my favorites on the new album. I’m glad they played it instead of Blood and Fire. Trouble with Never was played perfectly. The set was a complete treat.

--Eddie’s solo was amazing. I can’t believe what 20 extra pounds and no booze or meth can do to someone’s playing. I think his solo lasted about 8 minutes; I wish it lasted 20. I don’t know how Alex’s solo went because I was pissing and buying more beer. I love drum solos.

--Dave was great leading into a couple songs. Pointed out that Uncle Manny was in the house tonight. Had some quips I’d never heard (not to say he hasn’t said them on this tour yet—I haven’t been playing too close attention): “Back in 1982 I was a sexy naked motherfucker!” I also dug, “these are vicious rumors stared by myself.” Capacity crowd ate it up.

--Dave’s energy impressed me more so than usual. He didn’t stop for 2 hours. The 3 or 4 roundhouse kicks were great. So were his splits.

--Dave came out with a hand-held mic. I know the headset is way in the past, but tell me there’s not a mothefucker among you who doesn’t hold your breath a little bit in fear that that horrible contraption will show itself again…

--Pure energy and Van Halen fire.

CONS:
--For all that I’ve heard about the lovefest, I did not see nearly as much inner play between Dave and Eddie as I wanted or expected. It was obvious that everyone on stage had fun, but it would have been nice to see a little more between Ed and Dave. It was nice when Ed intro’d Dave after Ice Cream Man, though. Some more interaction with Eddie and Wolfie (who barely got acknowledged all night) would have been nice.

--I was completely put off by Dave’s “attempt” to sing Chinatown. Terrible. If it’s too hard to sing, replace it. And he has GOT TO STOP his “I forgot the words” shit. I’ve said it so many times, and people always give me shit. The fact is, people believe him when he says it and it comes off wrong. It feeds into people saying he no longer “has it.” Dave can’t afford to let people think that, not with Eddie atop his game again.

--There was something missing in Dave’s performance in general. I can’t place it. I will judge him more harshly than any performer on the planet, and I’ve seen him in person in every aspect of his career, including Las Vegas, and something was missing last night.

--Not the band’s fault: No surprise, the Orange County crowd blew. I love shows at Honda Center, compared to other large venues like Staples Center (which always has a muddy sound). But OC people are so fucking boring. Everyone there had fun, it was loud, but lots of people were sitting, including in front of us, and, LOL, behind us. We didn’t give a fuck about those pussies. Enjoy our asses much? Then stand up, fags, cus we ain’t sitting.

OVERALL:
I wish I were able to go to more shows on this tour, as I loved this one. I didn’t bother taking pics or any of that stuff, I just drank my ASS off and fuckin’ partied. I’m happier for it. My voice is shot and I had a Van Hangover all day. The show felt rushed, but it kicked ass and I’d be surprised to hear if anyone—other than diehard asshole fans like me—could have any complaints. The band was amazing, even if DLR was lacking something. For as well as he sang in 07-08—and he sang his balls off—it’s not there this time around, I guess. Still was in complete command of the show and his stage, and the audience. It was a great night.

[Catfish]

Fuck, mine is the only review in this thread? I'm sorry--had I known it was on me I would have posted first thing this morning...

[SNIPER]

Fuck, mine is the only review in this thread? I'm sorry--had I known it was on me I would have posted first thing this morning...

Hey, better late than never.

[Catfish]

OK, I'm open for questions...

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

Did Alex come out and thank you for waking him up to the fact that Van Halen is shit without Dave? Did he come out, shake your hand, and say..."I have to admit...you were right."?

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

...because he should.

[sadaist]

Oooops....sorry sister....my bad :-) Guess Sadist is a happy camper...LOL!

Yep yep!

Could listen to live versions of that song all fucking night long.

[Catfish]

Did Alex come out and thank you for waking him up to the fact that Van Halen is shit without Dave? Did he come out, shake your hand, and say..."I have to admit...you were right."?

This is a great question. The answer is no. I did not get a chance to meet with Alex and reminisce. The only chance I had when it was just him and no one else around, was when he gave his drum solo. But by that time I had a fresh $11 beer in one hand, and my cock in the other.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

This is a great question. The answer is no. I did not get a chance to meet with Alex and reminisce. The only chance I had when it was just him and no one else around, was when he gave his drum solo. But by that time I had a fresh $11 beer in one hand, and my cock in the other.

Perhaps next time you can take a companion to hold your cock while you talk to Al.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

I would also like to know if you could tell that Dave's legs had become sticks due to his steroid/cocaine addiction.

