chicago times "time out"article

[iggyrichards]

Has anyone seen the article in the Chicago time's today? It is awesome, the first sentence reads, "does anybody miss van Hagar". Then the guy goes on to show how pale Sammy's shit is compared to Dave's. It is really fun to read.

[ELVIS]

Who is Van Hagar ??

[guwapo_rocker]

HERE

Wait I might be wrong

Here

[DaveTheScott]

Classic. And I probably wouldn't enjoy shitting on the guy so much if he hadn't opened his trap at the beginning of all of this and started his classless bullshit.

Has anyone heard the band say anything about Spam? I don't think they've even mentioned him.

[golitely]

HERE

Wait I might be wrong

Here

Thanks for the link. I googled Chicago time out van halen and a truly harsh review of the ADKOT came up.
http://timeoutchicago.com/music-nigh...g-van-halen-an

[Vinnie Velvet]

Thanks for the link. I googled Chicago time out van halen and a truly harsh review of the ADKOT came up.
http://timeoutchicago.com/music-nigh...g-van-halen-an

"Micheal Anthony's pop smarts??"

WHAT-THE-FLYING-FUCK?????!!

Missing Michael Anthony's pop smarts???

Holy fuck. I can't believe how much bass player's FALSE stature has been elevated recently because he ain't in VH anymore.

Pathetic.

[golitely]

Yeah, I laughed out loud at that. The dog was frightened.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

HERE

Wait I might be wrong

Here

That's it....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...4920064.column

Van Halen timeline: Hits, ego wars and revolving door singers

Greg Kot
Music critic
3:40 p.m. CST, February 22, 2012

OK, Van Halen fans, be honest: Nobody really laments the end of the “Van Hagar” era, do they?

Sammy Hagar was the veteran rocker who took the place of David Lee Roth in Van Halen during the mid-‘80s and basically kept the job warm for the next decade while the quartet continued to churn out big, blustery arena-rock albums that sold by the millions.

But Hagar, though a capable guitarist and singer, had a serious personality deficit. A less flamboyant Van Halen is really no Van Halen at all, and Hagar’s dire skills as a lyricist – he specialized in weak double entendres and knee-deep thoughts such as “Only time will tell/If we stand the test of time” – didn’t help. Not that lyrics ever really mattered in this band. It was all about the show and the showmanship.

Think about it: “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” (Roth era) vs. “Why Can’t This Be Love” (Hagar)? “Runnin’ with the Devil” (Roth) vs. “Poundcake” (Hagar)? “Jump” (Roth) vs. “When It’s Love” (Hagar)? It’s no contest, really.

Which is why Roth was the only mouthpiece this band ever needed or deserved. Now that Roth is back with the band, all is almost in order; original bassist Michael Anthony is no longer in the lineup, replaced by guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 20-year-old son, Wolfgang. On “A Different Kind of Truth" (Interscope), the band’s first album of new music this century, Roth’s shout-and-jive vocals tag-team with the still-astonishing guitar inventions of a rejuvenated Eddie Van Halen. The inevitable we’re-still-here tour brings Van Halen to the United Center on Friday and the Allstate Arena on April 1.

Here’s a quick overview of Van Halen’s career, in which they’ve sold more than 56 million albums in America alone, making them one of the most successful rock bands of the last three decades:

1967: Eddie (born 1955) and Alex Van Halen (1953) arrive in Pasadena, Calif., with their family from their birthplace in the Netherlands. Eddie, a diehard Dave Clark 5 fan, takes up the drums, then gives them to his older brother Alex. Eddie picks up the guitar instead. Eddie and Alex jam.

1974-77: Eddie and Alex join forces with two members of rival Southern California bands, singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony, and play the regional bar circuit. Several name changes ensue, and they toggle between covers and originals. Kiss’ Gene Simmons produces a demo that makes the record-company rounds and becomes legend in Van Halen circles.

1978: The debut “Van Halen” arrives with a cover of the Kinks’ proto-metal “You Really Got Me” as the first single. But the real story is Eddie Van Halen’s full-throttle guitar mastery, popularizing a whole new array of terminology for aspiring six-string nerds (two-handed tapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs).

1979-84: Van Halen becomes one of the biggest bands in the world, the mix of Roth’s bad-boy personality and Van Halen’s boy-genius prowess making them a huge attraction in concert as well. “1984” caps the Roth era with Eddie Van Halen continuing to experiment with synthesizers to tremendous commercial response on the band’s first No. 1 single, “Jump.”

