Being a site which is devoted to Van Halen...

[Jetstream]

Really is difficult because to create any new news is almost like being fucking MacGyver and making a bomb from a rubber band or some kind of shit like that... and any news is just old news, like Dave talking about WTF back in the day

[Jetstream]

And on the rare occasion any member gives an interview it's like watching a game of "guess what is in my pocket"... and there is never nothing there lol

[Terry]

Meh. It's almost as if it is incidental these days as to what the site is named and who it is devoted to. Not that this is a slag against the site, but when the guy and band you have dedicated your site to basically go into hiding only to pop out and tour every few years, by that point the site (much like the band itself) either becomes a nostalgia trip or diversifies into other areas (like, say, Izzy and Donnie's big fat gay possibly Greek wedding/definitely Greek honeymoon...and things such as that).

[Seshmeister]

After 1 and a half million posts most of what there is to be said has been. I think there is maybe gold to be had in resurecting some old threads for all the people that haven't read them.

I've noticed a bit of a consensus lately among the old school posters in that I think most of us have pretty much nailed most of the truth behind Van Halen at this point good and bad. I saw online at another site one of those '5 things you didn't know' about a few bands and looked at the Van Halen section and 4 of the 'facts' were wrong.

[DONNIEP]

Meh. It's almost as if it is incidental these days as to what the site is named and who it is devoted to. Not that this is a slag against the site, but when the guy and band you have dedicated your site to basically go into hiding only to pop out and tour every few years, by that point the site (much like the band itself) either becomes a nostalgia trip or diversifies into other areas (like, say, Izzy and Donnie's big fat gay possibly Greek wedding/definitely Greek honeymoon...and things such as that).

First off, if Izzy and I were gay - which we're not - there wouldn't be any wedding or honeymoon. Nor would there be any hand holding or kissing or hugging. Cause all that's stuff's gay as fuck. And we wouldn't sleep in the same bed either. No, we'd just hang out and watch Magnum PI and Miami Vice and Selena Gonez videos and work on cars and shoot guns and ride motorcycles and all sorts of manly guy stuff.

Or better yet we could move down to the Florida Everglades and run a charter boat service and run moonshine. Use our boats to sneak around at night and outrun the law because A. powerboats and B. airboats. And we'd go into town like Gator did in White Lightnin and I'd hit on all the hot 18 - 25 year old chicks and Izzy could cruise the retirement community for chicks and then we'd take em back to our sprawling shack out in the swamp that's all modern inside and we'd pull a train. And we wouldn't go to no pride parade unless it was the Charlie Pride Parade.

Bein gay is bad ass!!

[vandeleur]

Bad for your ass ....

[DONNIEP]

Bad for your ass ....

Well yeah, if you're into the whole gay sex thing.

Maybe I have the wrong idea about what being gay is. See, I was picturing it more like an early 80s buddy TV show where the guys just live in the same house but solve mysteries and bang chicks and drink and drive fast cars and boats and get into bar fights and shoot outs and stuff. Yeah, I like my version better.

[vandeleur]

Yeah I think your idea is better but if and when u do go to jail for fraud or bigamy don't forget there is another type of gay so don't mention it

[Sarge]

After 1 and a half million posts most of what there is to be said has been. I think there is maybe gold to be had in resurecting some old threads for all the people that haven't read them.

I've noticed a bit of a consensus lately among the old school posters in that I think most of us have pretty much nailed most of the truth behind Van Halen at this point good and bad. I saw online at another site one of those '5 things you didn't know' about a few bands and looked at the Van Halen section and 4 of the 'facts' were wrong.

It's over 2 million. We had a wackjob here that deleted 1/3 of the website at one time, thinking it would speed up the forum. How many of those 2 million posts involved arguing?

[Angel]

Anyone remember when Elitest quit DDLR because Switch did the same thing?

[ZahZoo]

It's over 2 million. We had a wackjob here that deleted 1/3 of the website at one time, thinking it would speed up the forum. How many of those 2 million posts involved arguing?

Very few arguing posts... A big chunk deleted were from the Muff Thread™. Very few arguments in that thread as most viewers had one hand too busy to type up any good arguments...

[Seshmeister]

It was a very stupid thing that Mezro did for a bunch of reasons not least of which it had no affect on the performance of the site but my memory is that it was the pics and dump forums he deleted which didn't have a massive amount of good posts.

I'm much more annoyed about the other wacko that deleted 1998-2002, there was a lot of great stuff back then.

[Terry]

After 1 and a half million posts most of what there is to be said has been. I think there is maybe gold to be had in resurecting some old threads for all the people that haven't read them.

