Official August 3 Cleveland, OH, Blossom Music Center Meetup/Review Thread

[Von Halen]

I could see a pot shot at the band for having a diminishing base if two thousand or less showed up, but ten thousand people, mostly aging fans with jobs to go to on Tuesday AM, is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

I agree. Even if there were 10k or 12k actually sold, it appears there were more than that there. Just because tickets are given away, doesn't mean people are going to show up. Looks like most showed up.

Hell, I can't wait for the day this band is playing 2000 or less, capacity venues!

[katina]

Van Halen, David Lee Roth still running with the devil at Ohio concert

http://www.examiner.com/review/van-halen-david-lee-roth-still-running-with-the-devil-at-ohio-concert

There’s been a lot of speculation over David Lee Roth’s ability to hold his own onstage with the refurbished Van Halen.
Time hasn’t been kind to Roth’s pipes since the late ‘80s, when he infamously left Van Halen to forge a modestly successful solo career (“Just a Gigolo,” “California Girls,” “Yankee Rose”). In the late ‘90s the hirsute alpha male front man disappeared from radar to work as a paramedic, take flying lessons, and parlay his trademark jive talk into a gig as a disc jockey in New York.

Meanwhile, brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen forged on with Sammy Hagar (“I Can’t Drive 55”) on vocals. The “Van Hagar” incarnation of the band cut a string of albums (5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) that sold just as well as the ones with Roth (with singles “Why Can’t This Be Love,” “Finish What Ya Started,” and “Poundcake”—and which kept the Van Halen name at the top of the charts.

Despite the continued success, Van Halen Mach II polarized its core followers with too-pretty power ballads (“When It’s Love”) and optimistic worldview (“Right Now”): We loved both, but many preferred Roth’s swaggering, unapologetic braggadocio over Hagar’s beachgoer bonhomie.

The group’s strangest iteration yet came in 1997, when ex-Extreme singer Gary Cherone signed on for Van Halen III. The “More Than Words” crooner sounded terrific when VH played Gund Arena in ’98, but the chemistry wasn’t right for a prolonged partnership.

Estranged from Van Halen for one reason or another (depending on whose stories you believed), Roth and Hagar improbably joined forces for a co-headlining tour in 2002, whereon each revisited his respective VH hits.

Hagar’s last disc with the band was twenty years ago, 1995’s Balance (he recorded a couple new tracks for a VH best-of compilation and reunion tour in 2004). The “Red Rocker” now sings in the super-groups Chickenfoot and The Circle—both featuring former VH bassist Michael Anthony—and looks after his Cabo Wabo resort in San Lucas.

Only Hagar and Anthony—Van Halen’s inactive alumni—showed up when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That’s pretty much how the 2000s played out for Van Halen aficionados: Daily doses of disappointment, opportunities lost, and woulda-been, shoulda-been debates in chat forums.

But Roth emerged from hiding in 2007 for his first tour with the Van Halen brothers in over twenty years. That outing was the band’s highest-grossing ever, but it wasn’t until 2012 that “Diamond Dave” would lend his distinctive pipes to a new Van Halen album. Even then, the bulk of A Different Kind of Truth drew from decades-old guitar riffs from Eddie’s vault.

Still, the band sounded amazing, even with Roth’s diminished range. Eddie was playing guitar the way he used to, like an electrified Paganini possessed. Alex was a reborn thunder god on drums, and young recruit Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie’s son with Valerie Bertinelli) capably filled the bass parts and background vocals in Michael Anthony’s stead.

Fan fears were further eased yesterday when Van Halen returned to Ohio’s Blossom Music Center in support of their recent Live From Tokyo Dome (a 2-CD concert set recorded in June 2013). The verdict’s out on whether Roth diehards give the singer’s Tokyo Dome performance a pass, but Dave acquitted himself marvelously at Monday’s show (thank you very much), shucking his way through the old-school anthems that made him the quintessential ‘80s hair band poster boy.

Given that the Pasadena rebels are only playing Roth-era tunes on tour (unlike when Hagar covered the Roth classics during his tenure), the majority of the material on offer in Cuyahoga Falls harkened to Van Halen’s heyday (circa 1978-1984), well before “Wolfie” was even born. In fact, the band delivered most of 1979’s Van Halen II and half of 1984 alongside choice cuts from Women and Children First and Fair Warning.

And we loved it.

So if you’ve always aligned yourself with the Roth camp (or you perennially prefer the Ted Templeman-produced platters to VH’s canon du Hagar), Blossom was the place to be.

We’d say it wasn’t your father’s Van Halen, but these days, the fathers we’d be referring to are you and me. Because we’ve all got our own kids now—just like certain guitar gods we worshipped growing up.