1985-86: Ego wars prompt Roth’s exit and Hagar debuts as vocalist on “5150,” continuing the band’s string of multimillion-selling albums.

1991: In an interview with the Tribune, Eddie Van Halen sings Hagar’s praises: “I think Sammy and I see things the same way because we're both musicians. Sammy's also a guitarist, not just a singer, not just a front guy" - a pointed reference to Roth, who did not play an instrument - "and I think that makes a big difference…. We’re buddies.” Hagar returns the compliment from the stage on tour as he introduces Eddie as “my next door neighbor, my best friend in the whole world, my hero, my idol.”

1996-98: The love-fest is over and the era of the revolving-door singers begins. Hagar is ousted, Roth is briefly brought back in and then he’s booted, and finally Gary Cherone takes over for one forgettable album. Hagar’s reaction: "Devastated . . . disappointed . . . I was conned." Roth: "Eddie did it. I was an unwitting participant in this deception." Eddie Van Halen counter-attacks in the Tribune, saying the Roth-era band “sucked” with “grunting vocals” and that “12 years of smoking dope and living in his own bubble didn't improve his (Roth’s) abilities as a singer." He calls Hagar “a 'B' act, but he thinks that without him we would've gone down the toilet. When I got sober, I listened to some of the lyrics he wrote like 'Wham, bam, oh, Amsterdam' and '1-900-S-P-A-N-K' and I just thought, 'What were we thinking?' " He praises Cherone as "a normal guy, a guy who's in it for the music, like me, Mike and my brother. There's no room for ego in this band. It has always been a collaboration."

1999-2003: After their worst-selling album, with Cherone on vocals, “Van Halen III,” the band goes on hiatus. Eddie Van Halen undergoes hip-replacement surgery and is treated for tongue cancer.

2004: Hagar is back for a reunion tour. There is lots of manly schmoozing and hugging on-stage, christened with a nightly toast, but a quarter of the two-hour show is bogged downed by solo sections for each musician. Nonetheless, the fans come out in droves and the quartet accrues $54 million in tour revenue.

2005-07: Hagar splits again, citing Eddie’s drinking and sloppy playing on the previous tour as primary reasons, detailed in Hagar’s 2011 memoir, “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock.” Anthony is also ousted, replaced by 16-year-old Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. Roth is re-enlisted, and a 2007 reunion tour piles up more than $56 million in revenue. The band ignores the nine top-40 hits it scored during the Hagar era, and focuses exclusively on the six albums recorded during the Roth years, 1978-84.

2012: A new studio album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” is released, the first with Roth on lead vocals in 28 years. It includes a handful of songs recycled from the original mid-‘70s demo financed and recorded by Kiss’ Simmons. Yes, everything old is almost new again.

greg@gregkot.com

Van Halen with Kool and the Gang, 7:30 p.m. Friday at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison, $49.50, $79.50, $149.50; ticketmaster.com; and 7:30 p.m. April 1 at the Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Ill., $49.50, $79.50, $149.50; ticketmaster.com.

[golitely]

Here is the for-shit review:

Van Halen A Different Kind of Truth


I went back and forth between Of Montreal and David Lee Roth in overalls. The difficulty of getting through the former's Paralytic Stalks comes from Kevin Barnes's unbridled experimentation and vein-letting. It's a dark, zany mess, but too emotionally honest and ambitious for me to hate in the end.

Van Halen's comeback is not awful, but hardly worth the praise it's receiving. Yes, Eddie Van Halen can still finger-tap and hammer his whammy like lightning. However, last I checked, he's 1/4 of the equation. (Hmm, too much math for Halenites?) Speedball noodling does not an album make.

At least three songs too long, Truth is content to slip into "Hot For Teacher" bustle over and over. Minus Michael Anthony's pop smarts, it's repetitive wank. DLR is a clown—nothing new there. But if you can't hear time's cruel wear and tear on his voice, you're squinting with your ears. The dated, '90s production sucks, too. To those who defend this: Would you care if Pauly Shore and Steve Vai cut a record?

[78/84 guy]

"Micheal Anthony's pop smarts??"

WHAT-THE-FLYING-FUCK?????!!

Missing Michael Anthony's pop smarts???

Holy fuck. I can't believe how much bass player's FALSE stature has been elevated recently because he ain't in VH anymore.

Pathetic.

Can we please NOT post reviews anymore ?? Good or bad. Tickets given to people that probably havent listened to Fair Warning since 1990 !! Who gives a fuck.

[guwapo_rocker]

Look what his "Pop Smarts" have done for Chi............ er whatever.