I've noticed a bit of a consensus lately among the old school posters in that I think most of us have pretty much nailed most of the truth behind Van Halen at this point good and bad. I saw online at another site one of those '5 things you didn't know' about a few bands and looked at the Van Halen section and 4 of the 'facts' were wrong.

I mean, certainly as far as 'reading the tea leaves' or speculating about activities/personality clashes behind the scenes, there probably is precious little left to speculate about on this site when it comes to Van Halen...and definitely amongst those of us who have been here for 10+ years. The music the band made back in the day with Roth still endures (even if the present incarnation is a bit mediocre and the future looks to be more of the same), and everything else non-musical beyond that falls by the wayside after a certain point.

[Seshmeister]

I have a theory that maybe we know too much now and that colors some of the negativity around here a lot of the time.

That and the fact that Hagar doesn't seem worth kicking any more...

[Angel]

I have a theory that maybe we know too much now and that colors some of the negativity around here a lot of the time.

That and the fact that Hagar doesn't seem worth kicking any more...

Some of us are also older and a little wiser. In other words, we don't give a shit anymore...unless you walk on our lawn...

[Seshmeister]

I'm ok with the walking, I draw the line at shitting...

[Kristy]

Really is difficult because to create any new news is almost like being fucking MacGyver and making a bomb from a rubber band or some kind of shit like that... and any news is just old news, like Dave talking about WTF back in the day

The homoerotic displays of affection for Roth died here a long, long time ago.

[Terry]

I have a theory that maybe we know too much now and that colors some of the negativity around here a lot of the time.

That and the fact that Hagar doesn't seem worth kicking any more...

I found it somewhat amusing when Hagar sent birthday greetings to Ed via Twitter recently and that sent a few people off into this "holy shit, Sammy's trying to worm his way back into the band" spasm, and then Dave released that Christmas song and people were reading into it as a kiss-off to Van Halen, or that he was quitting Van Halen. My reaction to all of it was not even giving a shit if Roth left the group and Hagar rejoined, and wondering why anyone else would even give a shit at this point.

I mean, I suppose it would have been one thing if what the band had been doing with Dave for the last 8 years was something that could be stacked up next to what the band did with Roth all those years ago, but it hasn't been. They churned out a few greatest hits tours and a decent album, half of which was reworked 35 year old demos. All of which happened ten years too late as far as the band really being able to cut the mustard: sure, it was neat to see Roth playing with the Van Halens again, but for me Van Halen basically ended in 1985. They had a shot in 1996 of doing something exceptional, but it never happened. By the time they got around to it, they weren't really up for it anymore. And all of that just "is what it is".

[Seshmeister]

The time thing is nuts but I'm close to even boring myself with the amount I go on about the differences in time perception as you get older.

Comparing the Van Halen output for the 8 years between 1976 and 1984 compared to 2008 and 2016 is pretty striking but that's life, most people slow down as time speeds up. If I didn't need to work to get money I'm not sure if I would do anything very productive. It would need to be new things. Doing stuff you have done before better and often becomes less and less rewarding.

[Kristy]

So, in other words, slave SESH finds it more difficult to masturbate to Roth in 2016 than 1984.

[Seshmeister]

At this point I find it difficult to masturbate to anything. It's like a medical procedure like trying to burst a boil to just to try and lessen the pain of being alive at all. I keep a box of tissues beside my computer which works well because when I can't manage it I usually burst into tears so either way the kleenex gets used.

How you doin'?

[SunisinuS]

It's easy if you are not fucked by the wrong women. Technology marches on:

https://chaturbate.com/?join_overlay=1

Meet people that still rock an roll instead of Krustify themselves following the 2.4 culture of an American dream that no one is sexual except wolves and turtles.

Getting divorced is an entirely avoidable trouble. Never get married and only spend time on women that like to spend time with you.

Don't be a sperm donor Donnie....use your time more wisely.





Sound Familiar? Stay away from women that are pussies...and only go for women that like the dick. Krusty will not help you here:

[Terry]

The time thing is nuts but I'm close to even boring myself with the amount I go on about the differences in time perception as you get older.

Comparing the Van Halen output for the 8 years between 1976 and 1984 compared to 2008 and 2016 is pretty striking but that's life, most people slow down as time speeds up. If I didn't need to work to get money I'm not sure if I would do anything very productive. It would need to be new things. Doing stuff you have done before better and often becomes less and less rewarding.

And that to me is the missed opportunity of the reunion.

