Official October 2 Hollywood, CA, Hollywood Bowl Meetup/Review Thread

[Subway2Infinity]

Hangin out with my friend Ed VanHalen before tonight's show. #vanhalen A photo posted by Griffin Steinfeld (@griffinsteinfeld) on Oct 2, 2015 at 7:48pm PDT

[Subway2Infinity]

Back stage at the Van Halen concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Got a pic with my friend the man himself Eddie Van Halen. @van_halen_rocks #vanhalen #5150 #hollywoodbowl #concert #rockstar A photo posted by Bonesfab (@bonesfab) on Oct 2, 2015 at 7:14pm PDT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

We at the top!!!!!! #VanHalen A photo posted by Malcolm Van Halen (@van_halen2015) on Oct 2, 2015 at 9:25pm PDT

[Subway2Infinity]

#whatever @ericstonestreet A video posted by Valerie Bertinelli (@wolfiesmom) on Oct 2, 2015 at 9:28pm PDT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

DDL / FYLT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

EVH / YRGM

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Beautiful Girls / WIL / HFT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Review....

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/halen-685949-roth-eddie.html

Van Halen closes out its tour with a spirited show at the Hollywood Bowl
Oct. 3, 2015 Updated 11:38 a.m.

Where: The Hollywood Bowl
When: Oct. 2
Next: The band plays the final show of its tour at 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets, $30-$250, are available at ticketmaster.com

Say what you will about Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, the guy leaves it all onstage.

There’s no holding back, even as he sings himself hoarse. Even though his stiff-looking karate kicks don’t fly as high as they used to. Even as his schmaltzy antics distract from Eddie Van Halen’s solos.

Roth keeps going and going, that reptilian smile plastered across his face.

And you know what, it works.

Roth and the boys Van Halen brought a high-energy show – the next to last of their long tour – to the Hollywood Bowl on Friday. The battle-scarred band, who close out the trek with a second Bowl show Sunday, played like it was the tour opener.

From the first note of the 21-song set to the last, Van Halen thrilled the capacity crowd with a performance that mixed vaudeville with classic rock.

The set list, reportedly written by Eddie’s son, bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, included fan favorites plus a few deep dives into the catalog, such as “Light Up the Sky.”

The band was as tight as ever, yes, Wolfgang can play. Eddie remains a master shredder, producing a sonic tidal wave from his six-string as he high-stepped across the stage. Alex Van Halen holds down the beat tirelessly.

Roth, musically, is the weakest link and yet the band’s biggest asset.

He is the glittery ringmaster of this rock circus. And he does it with aplomb.

He is the tissue that connects all the musical muscle.

Sure, it’s fashionable among some Van Halen fans to slag Roth.

“He goes low when he should go high,” complained one fan, referring to Roth’s singing.

Indeed, Roth will drop an octave or speak the lyrics to save his voice. But he goes for the high note more often than not. And he can still do the splits, though it’s visibly harder to get back up.

His shtick, part singer, part storyteller, part fashion plate, part band major, keeps things interesting.

And Eddie’s guitar can do the screaming when Roth no longer can.

Some choice cuts of the night: “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Little Guitars,” “Hot for Teacher” and “Everybody Wants Some.”

Wolfgang and Eddie were more than capable on the high background vocals, no creaks there.

Eddie took the stage alone for a 10-minute guitar solo, a fret-tapping, fast-fingered assault. The years have made Eddie a little grayer and a little thicker, but they haven’t affected his playing. He’s still a speed demon.

Standing in the wings, Wolfgang snapped pictures of his father hammering away, all smiles.

By the time they joined hands for a final bow, it seemed like they genuinely enjoyed playing together, after years of feuding.

Or, as one fan observed, maybe they just realized they need each other.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Last night was pretty damn cool. #HollywoodBowl #VanHalen Photo by @pbertinelli A photo posted by Wolf Van Halen (@wolfvanhalen) on Oct 3, 2015 at 12:30pm PDT

[vaijuju]

Review....