So when Eddie brought his drum deity brother and bass-thumping son back to Blossom last night, it may have sounded like the past—but it felt like we were looking at the future.

Van Halen’s and…ours.

To quote Roger Daltry, the kids are alright: Wolfie’s the real deal. And with the injection of fresh blood, there just might always be a Van Halen.

But Monday’s set was a nostalgic, No Bozos affair that—for us and the several thousand in attendance—punched all the right emotional buttons.

True believers couldn’t have wanted for a more incendiary icebreaker than “Light Up the Sky,” whose ascending guitar riff and propulsive rhythm provided a sturdy springboard for Roth’s smarmy shtick. “Running With the Devil” and “Romeo Delight” (with its urgent Baby, please—I can’t take it anymore! chorus) sunk fans even deeper into VH’s spandex oeuvre.

The quartet was equal parts jungle jukebox and street urchin stereo, with Alex employing a tribal drumbeat on “Everybody Wants Some!!” and Eddie grinding out crunchy chords on strip club canto “Drop Dead Legs.”

Manhandling basses with blue, grey, and bumblebee striped motifs (like Eddie’s “Frankenstrat” guitars), 24-year Wolfgang was all business, imbuing “Feel Your Love Tonight” and “Somebody Get Me a Doctor” with the upper-register vocals harmonies once rendered by the Jack Daniels-chugging Anthony. “She’s the Woman” kicked off with Wolfie’s warbling bass lick, and was a welcome entry from his maiden voyage in dad’s band (A Different Kind of Truth). “China Town” saw father and son working side-by-side to pull off some acrobatic fret work.

“I don’t even know what song is next,” admitted Roth, caught up in the good time.

“I practice selective denial, like in my last three relationships!”

Roth’s curtailed the karate-kicks and high altitude leaping, but he’s still a charismatic, hyperkinetic entertainer whose limbs were in constant motion (like frayed power lines). Wearing black pants and matching vest (concealing prodigious pectoral tattoos) instead of the biker uni-tards of yore, Roth’s more vaudevillian minstrel now than Valhallan uber-male, slipping and sliding across a waxed floor beneath Alex’s drum riser.

That’s okay by us. It’s unreasonable to expect backflips and scissor kicks from any 60-year old, and those who suggest Roth should “act his age” should realize by now that he already is.

What’s more, we’ve witnessed Roth’s gradual transformation in person, having attended all his solo shows in our neck of the woods since 1988’s Skyscraper (whose roadshow brought Dave to Blossom with guitarist Steve Vai…and a regulation-sized boxing ring). So it’s not as if his dimpled-grinned snake oil salesman / carnival barker is any kind of revelation; Roth’s incorporated Las Vegas vamping and Tin Pan Alley aesthetics into his repertoire since the ‘90s. He may not be the athlete he was at 25 (or even 35) but he’s every bit the showman.

Case in point: Roth’s solo spot late on saw him sitting center-stage for a palaver during which he reminisced and idly strummed an acoustic guitar (between harmonica blasts). He recalled opening for Journey and Black Sabbath in the ‘70s, and how the guys contorted themselves when sleeping on the tour bus.

“We’d open for any band crazy enough to have us…and we’d usually get fired three weeks in!”

Dave said his current tour bus resembles Dolly Parton’s bathroom.

It didn’t take long to see where he was going with al this banter (and blues finger-picking): His unplugged take on John Brim’s “Ice Cream Man” coalesced into the anvil-heavy version heard on Van Halen’s Warner Bros. debut, and yes, Eddie nailed the overdriven, tap-laden guitar solo.

“This is how I did it then, and this is how I do it now,” Roth mused.

“Somewhere along the way, I got to be part of the best rock band this world has ever known!”

Roth also swapped jackets every two or three songs, ducking behind Wolfie’s wall of amps for new pinstriped coats (with rainbow liners) or scarves to swirl and swat, like a feline. Sometimes he’d change costumes in eyeshot, giving spectators a full view of his heavily-inked abs, arms, and shoulder blades.

Other highlights were Diver Down back-track “Little Guitars,” 1984’s bawdy “Hot for Teacher,” and a Van Halen II medley wherein Eddie and the gang barreled through “Dance the Night Away,” “Beautiful Girls,” and “Women in Love.” Women and Children First favorite “In a Simple Rhyme” meshed well with salacious Fair Warning song “Dirty Movies” (and came with the record’s hidden addendum jam, “Growth”). “Unchained” (another ’81 rocker) and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” found the guys rounding third and heading for home.

But not without pausing for what was—in the eyes of many VH ticket-holders—the piece de resistance: Eddie’s guitar solo.

