DLR: "I'm Only In The Middle Of My First Retirement"

[Heater]

That 1984 show was probably the biggest I ever saw at the Providence Civic Center in terms of stage production. In the 2 to 3 years I was going to shows there in the 80s, Van Halen 1984 DEFINITELY had the most lights and the biggest stage/ramps erected. I didn't really perceive it to be the David Lee Roth Show with a slamming band, because everybody got to do a solo spot - Eddie in particular had a very lengthy guitar solo spot - but, yeah, Roth did a LOT of inbetween song raps. He did a joke about picking up a woman and taking her back to his hotel room, where she proceeded to take off her wig and put it on the nightstand table. Then she took off her false eyelashes and put them on the nightstand table. Then she took off her high heels and put them on the nightstand table. Then she took off her padded bra and put it on the nightstand table. She got into the bed, and David got up. She asked Dave where he was going, and Dave replied "I'm going over to fuck the table."

At the Philly shows it was the one about the girl screaming and banging on his hotel room door all night long…..he finally got tired of listening to her so he unlocked the door and let her out.

[Heater]

A lot of technically proficient players will bore you to tears. You have to be entertaining or everyone except for the biggest guitar nerds will hate you.

Agree, there’s a point when it becomes little more than a lot of notes in a short amount of time. As an example, to ME, all of the Yngwie songs I’ve heard sound about the same due to that.

[Heater]

A lot of technically proficient players will bore you to tears. You have to be entertaining or everyone except for the biggest guitar nerds will hate you.

Agree, there’s a point when it becomes little more than a lot of notes in a short amount of time. As an example, to ME, all of the Yngwie songs I’ve heard sound about the same due to that.

[Vinnie Velvet]

I mean, the stuff he did on KISS Alive...technically, it wasn't difficult, but I just loved what he did.

Same goes for, like...the solo on Calling Dr. Love was just...perfect, you know?

I still think his 1978 solo album was great.

Ace's solos on all those classic 70s KISS songs are stellar.

And yes, there's not many guitar players that can make their solos actually "sing" and make the listener even sing along to them.
Ace did that in spades (no pun intended).

The solo on Rocket Ride is just so awesome. Never get tired of hearing it.

[FORD]

That Black Sabbath Born Again show was the first loud rock concert I ever went to, at the princely age of 13, so I suppose it was natural that the volume sort of stunned me.

The Deep Purple Perfect Strangers tour was a year and a half or two years later, and I had been to a bunch of concerts between the Born Again show and the Perfect Strangers show, so I was used to loud rock shows...or so I thought. Deep Purple were fucking LOUD.

So it must have been Ian Gillan's fault then, since he's the common denominator in those two tours. Maybe he loves the sound of his own screams?

[Terry]

So it must have been Ian Gillan's fault then, since he's the common denominator in those two tours. Maybe he loves the sound of his own screams?

Ha! You know, for whatever reason, I hadn't really considered that Gillan was the common denominator!

With the Deep Purple show, I recall it was actually Blackmore's guitar that was particularly piercing to my ears.

[FORD]

Could have been worse... loudest concert I ever went to was Bon Jovi in the Tacoma Dome in 1989. So loud it was distorted and I couldn't tell what song they were playing most of the time. Never was a big fan of the band, went with friends, and basically because the chicks would be there. For that reason, the show was much easier on the eyes than the ears.

[Nitro Express]

I was about to say that...like, I have a memory of listening to KISS Alive at an older relative's house in 1976. I was listening to it on headphones, and those lead parts just sort of...sang. And this was...I mean, back then it was a couple of years before KISS were on tv with any frequency...I'd see pictures of them in rock magazines or whatever, but mostly I remember staring at the KISS Alive album cover and listening to them. I hadn't even started playing guitar back then...I was 6 years old in 1976. But I remember listening to that album over and over again, hearing the explosions at the end of Black Diamond, and listening to the lead guitar parts.

I recall Paul Stanley around the time of the Revenge album saying that Ace had a lot of natural talent and a Jimmy Page-quality to his playing that never really blossomed, and I think to a degree that may be true. I can't say that I've even heard any of Frehley's stuff post-1980s, mostly because I haven't. But Frehley took bits and pieces of what Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix were doing...I can hear those influences in his playing. Ultimately, Ace is definitely representative of that 1970s blues pentatonic-based rock, and that style has limitations. But in the long haul I find these days I'd rather hear rock guitar that sings as opposed to just being this blinding display of high-speed technical ability.