[Catfish]

Is there a vicious rumor going around that Dave is taking the steroids?

[python3]

Great night. I was on the floor, 29th row, dead center. Hoping to get seats a little closer tomorrow. I thought the crowd energy was good, except they didn't seem very receptive towards the new songs. Band sounded tight all night, and loved Dave's quips throughout the night, especially the Spanish language student one during HFT. Highlights of the night for me were the two deep cuts, and SBGMAD. My only minor gripe with Dave was his vocals on Tattoo and YRGM, and Chinatown was totally butchered. Roth 'N' Roll tomorrow night!

[ELVIS]

C'mon Dave...

[DLR Bridge]

OK, I'm open for questions...

What exactly is up with your avatar? Just curious.

[Light Em' Up!]

She's The Woman, Romeo Delight...LMAO! "In 1982 I was a sexy naked mother fucker little girl!" DLR

[Light Em' Up!]

Hot For Teacher

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Classic Dave ramblings at the beginning of HAIL. LOL!

[Light Em' Up!]

Hope I'm not driving anyone nuts with all the posting....I'm one of those educators who is now on summer break, so nothing better to do for the next three months than sitting here posting Van Halen videos :-)

[Light Em' Up!]

JUMP!

[vandeleur]

Hope I'm not driving anyone nuts with all the posting....I'm one of those educators who is now on summer break, so nothing better to do for the next three months than sitting here posting Van Halen videos :-)

am enjoying em

[Catfish]

One cool thing I forgot to mention (again, I don't know if DLR's been doing this all tour): When they played ATBL after Eddie's solo, Roth skipped part of the first verse, pointed to Eddie during the song and said, "nice solo!"

[bantonelli]

I would also like to know if you could tell that Dave's legs had become sticks due to his steroid/cocaine addiction.

What up with this... is it rumor? Where is this info from?

[Catfish]

OC Register's review of the Anaheim show. The reviewer waits 10 grafs to get to the fuckin point, but he washes Dave's balls very nicely.

[URL=http://soundcheck.ocregister.com/2012/06/13/live-review-van-halen-saves-the-best-for-anaheim/95085/[/URL]

The Monday morning after Van Halen’s June 1 opener at Staples Center I tuned into KLOS, the only genuine classic-rock radio station left in this market, just to see if Mark & Brian might be chattering about the show.

Sure enough, the moment I punched up 95.5 in my car, the longtime morning jocks were already deep into fielding phone-in reviews from conflicted listeners, warning future Honda Center ticket-holders of a potential letdown a week and a half later.

Every call was nearly identical, the consensus virtually unanimous: Eddie Van Halen rarely played better, David Lee Roth never sang worse.

The former, seemingly happier and healthier than he was during the other VH reunions –with Roth in 2007 and his more exact but less interesting replacement Sammy Hagar in 2004 – was still a jaw-dropping marvel, as lightning-fast yet fluid as he was in his younger heyday, overflowing with effortlessly tossed-off six-string wizardry only the likes of Jeff Beck or Steve Vai can match.

Roth, on the other hand, reportedly clipped off phrases, flat-out forgot verses, bungled big notes and didn’t seem fully engaged in the performance until it was half-over.

Neither opinion surprised me. I was among the 300 or so industry types invited to Henson Recording Studios to check out one of Van Halen’s final rehearsals for this tour, bolstered by their first album in nearly 30 years, a hodgepodge of finished-off leftovers dubbed A Different Kind of Truth. Much the same thing was evident there.

Once the initial thrill of seeing them together again, with Eddie’s 21-year-old son Wolfgang adroitly handling bass, you could easily spot cracks that needed a bit of sonic putty: drummer Alex Van Halen was often too slack for the pace brother Ed desired, Roth had too much between-song shtick and not enough on-the-money vocal heroics.

I suspected plenty of people would come away mildly disappointed at every stop on this run, which replays tonight at San Diego’s Viejas Arena and wraps up sooner than originally planned five cities later in New Orleans. Rumors have swirled as to why the band has cut short such a lucrative and well-attended tour; most people figure it’s old tensions creeping in again, or perhaps Roth simply can’t cut it at 57 the way he could when he was 25 (but who can?).

The reality, Eddie revealed this week to USA Today, is that “we bit off more than we could chew. This record took a lot out of us. And we went on tour earlier than we wanted to so we could play Madison Square Garden (in March, before a renovation), and that threw the schedule out of whack.” There are also concerns about EVH’s ongoing treatment for cancerous growths in his throat that keep reappearing, but he insists they will tour the Far East later this year and possibly be back stateside with something more for 2013.