The six-string showcase was not unlike that heard on either of the band’s two live albums (and countless bootlegs) in that it was an amalgam of the best bits from all Eddie’s famous stand-alone solos. There was the flamenco buzz of the “Little Guitars” intro and the mariachi runs of “Spanish Fly.” There was the percussive fretboard slapping of “Mean Streets” and the volume knob swells of the hymn like “Cathedral.” And stitching all the elements together was Eddie’s signature hammer-on, pull-off bonanza, “Eruption”—which climaxed with a whammy-bar dive-bomb on his custom EVH Wolfgang and a rumble from brother Alex, returning to his drum throne.

Al had a solo, too, and punished his four-kick drum Ludwig kit with primal ferocity. Cueing the crowd to clap along, he played to a brassy sample and some jazzy pastiches. Later, Roth noted the Latino influence on Van Halen’s early music.

“There’s a bit of hot sauce in that one!” he noted on “Dance the Night Away.”

“I own a 1961 Mercury low rider,” the singer elaborated, adjusting his blue hoodie. “That’s my everyday shit.”

“We used to line up our low riders with the doors all open, listening to the same radio station. That’s how you did it.”

Ed’s solo bled into the band’s turbocharged take on Kinks hit “You Really Got Me” (just like on record), the Roth set his sights on “Panama.” Encore “Jump” had piped-in keyboards (as did the earlier “I’ll Wait”), but the MTV hit was so festive—and the band so tight—that no one minded.

Just so long as Eddie kept workin’ that guitar.

[katina]

In A Simple Rhyme

[Von Halen]

Now that's a review by a guy that actually knows a little about Van Halen. Except I believe Dave's Merc is a '41, not a '61.

[DLR Bridge]

Nice review. Here's the best part, ED....

"It’s unreasonable to expect backflips and scissor kicks from any 60-year old, and those who suggest Roth should “act his age” should realize by now that he already is."

[katina]

Dirty Movies

[So this is love]

Dirty Movies

Wolfs too good to be in Van Halen. Great song!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Wolfs too good to be in Van Halen. Great song!

two months and tremonti shows may be funner

[Va Beach VH Fan]

And another review...

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2015/08/04/van-halen-delivers-deep-tracks-and-hits-at-blossom-concert

Van Halen Delivers Deep Tracks and Hits at Blossom Concert
Concert Review
Posted By Matt Wardlaw on Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 11:21 am

It had been too long since concert fans had spent a hot summer night with Van Halen under the stars at Blossom Music Center. Actually, it had been 20 years — going all the way back to the Balance tour in July of 1995, during the controversial “Van Hagar” era. (This writer enjoys both of the main eras of the group and even the Cherone period — but that’s a rarity, as you’ll find, if you ask somebody which one they prefer.) You can see a slideshow of photos from the show here.

No matter who is at the helm (and that’s been “Diamond” David Lee Roth back on the job since 2007), a Van Halen concert always feels a bit like a family reunion of sorts and as you look around the crowd, you’ll see VH concert shirts from many different eras and at scattered points, at least a few VH-related political statements — such as the “F Sammy” T-shirt that we spotted early in the night.

Last night's Blossom date was an overdue raincheck for a planned Cleveland show that was part of a series of tour dates that got scrubbed at the last minute in 2012 (a Quicken Loans Arena show scheduled for July 28 of that year got pulled barely a month before it happened, along with 31 other shows on the planned third U.S. leg of their tour at that time). So it’s appropriate that when they did finally make their awaited area appearance, it was a bit of a sneak attack.

The levels of the pre-show music didn’t even spike as drummer Alex Van Halen made his first appearance behind the kit, holding his sticks high in the air in a victorious pose and acknowledging the crowd. The familiar tone of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar floated across the stage next and the rest of the band strolled onto the stage and kicked things into a heavy gear for their 23 song set, opening with a deep cut, “Light Up The Sky,” from 1979’s Van Halen II. Fans were excited and understandably so — the song hasn’t been played live in 35 years prior to this current run of shows, since the band last played it on tour supporting the album in 1980.

Prior to starting the song, Eddie Van Halen and Roth linked arms and did a quick carousel spin, a subtle move that if nothing else, put to rest the ongoing rumors of tension between the pair. And in fact, throughout the night, there would be plenty of nods, smiles and eye contact shared by the two. They kept it about the music — and there would be plenty of highlights in that department to enjoy. It was only the second song when bassist Wolfgang Van Halen stood front and center on his uncle’s drum riser to thump out the familiar bass lines of “Runnin’ With The Devil,” from the band’s now-classic 1978 debut.

Credit Wolfgang —- who didn’t even make his entrance on the planet until 1991 — for the dead on the money setlist that was a perfect transport back, covering all of Van Halen’s best days with Roth. It is Wolfgang who has been in charge of putting the setlist together in recent years and for the current tour, he has surrounded the expected classics with a healthy helping of rarities, including a pair of songs that had never been played live prior to this current run.