I mean, when the whole 1996 cluster fuck happened, the bummer of it all was that I thought the 2 BOV1 tracks showed some promise of a creative future. But that all got overshadowed with the soap opera theatrics of Hagar getting fired, Roth rejoining then leaving (and even Roth admitted that he was never categorically told anything was going to happen with Van Halen beyond recording the two tracks and possibly making two promo videos for them) and Cherone ending up being the third singer.

So 1996 comes and goes, and it takes the band another ten years to get their shit together. By that point, Anthony is gone. And supposedly Ed has hours upon hours worth of material he has been recording over the years, and apparently very little of it was deemed usable or workable when taking into account how little of it made it onto ADKOT.

And that was the blown opportunity of 1996 and 2007 to date: the chance to have the definitive lineup reconvene and go forward with new material, two things which very few big name rock band reunions provide (most of them provide neither). The much anticipated Van Halen reunion with Roth ended up being yet another aging rock group, minus all of the definitive lineup members, getting back together for a bunch of greatest hits tours. For me, Van Halen was always a notch above the bulk of the rock groups that came to prominence in CVH's wake and had clearly been influenced by Van Halen. And it's an indication of how fucked up and sideways things have become when a group of half-witted lame-o's like Motley Crue can somehow muster up enough of a sense of dignity and undertake a farewell tour with all the definitive members performing (Mick Mars is more than half dead for fucks sake, and Tommy Lee and Vince Neil hate each other's guts) and make a gesture of goodwill for the fans and call it quits, yet Van Halen is still schlepping along with Ed's chunky little kid playing bass despite the fact that Mike Anthony is still more than able, and Dave is wandering around the stage like a confused resident of an elderly hospice who has escaped the grounds but has no idea where he wants to go and less of an idea of how to get back to where he left. Van Halen has become an embarrassment.

[ZahZoo]

The time thing is nuts but I'm close to even boring myself with the amount I go on about the differences in time perception as you get older.

Comparing the Van Halen output for the 8 years between 1976 and 1984 compared to 2008 and 2016 is pretty striking but that's life, most people slow down as time speeds up. If I didn't need to work to get money I'm not sure if I would do anything very productive. It would need to be new things. Doing stuff you have done before better and often becomes less and less rewarding.

Lot of truth in your comment... having done a lot of really amazing things over the years makes it difficult to top some of the really great stuff... which in turn makes other things a bit less exhilarating.

But hey... I woke up another day and was able to get out of bed without assistance. There's reason to celebrate!! Life is good!!

[Seshmeister]

So 1996 comes and goes, and it takes the band another ten years to get their shit together. By that point, Anthony is gone. And supposedly Ed has hours upon hours worth of material he has been recording over the years, and apparently very little of it was deemed usable or workable when taking into account how little of it made it onto ADKOT.

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I think if VH was even remotely active on social media we would've only given a cursory mention of Bette's Tweet....

But since VH is absolutely dormant, we're forced to micro-analyze each and every little tidbit of information that comes out....

Wolf is playing Right Now on piano, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

EVH is getting his TransTrem rebuilt, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

But at this stage in their (and our) lives, as Terry said, it's to the point where not much of a shit is given either way....

[DONNIEP]

What was this thread about? Oh yeah, VH.

The "band" is nothing more than an expensive nite out these days. You pay your couple hundred bucks, take your chick to the show, buy some overpriced beers and wait to hear OBC's electrified geetar make that screechy noise when they walk out on stage. Sure, it's fun and Dave tries to put on a show. But it ain't no Van Halen show. And then the tour ends and they return to the Fortress Of Irrelevance.

Meanwhile, Mike and Sam are out touring and putting out at least 7 records every year lol. Might not be the music I dig but they're giving their fans what they want, even if it's playing to much smaller crowds than VH draws, albeit with a lot of giveaway seats on the last VH tour.

I doubt I'll go to another VH show unless they come out with some new music and/or radically change the stage show. Oh, and they need to fire that fat kid and bring back Mike so he can do his coked up monkey bass solo. It's damn sure more entertaining than seeing OBC play eruption for the gazillionth time while a bunch of drunk idiots stand there slack jawed like the guy just discovered fire. I get it, it was awesome, ground breaking, cock jizzingly incredible. 40 fuckin years ago. Jesus, when the well goes dry it REALLY goes dry.

I'd rather see a Dave solo show. Or just watch my old bootlegs. Van Halen died almost 31 years ago. They pissed away every opportunity to resurrect the band and still haven't done it. Mainly because Ed is so goddamn codependent he can't walk on stage without his fuckin kid. Hey OBC - you can't recapture the years you missed spending with your kid cause you was stone drunk. Grow a set of Bawllz, get the old bass player back and quit ruinin my life!!