[chi-town324]

first off its the Chicago tribune not the Chicago times not that it matters at all...Greg Kot is an ass hat...never liked any of the shit he writes...and they haven't even hit Chicago yet
see them live and then write your punk ass review...what a tool

[TJMKID]

first off its the chicago tribune not the chicago times not that it matters at all...greg kot is an ass hat...never liked any of the shit he writes...and they haven't even hit chicago yet
see them live and then write your punk ass review...what a tool

fuck you, greg kunt kot.

[Catfish]

That's it....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...4920064.column

Van Halen timeline: Hits, ego wars and revolving door singers

Greg Kot
Music critic
3:40 p.m. CST, February 22, 2012

OK, Van Halen fans, be honest: Nobody really laments the end of the “Van Hagar” era, do they?

Sammy Hagar was the veteran rocker who took the place of David Lee Roth in Van Halen during the mid-‘80s and basically kept the job warm for the next decade while the quartet continued to churn out big, blustery arena-rock albums that sold by the millions.

But Hagar, though a capable guitarist and singer, had a serious personality deficit. A less flamboyant Van Halen is really no Van Halen at all, and Hagar’s dire skills as a lyricist – he specialized in weak double entendres and knee-deep thoughts such as “Only time will tell/If we stand the test of time” – didn’t help. Not that lyrics ever really mattered in this band. It was all about the show and the showmanship.

Think about it: “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” (Roth era) vs. “Why Can’t This Be Love” (Hagar)? “Runnin’ with the Devil” (Roth) vs. “Poundcake” (Hagar)? “Jump” (Roth) vs. “When It’s Love” (Hagar)? It’s no contest, really.

Which is why Roth was the only mouthpiece this band ever needed or deserved. Now that Roth is back with the band, all is almost in order; original bassist Michael Anthony is no longer in the lineup, replaced by guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 20-year-old son, Wolfgang. On “A Different Kind of Truth" (Interscope), the band’s first album of new music this century, Roth’s shout-and-jive vocals tag-team with the still-astonishing guitar inventions of a rejuvenated Eddie Van Halen. The inevitable we’re-still-here tour brings Van Halen to the United Center on Friday and the Allstate Arena on April 1.

Here’s a quick overview of Van Halen’s career, in which they’ve sold more than 56 million albums in America alone, making them one of the most successful rock bands of the last three decades:

1967: Eddie (born 1955) and Alex Van Halen (1953) arrive in Pasadena, Calif., with their family from their birthplace in the Netherlands. Eddie, a diehard Dave Clark 5 fan, takes up the drums, then gives them to his older brother Alex. Eddie picks up the guitar instead. Eddie and Alex jam.

1974-77: Eddie and Alex join forces with two members of rival Southern California bands, singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony, and play the regional bar circuit. Several name changes ensue, and they toggle between covers and originals. Kiss’ Gene Simmons produces a demo that makes the record-company rounds and becomes legend in Van Halen circles.

1978: The debut “Van Halen” arrives with a cover of the Kinks’ proto-metal “You Really Got Me” as the first single. But the real story is Eddie Van Halen’s full-throttle guitar mastery, popularizing a whole new array of terminology for aspiring six-string nerds (two-handed tapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs).

1979-84: Van Halen becomes one of the biggest bands in the world, the mix of Roth’s bad-boy personality and Van Halen’s boy-genius prowess making them a huge attraction in concert as well. “1984” caps the Roth era with Eddie Van Halen continuing to experiment with synthesizers to tremendous commercial response on the band’s first No. 1 single, “Jump.”

1985-86: Ego wars prompt Roth’s exit and Hagar debuts as vocalist on “5150,” continuing the band’s string of multimillion-selling albums.

1991: In an interview with the Tribune, Eddie Van Halen sings Hagar’s praises: “I think Sammy and I see things the same way because we're both musicians. Sammy's also a guitarist, not just a singer, not just a front guy" - a pointed reference to Roth, who did not play an instrument - "and I think that makes a big difference…. We’re buddies.” Hagar returns the compliment from the stage on tour as he introduces Eddie as “my next door neighbor, my best friend in the whole world, my hero, my idol.”

