Rank all the Van Halen tours

[loucap81]

This assumes you have listened to a decent amount of bootlegs or have concrete memories of the shows on the tours. The tours to choose from are 1974-77 Club Days, 1978 first world tour, 1979 World Vacation Tour, 1980 Invasion tour, 1981 WDFA tour, 1982-83 Hide Your Sheep tour, 1984 tour, 2007-08 tour and 2012 A Different Kind of Truth tour.

My rankings:

1) 1982-83 Hide Your Sheep tour--awesome setlist, the SGMAD jam, those great South American shows where they really opened up the playbook with the covers and everything. I just love that tour.

2) 1978 first world tour. Incredible sound that they'll never match again, plus they were so hungry. Despite the mostly short shows as an opening act the performances were unmatched in their history. Plus they did have some longer shows like in Japan where they did songs that would appear on VH II.

3) 1979 Invasion tour. More of the same from 1978; guitar sound not quite but almost as good as 1978. I'm splitting hairs really.

4) 1981 Fair Warning tour. Love all the FW songs as well as the performances of Romeo Delight. EWS and ICM chewed up too much of the concert though.

5) 1974-77 Club Days shows. They hadn't arrived yet and were doing loads of covers, but there was a lot to like such as songs like "Bullethead," "Let's Get Rockin'," "Show No Mercy" and those really early versions of "Runnin' with the Devil" and "In a Simple Rhyme."

6) 1980 Invasion tour. Very good tour though the tuning makes it more difficult for me to listen to these shows than the other tours. If not for that it probably would be higher. Interesting setlists too with "Women in Love..." and "Bright Lights Big City," not to mention "Light Up The Sky" for the first half of the tour. This was also the first tour in my opinion where Roth became Roth and settled into being the raunchy guy he gained a reputation for.

7) 2012 A Different Kind of Truth tour. I can't put this above any tour except 1984 just because of age but Eddie is absolutely shredding and playing as well as he ever has. They feel like a true band again and the deep cuts are back!

8) 2007-08 Reunion tour. While the static setlist got a bit tiresome, and Eddie had issues, it was still one of the best comebacks in rock and roll history. While they didn't play many true deep cuts, it was still a very good setlist that hit Van Halen I very hard, and there's nothing wrong with that.

9) 1984 tour. The only tour where the hype and party atmosphere was better than the show itself. It's still classic VH but in my opinion it's clearly the weakest of the tours. They weren't a band at this point. I didn't like the guitar tone at all, o course the keyboards were a negative, Roth's ego was sky high and he thought he was a full-fledged comedian by this point the setlists mainly focused on VH I and 1984 with little in between.

[Jagermeister]

Yeah I don't know anyone else that can really lend credibility to this but you. So that being said I agree with you.

[Terry]

The 1984 tour wasn't the best of what CVH had to offer as a live unit in comparison to previous tours, but it was miles above what the drunken Edward had to offer live when I saw them in 2008.

I might be inclined to say that the 1984 tour and the current tour are on an equal footing...might...but ain't no way the 2007/2008 tour was better than the 1984 tour.

[loucap81]

I respect that. I was at a couple of HORRIBLE shows in 2007 thanks to Ed's playing--Kansas City and Uniondale--but I did get some great ones too. The quality was spotty until the last couple of months when Ed was finally off the drugs. Although, some of those 1984 shows (particularly in the first leg of the tour) were sloppy. The Augusta 1984 show is up there with 1983 US Fest in terms of sloppiness.

Obviously all I have to go on are the bootlegs so I can never give you a personal experience of VH in their prime--I'm assuming you did see them back in the day? But just about all of those 1984 shows it seemed like their hearts weren't into it. You had the one oddball show, Quebec City 4/21/84, which I think was the ONLY 1984 show where they acted like a real band. The version of EWS in that one was absolutely killer, the best EWS they ever did. The highlight of your garden-variety 1984 show in my opinion was the guitar solo--Eddie came up with some new material and he played it so well. But I at least hope my reasoning makes sense even if you disagree.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

I was at a couple of HORRIBLE shows in 2007 thanks to Ed's playing--Kansas City...