By then, I bet they’re as great as they ever were – for Tuesday night at Honda, they were virtually spot-on. I know people who went to both this show and at least one of the Staples gigs, and they agree: O.C. was not only the best crowd of the bunch, but for their response they received the strongest performance of the run.

Roth sensed that fairly early during the Anaheim set: “You’re getting a good show tonight!” he declared.

It wasn’t an empty boast: Roth was very much on his game here, minimizing the corny/porny banter (hard to discern much of it anyway) and making a more concerted effort to put across classics from all five of the quintessential early VH albums with greater oomph and care.

Yes, he’ll fiddle with the meter of a line or switch up a lyric here and there, but he takes no more liberties than Mick Jagger does with Stones staples or Steven Tyler would with Aerosmith’s finest. He’s entitled to mix it up, and seeing as he proved again and again in Anaheim how easily he can nail high notes (he superbly scatted several times in his upper register), it would seem that only fatigue or laziness could explain his less-stellar L.A. performances. At Honda Center he was occasionally imprecise but not because he couldn’t execute the songs; it was a conscious choice.

Why’d he turn his booster jets on for this show, with even wilder roundhouse kicks and better-timed asides to the cameras capturing every moment for a (mostly) black-and-white video backdrop? Beats me.

But Tuesday night he was the same Diamond Dave I idolized as a teenager: fleet-footed like a hard-rock Fred Astaire, shimmying and sliding across the stage, pouring his permanent-playboy persona into every song without letting that gum up the sheer force of raucous chants like “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “Hot for Teacher” and more boot-stomping bits like “And the Cradle Will Rock …” and “Runnin’ with the Devil.”

Besides, whenever he’d get too caught up in his own reinterpretation, Van Halen’s three namesakes just blasted ahead, rhythmically rubber-band-tight and greatly bolstering every hollered yet harmonized chorus (although I still wonder if some off-stage vocal sweetening isn’t involved).

They seized attention with “Unchained.” They thundered away on “Somebody Get Me a Doctor” and a remarkable blitz through “Hot for Teacher.” They kept their solos either powerfully brief (in Alex’s case) and filled with phenomenal virtuosity (Ed’s spotlight, incorporating “Eruption” and “Little Guitars” and more, was utterly dazzling, a master at play). They included nearly every song they should have — “Jamie’s Crying” and “So This Is Love?” were noticeably absent — but they made that Women and Children First gem “Romeo Delight” feel like a new song while playing Truth tracks like “Tattoo” and “China Town” as if they’d be in the catalog all along … which, seeing as some date back to the ’70s, they had.

Frankly, there are few happier sights these days on a concert stage than seeing the Van Halen family rockin’ away with one of the most memorable frontmen any group has ever had. He’s still got it, they’re as solid as ever – and here’s hoping they get some much-needed rest so that this no-longer-tentative return can carry on.

Kool and the Gang, meanwhile, were an inspired choice for warm-up act. By set’s end, people who back in the day wouldn’t have been caught dead humming along to “Celebration” were shouting “woo-hoo!” as if their best friends had just been married. Indeed, the crowd was up and grooving well before then, dancing enthusiastically to certifiable funk classics like “Hollywood Swinging” and “Jungle Boogie” and heartily responding when “Get Down on It” added in guitar flavors à la Ernie Isley.

Kudos to Roth for insisting the Gang tag along: What seemed like a misstep on paper has turned out to be one of the smartest arena-level pairings in years.

Setlist: Van Halen at Honda Center, June 12, 2012
Unchained / Runnin’ with the Devil / She’s the Woman / Romeo Delight / Tattoo / Everybody Wants Some!! > Somebody Get Me a Doctor / China Town / Hear About It Later > (Oh) Pretty Woman / Alex’s drum solo / You Really Got Me / The Trouble with Never / Dance the Night Away / I’ll Wait / And the Cradle Will Rock … (with a bit of Smoke on the Water tossed in) / Hot for Teacher / Women in Love … > Beautiful Girls / Ice Cream Man / Panama / Eddie’s guitar solo (including Eruption and Little Guitars) / Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love / Jump

Van Halen with Kool and the Gang plays one last time in Southern California on June 14 at San Diego State’s Viejas Arena, $79.50-$149.50.

[Angel]

OK, I'm open for questions...

Why won't tapatalk open the last page on this thread?

[Angel]

Why won't tapatalk open the last page on this thread?

....fuck, this is annoying. I can tell Bantonelli posted something but that's it...

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