Ok,
Eddie came out with his hair down, looking like Eddie, and did not revert to Samerai up-do until after the second song.
I was less than 50 feet from the stage, being in the ist row behind the 5 rows deicated to the ripoff all access plan purchasers.
Set list was the same as has been posted. No changes I noticed.
I will say, to some of your chagrins, that I am not a Sammy fan, but he did do a good job tonight with them.
Those guys were happy, smiling, and did not play sloppy. I am a professional musician and I know tightness when I hear it.
Eddie's long awaited solo was somewhat disapppointing as he resorted to overuse of tapping and too much digital delay. He did not play Eruption in anything save for brief quotes, Much of his solo was spent on volume control noodlings producing the faux bowing effect, while he played minimalist patterns over it, drenched in delay. It got boring.
(I was fortunate to have seen Yngwie Malmsteen at a small club in Baltimore a month or so prior, and Yngwie could smoke Eddie Van Halen, or any other guitarist in the world, for that matter, as Yngwie made George Lynch (the opener that night) look stupid.
Wolfgang joined him on stage (Wolfie had the striped guitar (looked 3/4 sized) and played a simple chordal thing that Dad riffed upon, both kneeling together on the stage. It was poignant, in that Eddie was emotional and kissed his son and announced that he was the future, and that he (Eddie) was the "luckiest fucking person in the world".
The stage is nice, smaller than expected though and the screen, which is encased in a huge cut out land mine was cool looking. Usual gobos and strobes. Lots of audience white light, which was fun.
Michael Anthony's bass solo was simply noise than anyone could have played, but he used the Jack Daniels bass on it. His tone was excellent, as he was playing through 4 Ampeg SVT's.
Thank God, Sammy did not play rhythm guitar but played guitar on his solo segment, which I napped on.
Eddie had 9 of the peavey cabinets, in a three color cabinet array with EVH logo on each cabinet. His amps were racked and unseen. \
Eddie pleyed the famous striped guitar only once, using the Wolfgang exclusively other times. He did the drill thing on Poundcake which was fun.
Eddie regrettably smoked one cigarette on stage but did not look drunk and appeared to be drinking fruit juices. Mike Anthony had at least one corona, and Sammy and he had Sammy's Waboritas in plastic cups. Mike drank one miniature of JD while running around the stage on his bass solo.
Alex's drum solo was very repetitive and as such, boring.
The nicest thing about the show was the obvious happiness those guys displayed. Eddie was all smiles.
And again, sorry to say, Sammy did quite well for them tonight. Much moreso than I ever expected. No Cabo Wabo bullshit.
Use of sequencers or tape for keyboard parts was disappointing though. They should have a live keyboadist off to the side, as Aerosmith did on their 9 lives tour.
Anyway, there you have it.
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