That will probably be the only VH show I ever see.

[loucap81]

I still think they're going to add 20 more tour dates and take this thing into the fall to bring the total up to around 80 shows. In 2004 Van Hagar played Fargo, ND and other places in the heartland, so I wouldn't lose hope for an Iowa show.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

it might be a logical step after cincinatti, but I still don't know. I am monumentally broke right now. But I graduate next week with my BS, so hopefully things are gonna look up, but I don't have a lot of faith in the job market right now.

[Fairwrning]

Cant rank em all...but fave was 81 tour..just awesome show..band was at its peak imo..

[rocking ron]

I think all tours are having their charme and were great, it's so hard to say which was best without a travel-time-machine!! I've got hundreds of bootlegs and every show from all those tours are
rockin'!! Personally I think in 1984 Dave was having his highlight as entertainer ( with Van Halen ) with all those moves,jumps,aerobics,dancing and whatever he did on stage, and he was thinking
it was all about him at that time!!!
As band they were having their peak during the FAIR WARNING tour, maybe not the best set-list ever but there was...magic, can't explain it but this tour was some kind of crossroad in their
(live)carreer!!
And 2007/2008 , the first show(s) still keep my heart pumpin' and jumpin' seeing them back together after that many years, awesome, and right now 2012 and touring again with new songs and acting if they really like eachother and 'changin' the setlist once in a while, something they never (almost!!) did before...........outstanding............. !!

I really hope they're gonna put some old footage on DVD for sale!!! ( from every goddamn tour if possible and than I'm gonna tell u which one is best!! )

[VAiN]

It's unfortunate that there isn't better quality material from 79-84 out there, but I can't really rank the tours. Its CVH.. Even on a bad night its the best thing going. If you were there in the moment it must have been a mind blowing life changer. I'm enjoying every opportunity that I get to catch these guys as much as possible.

[rocking ron]

It's unfortunate that there isn't better quality material from 79-84 out there, but I can't really rank the tours. Its CVH.. Even on a bad night its the best thing going. If you were there in the moment it must have been a mind blowing life changer. I'm enjoying every opportunity that I get to catch these guys as much as possible.

That's why we need that fxxx time-machine haha right now I'm watchin' VH - LARGO 1982 Diver Down tour and after this one my fave show : MONTREAL 1984 , man this show rocks and I
wish I have more of these shows from all era's, that would be so cool!!

[CROWBAR]

I've never understood why the Montreal '84 show gets so much praise? I have it and it isn't anywhere as tight as the Largo '82 before it imo. Honestly, I don't see how anyone could give a fair answer to the question at hand unless you were at every tour. We can only base it on bootlegs and what few shows are out there floating around. For my money, I'd have to say the '81 Fair Warning tour was their best hands down. Ed's tone was different, and some say he was using Laney amps that tour, I dunno, but I definitely liked what I heard. Al's lit gong too.



The Diver Down/Hide Your Sheep tour looked like the funnest for them. I especially like their South American shows they did before returning to do the US Festival. It's a shame they played so sloppy there too. Not their best performance by a long shot.


I saw the 1984 tour and, as large of a production as it was, you could tell they were pushed to their limits and perhaps no longer as tight a unit as they once were. Longer solos and Dave's rap was an extended piece of work too. Still though, I enjoyed it immensely.

I think it's tragic that they didn't take more care in seeing that classic concert footage was preserved for later use. We've been denied a proper boxset and/or DVD for years now. I'd love to see the infamous Anaheim parachute jump someday. All kinds of shit they could release, but won't probably. I don't look for it in my lifetime.

[So this is love]

I've never understood why the Montreal '84 show gets so much praise? I have it and it isn't anywhere as tight as the Largo '82 before it imo. Honestly, I don't see how anyone could give a fair answer to the question at hand unless you were at every tour. We can only base it on bootlegs and what few shows are out there floating around. For my money, I'd have to say the '81 Fair Warning tour was their best hands down. Ed's tone was different, and some say he was using Laney amps that tour, I dunno, but I definitely liked what I heard. Al's lit gong too.