Ace has his own style. He has great vibrato and great control of his picking. The guy can play. Hell, most the time Ace played better live than Jimi Page ever did. Ha! Ha!

[Nitro Express]

Ace's solos on all those classic 70s KISS songs are stellar.

And yes, there's not many guitar players that can make their solos actually "sing" and make the listener even sing along to them.
Ace did that in spades (no pun intended).

The solo on Rocket Ride is just so awesome. Never get tired of hearing it.

Ace had the rocket sauce. There’s a reason people love him. He has to be the most adored screw up there is but what’s more rock and roll than that?

[Nitro Express]

That was really kind of Tampa in a nutshell: Ed was JUST ABOUT adequate...his solo spot sort of devolved from him trying to do Eruption and not really pulling it off in terms of it being fluid (and, I mean, Ed not being able to do Eruption?) and then doing the trilling speed picking and sort of stumbling with that, and eventually he just started hitting harmonic whammy bar dives...and the crowd had this hushed, sort of confused vibe watching Ed not being able to play as well as he could, or should, or whatever.

Roth, by contrast...I mean, I had seen him play in 2005 and 2006, and at both those gigs he wasn't exactly phoning it in but he was hardly...he couldn't have been accused of trying too hard at either of those shows, either, you know? The contrast between those two shows and what he did fronting Van Halen in 2007-2008...I've doubtless said it before, but Dave really upped his game. He wasn't treating the reunion like some half-assed victory lap with a guaranteed jackpot regardless: you could tell Roth had put in the preparation and was making the effort. Which is what you as a fan expect anyway, right? But I've noticed at more than a few shows I've been to in the last twenty years - most of which were older, established bands - that sometimes these living rock legends don't TRY very hard anymore. Either because they can't or they don't have to, I dunno.

I saw VH in 84 three times. One show I was right up front. Ed played part of his guitar solo sitting on the edge of the stage right in front of me. He was in his own world totally off into solo land. Kind of cool seeing him play probably 8 feet away.

Anyways those shows were good but Ed was doing shows. He seemed substance worn and there because there was a show to do but you could tell he lived playing.

Anyways who I saw the last tour was a different guy. He was having the time of his life. The guy was happy and I don’t think he made a single mistake the whole show. Maybe I saw him on a good night who knows but I was sober, Ed was sober and he played great.

[Fairwrning]

It's over.

Rest In Peace, both to Eddie Van Halen and Van Halen.

The one classy move left at this point? Put it to rest and refrain from picking at the carcass. Leave that shit to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Agree..at least we still have Nerd Halen

[Nitro Express]

Anyways it’s about entertainment, not music. If your music entertains no one, nobody cares. A simple reality so many people don’t understand.

[Nitro Express]

Agree..at least we still have Nerd Halen

The fat lady not only sang but farted.

[Terry]

Could have been worse... loudest concert I ever went to was Bon Jovi in the Tacoma Dome in 1989. So loud it was distorted and I couldn't tell what song they were playing most of the time. Never was a big fan of the band, went with friends, and basically because the chicks would be there. For that reason, the show was much easier on the eyes than the ears.

The Purple show was loud, although when the band were playing the songs the mix was good enough where it wasn't distorted.

It was when Blackmore did his solo spot...and all he really did was a bunch of feedback tremolo stuff, but it sounded like it was louder than when the entire band was onstage playing together.

[Terry]

Ace had the rocket sauce. There’s a reason people love him. He has to be the most adored screw up there is but what’s more rock and roll than that?

I mean, Vinnie Vincent and Bruce Kulick and Tommy Thayer are all technically proficient players, but all of them were a bit too polished to me...even Ace's mistakes still sounded great, you know? Like, those other three guys, you knew they were never gonna hit a bum note. Even though I've heard it a zillion times, when I listen to She off of Alive! and that solo bit at the end Ace does...Ace had that screw up quality where to this day I listen to him doing his sort of slow Chuck Berry bends up the neck and I STILL think he's gonna blow it! And then he starts speeding up the lick when he gets toward the top of the fretboard, and it's like you're just waiting for Ace to fuck it up...even though you've heard it a million times.