How is it, for example, that the band never played “Drop Dead Legs” on the tour to support 1984? No matter — it made for a heavy slab of paradise, hearing the assembled Van Halen family — Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang — putting down a thick and funky groove on the album favorite. And “Dirty Movies” gave Roth a chance to riff on the title and wonder, “Does anybody actually go to the movies? Or do they just go to the internet? They just use their cellphones,” and as he quipped, “I just use my wrist watch.” A Van Halen concert of course is a chance to collect plenty of those memorable lines from Diamond Dave.

Early in the night, wearing a sparkly black jacket, Roth told a lengthy story where at one point, he shared with the audience, “I already knew at that young age that I was not like the other kids in Sunday school.” (At this point, we figured that out quite a while ago now.) It seems that according to Roth, at some point, his parents had threatened to sell him back to the Indians. At that young age, if you can believe it, it seems that Roth was being difficult. He shared his childhood dreams from those formative years when he was growing up and told the crowd with a grin, “Careful what you tell your kids — that shit is for life.”

Decades later, Roth is still traveling in his own neverland and vocally he sounded on target for the early part of the night, although as the set progressed, he definitely faded a lot and occasionally rearranged a few vocal lines here and there on the fly. Thankfully, that was not the case with Eddie Van Halen — the guitar legend was all smiles throughout the night, exchanging high fives with members of the audience and throwing out plenty of picks while ripping solo after solo, to the point that his actual guitar solo (long a hallowed moment that comes late in the band’s set) almost felt unnecessary. But of course, for the many assembled who might have learned their own guitar skills by studying every recorded note of Eddie’s work, it was a moment that was of course, very necessary.

Solos on “Drop Dead Legs” and the classic “Feel Your Love Tonight,” were just a couple instances that demonstrated that the guitar legend’s skills remain thankfully fully intact. He’s in a good place and it’s clear that he’s having the time of his life, getting the chance to make music with Wolfgang on a Van Halen concert stage. Combine that with the unmistakable sound of Alex Van Halen behind the drum kit and it was a real thrill that never got old, watching the three Van Halens musically lock in time and time again throughout the night.

There’s been a lot that has been written about the vocal struggles of David Lee Roth on this tour (and the television performances that led into it) and many will point out that he was never a great live vocalist to begin with. He has always been a great performer, however, and that’s a quality that has not diminished with time. While he seems to lack the stamina to deliver a consistent vocal performance throughout the entire show at this point (something which was not an issue on the touring in 2007 and 2008 where he arguably delivered some of the finest performances of his career), he continues to entertain on a level that delivers the goods for those in attendance, something that was pretty clear when watching audience members visually act out certain classic Roth lyrical sections, line by line.

A recent comment made to this writer by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry comes to mind, in which he discussed that it didn’t matter so much whether you played a track and got it perfect — what mattered was that you played the track — and people got the chance to hear it.

And that fits the current situation of Van Halen touring with David Lee Roth — while he might not be delivering performances that are note perfect through 100 percent of the set, there are large numbers of fans who either missed Van Halen in the Roth era or were too young, that are getting the chance to see at least a piece of the magic they missed that they might have otherwise only heard on the albums and the reaction would suggest that they're getting their money's worth. It’s anybody’s guess what the always unpredictable VH machine will do next once this current touring wraps up, but for two hours on this particular night in Ohio, Van Halen did a good job of “lighting up the sky” and sending fans home with some fresh concert memories.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Meanwhile, brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen forged on with Sammy Hagar (“I Can’t Drive 55”) on vocals. The “Van Hagar” incarnation of the band cut a string of albums (5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) that sold just as well as the ones with Roth (with singles “Why Can’t This Be Love,” “Finish What Ya Started,” and “Poundcake”—and which kept the Van Halen name at the top of the charts.

Love that review, but I've got a big problem with this falsehood.....

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Drop Dead Legs

Fucking Yeah!

[DLR Bridge]

I saw a pic of the "F Sammy" shirt guy at VHND. Funny stuff.

[78/84 guy]

Now that's a review by a guy that actually knows a little about Van Halen. Except I believe Dave's Merc is a '41, not a '61.

It's a 51. It was a 4 door hardtop. But I think a chainsaw fixed that. I remember when it was in Hot Rod or Car Craft mag. That might have been before Dave owned it.

[twonabomber]

I agree. Even if there were 10k or 12k actually sold, it appears there were more than that there. Just because tickets are given away, doesn't mean people are going to show up. Looks like most showed up.

Hell, I can't wait for the day this band is playing 2000 or less, capacity venues!

House of Blues, anyone?

[twonabomber]

Pic of Blossom from the Cleveland Orchestra FB page. Blossom was originally built to be the summer home of the Orchestra. It's in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Mot sure this was from Monday though.