The Diver Down/Hide Your Sheep tour looked like the funnest for them. I especially like their South American shows they did before returning to do the US Festival. It's a shame they played so sloppy there too. Not their best performance by a long shot.


I saw the 1984 tour and, as large of a production as it was, you could tell they were pushed to their limits and perhaps no longer as tight a unit as they once were. Longer solos and Dave's rap was an extended piece of work too. Still though, I enjoyed it immensely.

I think it's tragic that they didn't take more care in seeing that classic concert footage was preserved for later use. We've been denied a proper boxset and/or DVD for years now. I'd love to see the infamous Anaheim parachute jump someday. All kinds of shit they could release, but won't probably. I don't look for it in my lifetime.

My take is the Montreal show is the only one on youtube from the 1984 tour. I maybe wrong though.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

Montreal is only the best 1984 show that was recorded. I don't think anyone thinks it trumps any 81-83 show.

[Matt White]

Great question Lou................

from what I've heard I'd say '81..................

too bad the technology wasn't there back in the day.................

That beening said it s so tough a question........without hearing TONS of boot material.............

any given show is just a snapshot of that particular moment.................I say '81 because they were still tight & the theatrics & substance abuse hadn't started to chip away at 'em yet...........

[loucap81]

To me it just never got better than this.

[Terry]

Montreal is only the best 1984 show that was recorded. I don't think anyone thinks it trumps any 81-83 show.

There's a fair amount of audio bootlegs of the 1984 tour floating around...for years the only video of that tour I've seen was the Montreal gig and Donnington, but recently someone on youtube posted some footage from...I wanna say Zeppelinfield, Germany...one of the last gigs on the 1984 European tour, at any rate.

I mean, even having seen one of the 1984 shows and remembering the size of the stage production I'd still say all of the earlier tours were a bit better in terms of energy and musical intensity based on nothing other than hearing bootlegs from those years.

[sadaist]

I respect that. I was at a couple of HORRIBLE shows in 2007 thanks to Ed's playing--Kansas City and Uniondale.

Man did I get lucky. I saw them in San Diego in 2007 and that was regarded as one of their best performances of the entire tour. Eddie was near perfect all night and Dave was just off the charts. Even nearly 4 1/2 years later any of the San Diego videos still hold up so I know it wasn't just me being in the moment.

[rocking ron]

Montreal is only the best 1984 show that was recorded. I don't think anyone thinks it trumps any 81-83 show.

That's ( almost ) truth because we don't have much live stuff on dvd of that era,, would be great if the boys put that stuff out on dvd!!!

But....: for the atlethic things//moves Dave was at his top during this tour, for sure, I've seen all (DVD) '86 shows and also there he was in a very great shape//condition but those 1984

shows were over the top,,but musically I think for most of us true VH fans the '79//'80//and '81 shows are more interesting ( to see ) but like I told before there's less material from

these era !!! And again, when ( if they have any ) are they gonna put this stuff on dvd for sale, just for the die hards who are waitin' for this for years......

[fourthcoming]

There's a fair amount of audio bootlegs of the 1984 tour floating around...for years the only video of that tour I've seen was the Montreal gig and Donnington, but recently someone on youtube posted some footage from...I wanna say Zeppelinfield, Germany...one of the last gigs on the 1984 European tour, at any rate.

I mean, even having seen one of the 1984 shows and remembering the size of the stage production I'd still say all of the earlier tours were a bit better in terms of energy and musical intensity based on nothing other than hearing bootlegs from those years.

I had a tape cassette some dude hooked me up with in....jeez...it was 1990 I wanna say.....I was a junior in high school....it was 1984 at MSG......pretty decent quality too......unfortunately some years back the tape was eaten......got so worn down from repetetive playing.....and my dumb ass never made a copy of it. I'll never forget at the end of the encore hearing Dave tell the crowd..." See Ya Next Year New York!!!" Extremely depressing moment in time.......next year didn't come for another 23 years.