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/halen-685949-roth-eddie.html

.

Thanks again VA Beach for all your great find, it's was an awesome summer with VH !!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Cool shot from the crowd last night... Can't wait to do it again tomorrow. #HollywoodBowl #VanHalen A photo posted by Wolf Van Halen (@wolfvanhalen) on Oct 3, 2015 at 5:35pm PDT

[Va Beach VH Fan]

One more review...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-van-halen-hollywood-bowl-review-20151003-story.html

Van Halen finally crosses the finish line at the Hollywood Bowl
Mikael Wood

Nobody in Van Halen said anything onstage Friday night about what’s next for the famously volatile hard-rock band, which this weekend is wrapping up 3 ½ years of intermittent activity with a pair of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

We know what’s already happened. In 2012 Van Halen released “A Different Kind of Truth,” the band’s first album with its original frontman, David Lee Roth, since Roth’s acrimonious departure in 1985. (The singer, whose slot was filled first by Sammy Hagar, then by Gary Cherone, came back initially in 2007 for a blockbuster reunion tour.)

Reaction to the new music was strong, as was the new music itself. Yet it didn’t take long for the wheels to start falling off: Only three months into playing shows behind “A Different Kind of Truth,” Van Halen postponed, then canceled, dozens of 2012 tour dates. More recently, guitarist Eddie Van Halen has had some less-than-charitable words for the inveterate ham who helped form the band – along with Van Halen’s brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, and bassist Michael Anthony – in Pasadena in 1974.

“Roth’s perception of himself is different than who he is in reality,” the guitarist told Billboard over the summer. “We’re not in our 20s anymore. We’re in our 60s. Act like you’re 60.”

None of this raised hopes for Van Halen’s latest run of shows, tied to a throwaway live album and set to conclude Sunday with an encore at the Bowl. I walked into the venue Friday night half-expecting a stumble to the finish line, with maybe a public brawl if we were lucky.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find that Van Halen sounded pretty great: speedy and precise but with a walloping bottom end. What’s more, the band’s mood seemed downright civil.

“Ed and I agree to apologize every few summers and come out and share the good news,” Roth said at one point, delighting an audience clearly packed with hardcore fans who’d been with the group since its early days. Then he said the best moments in his life have taken place onstage with this band. (You took it for granted that he meant the version with Anthony as opposed to Eddie Van Halen’s 24-year-old son Wolfgang, who took over as bassist in 2006.)

Highlights? A crunching “Runnin’ with the Devil.” A thunderous “Unchained.” An appealingly sleazy “Ice Cream Man.” “Beautiful Girls” boogied; “Feel Your Love Tonight” had crisp vocal harmonies. And “Hot for Teacher” was absurdly, almost comically fast, probably 20% faster than it is on record.

Conscious of the hometown crowd, Roth peppered his usual banter with rambling anecdotes about playing the now-defunct Gazzarri’s on the Sunset Strip and about how he was one of the only white kids at Pasadena’s John Muir High School. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.

As at AC/DC’s concert this week at Dodger Stadium, the production was relatively low-tech compared with the complex multimedia spectacles you now get from younger acts. But Van Halen didn’t need that newfangled flash. It had a frontman willing to put on a new hat or scarf between virtually every song and a mad-genius guitarist whose 10-minute solo near the end of the show was a marvel of hard-won technique.

I’m not saying Van Halen is here to stay. If nothing else, the fact that these guys played only one song from “A Different Kind of Truth” – it was “She’s the Woman,” performed more carelessly than anything else Friday – suggests the last few years haven’t exactly filled them with warm memories.

But who knows? Perhaps in their 60s they’ve gotten good at forgetting.

Twitter: @mikaelwood

[DavidLeeNatra]

Watch DTNA from that show...if the moment between Ed and Dave is the moment of closure for this band, so be it.

Great moment in rock history!

[qikgts]

I had to look for it...

[Dan]

Damn,That Was Very Moving @ 7:14-7:36.