[DONNIEP]

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

Ed ain't got nothing more than 30 years worth of him and his brother sitting there jerkin each other off playing bits and pieces of this and that. I'd bet a hundred bucks all his "material" is pretty much worthless without Dave or Slappy trying to turn it into a song. Oh wait, I take that back. The porno song he did was awesome!! 37 minutes of pure crap.

And how fuckin desperate do you have to be to allow your girlfriend to convince you to shoot a porno in your house. Where your kid comes to visit. The words "mental patient" come to mind and I see Ed from the HFT video...

[ZahZoo]

And how fuckin desperate do you have to be to allow your girlfriend to convince you to shoot a porno in your house. Where your kid comes to visit. The words "mental patient" come to mind and I see Ed from the HFT video...

Every bottle of Smoking Loon comes with that extra shot of desperation in the bottom of the bottle...

Seems somebody did something right raising Wolfgang... he grew up to be a fine young man, though.

[DONNIEP]

Every bottle of Smoking Loon comes with that extra shot of desperation in the bottom of the bottle...

Seems somebody did something right raising Wolfgang... he grew up to be a fine young man, though.

Yep. Hats off to his mom. That woman must be a saint.

[vandeleur]

What was this thread about? Oh yeah, VH.

The "band" is nothing more than an expensive nite out these days. You pay your couple hundred bucks, take your chick to the show, buy some overpriced beers and wait to hear OBC's electrified geetar make that screechy noise when they walk out on stage. Sure, it's fun and Dave tries to put on a show. But it ain't no Van Halen show. And then the tour ends and they return to the Fortress Of Irrelevance.

Meanwhile, Mike and Sam are out touring and putting out at least 7 records every year lol. Might not be the music I dig but they're giving their fans what they want, even if it's playing to much smaller crowds than VH draws, albeit with a lot of giveaway seats on the last VH tour.

I doubt I'll go to another VH show unless they come out with some new music and/or radically change the stage show. Oh, and they need to fire that fat kid and bring back Mike so he can do his coked up monkey bass solo. It's damn sure more entertaining than seeing OBC play eruption for the gazillionth time while a bunch of drunk idiots stand there slack jawed like the guy just discovered fire. I get it, it was awesome, ground breaking, cock jizzingly incredible. 40 fuckin years ago. Jesus, when the well goes dry it REALLY goes dry.

I'd rather see a Dave solo show. Or just watch my old bootlegs. Van Halen died almost 31 years ago. They pissed away every opportunity to resurrect the band and still haven't done it. Mainly because Ed is so goddamn codependent he can't walk on stage without his fuckin kid. Hey OBC - you can't recapture the years you missed spending with your kid cause you was stone drunk. Grow a set of Bawllz, get the old bass player back and quit ruinin my life!!

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

[DONNIEP]

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

Shouldn't you be sending Wolfie cock pics on Instagram or fagbook?

[ZahZoo]

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

No worries... that bug will be fixed in the DonnieP app in the next release.

[Terry]

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

THAT to me was when the realization that this reunion with Roth wasn't going to be creatively productive.

Like, as pissed off as I was at Ed for being drunk (oh...er...sorry, I meant 'having trouble with his hands' - and he may well HAVE been having troubles with his hands that did require some surgery post-tour, but if he wasn't drunk at that show he was doing an EXCELLENT impression of someone who was, and the net result sucked regardless of whatever the excuse was) and unable to play well at the Tampa show I saw in 2008, I cut the band slack on that first reunion tour. Mostly because:

1) I'd been wanting to see Roth reunite with Van Halen for slightly over ten years at that point (which is part of why I was willing to go along with Mike Anthony not being there anymore: "okay, if [having Ed's kid play bass] is what it takes to get Roth back into the fold...")

2) Only a year prior, Ed looked like he was ready to drop dead at any moment. The miracle of that tour wasn't so much that Roth had finally returned, but that Ed was even able to stand up and play semi-well.

3) Roth had tightened up his game, cut out the mc chatter, rehearsed the tunes, made sure to sing all the lyrics - Dave wasn't bringing his semi-passive displays he had exhibited in his solo appearances at smaller venues in 2005 and 2006. He was back in arenas fronting Van Halen, and he rose to the challenge accordingly (which is pretty much what one expects when paying $100 a pop to see the band in a 15,000 seater as opposed to $15 to $30 a ticket for a Roth solo show at a Ribfest or small theater).

