Official July 30 Bangor, ME, Darling's Waterfront Pavilion Meetup/Review Thread

[Va Beach VH Fan]

NAD THATS A WRAP!!!!! I will be heading to Idaho for about a week so I will you all in NEW YORK. A photo posted by Malcolm Van Halen (@van_halen2015) on Jul 30, 2015 at 7:33pm PDT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Van Halen killed it ✊🏾— blake (@blakeNhatt) July 31, 2015

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Van Halen make me cum— monstro (@turbodick94) July 31, 2015

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Just rocked my face off with @IvenLeet and @LWLiedman at Van Halen #AintTalkinBoutLove— Brett Milliken (@brettmilliken10) July 31, 2015

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Eddy van halen is a genius.— Corey LeClair (@cleclair83) July 31, 2015

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Like Dave said, "No rain, no Woodstock." Bangor. You guys ruled. Thank you! #VanHalen A photo posted by Wolf Van Halen (@wolfvanhalen) on Jul 30, 2015 at 7:43pm PDT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

@georgiachase4 Eddie Van Halen did a 12 minute guitar solo 😅😅😅— blake (@blakeNhatt) July 31, 2015

[Meanstreets]

Just got back from the show. Took my two kids, 12 &16 (12 yr olds first ever concert), managed to score 10th row seats. Wow what a fun show tonight! Have to admit, I was worried Dave was gonna be vocally all over the place, but the guy and the band completely delivered bigtime. Of course hes gonna miss notes here and there..the guy is 60 yrs old...but he seemed to make a great attempt at controlling his range, more so than Ive seen in recent years. Went a ton in the lower register which helps bigtime. Eddie and the band were phenomenal as usual. Dave was the consummate showman and the crowd fed off the energy. So thrilled that my kids got to see this band up close and personal.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Van Halen dances the night away on the Bangor Waterfront

By Emily Burnham, BDN Staff
Posted July 30, 2015, at 11:05 p.m.

BANGOR, Maine — As far as bang for your buck goes, you’d be hard pressed to find a better live music deal than Van Halen. The venerable rockers played a two-hour set at the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor on Thursday night, blasting through their enormous list of hits, fan favorites and new songs in front of an adoring crowd.

Guitar god Eddie Van Halen, pounding drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Wolfgang Van Halen — Eddie’s son, who replaced longtime bassist Michael Anthony — and legendary first and (hopefully) final lead singer David Lee Roth still have the chops, the energy and the love of the music that they had when they burst onto the national scene in the late 1970s.

The audience was likely the most diverse age range of any concert so far this season, from 10-year-old kids accompanying their parents to folks in their 50s and 60s who have been fans since the beginning. From “Runnin’ With the Devil” and “Dance the Night Away” to “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher,” there was no shortage of crowd-pleasers for the band to rifle off.

David Lee Roth may not be doing any more scissor kicks off drum risers, but “Diamond” Dave is still the consummate showman, engaging in off-color stage banter between, and sometimes during, each and every song, and changing in and out of sparkly, bright-colored blazers. Van Halen has always been as much about the party as it has been about the virtuoso guitar fireworks, and Roth was the primary driver of that attitude from the day he joined the band onward.

But the Van Halens — Eddie, Alex and now Wolfgang — are the true muscle. After all, is there a more archetypal guitar legend than Eddie Van Halen? He’s right up there in the guitar pantheon alongside Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

Opening for Van Halen was the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, a blues rock band that has been a longtime favorite on local classic rock station WKIT 100.3, with songs such as “Blue on Black” and “Everything Is Broken” still mainstays of the daily playlist.

There were intermittent heavy showers throughout the evening, but a little rain didn’t keep concert-goers from enjoying every last minute of rock.

[TwoFoolsAMinute]

Van Halen pic.twitter.com/bixei6nvLF— Evan Habeeb (@evanhabeeb) July 30, 2015

I hope that venue is better than it looks in this photo.

[IceCreamBlondie]

Thanks all for posting. Fun reads! Looking forward to the youtubes.

[Romeo Delight]

I hope that venue is better than it looks in this photo.

This is kind of what I have been saying about this tour. The rental of these venues has to be a fraction of the arena rate. I mean how hard is this to hold the event...security, parking, t-shirt vendors.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

This is kind of what I have been saying about this tour. The rental of these venues has to be a fraction of the arena rate. I mean how hard is this to hold the event...security, parking, t-shirt vendors.

That venue in Bangor is not your prototypical American amphitheater....

Most in the States have an actual structure/awning for the front half of the crowd with about 10,000 actual seats like in an arena, and the lawn in the back hold about 10,000 more sitting/standing on the grass.....

For example, here's our amphitheater literally in my back yard....

[katina]

Unchained

The kid will never forget this show.

[katina]

Somebody Get Me A Doctor