1996-98: The love-fest is over and the era of the revolving-door singers begins. Hagar is ousted, Roth is briefly brought back in and then he’s booted, and finally Gary Cherone takes over for one forgettable album. Hagar’s reaction: "Devastated . . . disappointed . . . I was conned." Roth: "Eddie did it. I was an unwitting participant in this deception." Eddie Van Halen counter-attacks in the Tribune, saying the Roth-era band “sucked” with “grunting vocals” and that “12 years of smoking dope and living in his own bubble didn't improve his (Roth’s) abilities as a singer." He calls Hagar “a 'B' act, but he thinks that without him we would've gone down the toilet. When I got sober, I listened to some of the lyrics he wrote like 'Wham, bam, oh, Amsterdam' and '1-900-S-P-A-N-K' and I just thought, 'What were we thinking?' " He praises Cherone as "a normal guy, a guy who's in it for the music, like me, Mike and my brother. There's no room for ego in this band. It has always been a collaboration."

1999-2003: After their worst-selling album, with Cherone on vocals, “Van Halen III,” the band goes on hiatus. Eddie Van Halen undergoes hip-replacement surgery and is treated for tongue cancer.

2004: Hagar is back for a reunion tour. There is lots of manly schmoozing and hugging on-stage, christened with a nightly toast, but a quarter of the two-hour show is bogged downed by solo sections for each musician. Nonetheless, the fans come out in droves and the quartet accrues $54 million in tour revenue.

2005-07: Hagar splits again, citing Eddie’s drinking and sloppy playing on the previous tour as primary reasons, detailed in Hagar’s 2011 memoir, “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock.” Anthony is also ousted, replaced by 16-year-old Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. Roth is re-enlisted, and a 2007 reunion tour piles up more than $56 million in revenue. The band ignores the nine top-40 hits it scored during the Hagar era, and focuses exclusively on the six albums recorded during the Roth years, 1978-84.

2012: A new studio album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” is released, the first with Roth on lead vocals in 28 years. It includes a handful of songs recycled from the original mid-‘70s demo financed and recorded by Kiss’ Simmons. Yes, everything old is almost new again.

greg@gregkot.com

Van Halen with Kool and the Gang, 7:30 p.m. Friday at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison, $49.50, $79.50, $149.50; ticketmaster.com; and 7:30 p.m. April 1 at the Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Ill., $49.50, $79.50, $149.50; ticketmaster.com.

There's no fucking way that shit-ass 2004 tour grossed only $2M LESS than the '07-'08 tour!

[scott b]

Fuck all the journalists reviews good or bad its about the fans,not these jerkoffs who get paid to write whatever they want and then act like their opinion is the holy word.

[atomicpnk47]

Wasn't it more like $90M in 07-08?

[vanhalen1r2]

Wasn't it more like $90M in 07-08?

The writer fucked up the 07-08 gross was 93 MILLION

[Carmine]

Journalists that put quoted facts in print that are obvious and flagrant errors just piss me off...

If the 2004 tour made 54 million...then I'll, I'll....nevermind...there aint no way...

The 2007/ 08 Tour made like 90 million and was the highest grossing VH Tour ever, correct?

and lastly...the only person talking about Hagar these days..............is Hagar.

[vanhalen1r2]

Journalists that put quoted facts in print that are obvious and flagrant errors just piss me off...

If the 2004 tour made 54 million...then I'll, I'll....nevermind...there aint no way...

The 2007/ 08 Tour made like 90 million and was the highest grossing VH Tour ever, correct?

and lastly...the only person talking about Hagar these days..............is Hagar.

I hear that, over the years we have all heard in the press how Shammy saved VH and Spammy made VH bigger all that BS, we all know the truth we where there. Long Live DLR era.

[sadaist]

Here is the for-shit review:

DLR is a clown

Clown
Rocker
Tarzan
Comedian
Dancer
Ninja
Philosopher
Stoner
Adventurer
Mountain Climber
Pilot
EMT
Disc Jockey
Entertainer
Performer
Guitarist
Shaman
Dog Trainer
Millionaire
Host
Pervert
Artist
Poet

...

[GreenEyedMurder]

Classic. And I probably wouldn't enjoy shitting on the guy so much if he hadn't opened his trap at the beginning of all of this and started his classless bullshit.

Has anyone heard the band say anything about Spam? I don't think they've even mentioned him.

Much of his sniping at the band is just petty bitterness, but the cheap shots he took at Ed's sobriety and the nasty shit he spewed about Ed's problems during the '04 tour were just indicative of what he really is.

It's got to be KILLING him that Van Halen is succeeding very nicely without him, and that the new VH album and tour are totally eclipsing his band.

[Satan]

Good to see that article in a Chicago paper. I'll bet all the sheep in that area are pissed about it.

BTW, has anybody heard from Free Willy O'Neill lately?