Now, come 2012, I will Ed say was cleaned up and ready to play. And he has been playing well.

Roth has just been careening downhill ever since 2007-2008. Waning ability and an unwillingness to sing the tunes properly. Roth simply doesn't sound good onstage with the band anymore. And the ADKOT album was a decent effort, but when it relies so heavily on those old demos, that signals that Roth and the Van Halens, for whatever reasons, have difficulties coming up with anything new and compelling.

[Terry]

I think if VH was even remotely active on social media we would've only given a cursory mention of Bette's Tweet....

But since VH is absolutely dormant, we're forced to micro-analyze each and every little tidbit of information that comes out....

Wolf is playing Right Now on piano, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

EVH is getting his TransTrem rebuilt, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

But at this stage in their (and our) lives, as Terry said, it's to the point where not much of a shit is given either way....

The thing of it is, I never harbored any resentment for Hagar joining the band in 1985.

Dave quit in 1985. I think it was dishonest for the band to carry on with the name Van Halen after Roth left, and I had issues with Hagar joining in with the Van Halens on dumping on Roth in press interviews: the Van Halens were there at the beginning, and they (along with Roth) had built the band into a multi-platinum selling group that sold out multiple nights at arenas prior to Hagar stepping in there. So while the Van Halens had the right to respond or initiate negative comments to/at Roth, Hagar should have just kept his goddamed mouth shut. At the MOST, Hagar should have said he was honored to join such a successful band, recognized the success they had prior to his arrival and said he hoped his contributions to the band would be met with the same level of success. Apparently, Hagar actually believed he was a solo artist with a level of success on par with that of Van Halen prior to 1985, because he was right in there with the Van Halens dumping on Roth (who, to be fair, was certainly not kind in his comments toward Hagar).

Strictly on the fact of Hagar joining the band in 1985, though, I was never pissed at Hagar. It was a golden opportunity for him. And I never gave Hagar sole credit for the commercial synth rock the band made when he was singing for them: Ed was writing the music, and Hagar was writing what he wanted to lyrically. Hagar was who he was.

I was never pissed at Hagar for rejoining the band in 2003-2004, either. Ed wasn't in any condition to play well on that tour, and it was just as well Roth wasn't around for that. I thought it was a bit naïve for Hagar to have admittedly seen Ed's condition in the half year prior to the tour and basically relied on hope that Ed would pull himself together for it, and when THAT didn't happen instead of pulling out Hagar went ahead and did the dates because he was afraid of being sued by promoters for cancelled dates - Hagar hung in there, took the money (I never heard anything about Hagar offering to refund the fans who saw those shitty shows) THEN wrote a tell-all saying it was all Eddie's fault. The basics of Hagar's story may all well be true, but even so it said a lot about Hagar that rather than put the kibosh on going out and presiding over a concert he knew had a good chance of being shitty because of Ed's condition he kept his eye on the most important thing - not the fans, but his wallet - and then made a double-dipping after the tour was over with that book of his. Sensible business decision, but let's stop all the blather about how Hagar loves his fans so much.

[Terry]

I think if VH was even remotely active on social media we would've only given a cursory mention of Bette's Tweet....

But since VH is absolutely dormant, we're forced to micro-analyze each and every little tidbit of information that comes out....

Wolf is playing Right Now on piano, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

EVH is getting his TransTrem rebuilt, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

But at this stage in their (and our) lives, as Terry said, it's to the point where not much of a shit is given either way....

And even if Anthony rejoins the band and CVH tours, what is it gonna be?

"Hey, great, CVH is onstage again...and Dave STILL isn't up to the task!"

Sorry, but the authenticity of seeing the CVH lineup onstage will only be meaningful if they can play well. I'd have little doubt the Van Halens and Anthony would be up for it, but Dave just can't cut it in an acceptable way to my ears anymore. It wouldn't even be a case of 'better late than never' if such a thing came to pass now.

[So this is love]

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

...so by curiosity I just listened to Up for breakfast and aside from the lyrics it is good filler, the guitar riffs is good, It even reminds me of the ace of spades.... or maybe I should play it again or have another drink

[DONNIEP]

Odd that nobody ever mentions that Al didn't pull out of the Van Hagar reunion tour either.

[Terry]

Al is gonna do whatever his brother wants to do.

[DONNIEP]

Al is gonna do whatever his brother wants to do.

Including watch OBC do his best to kill himself? Come on, Al was signing the checks just as fast as Slappy. Besides, Ed is a grown man. If that sumbitch wants to drink himself into a stupor every nite then he's the only one responsible for it.