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

[Nitro Express]

The best you ever saw them play? I'm guessing you never saw them from '78-'84 then.

Saw them plenty in that era. They had more stage energy but in the technical music sense they played the best that last tour. I bet Alex Van Halen would agree with me. As far as a complete rock and roll presentation the early days were legendary.

[Nitro Express]

I'd have to agree, in that with all 3 of the Roth tours of the 2000s it was never really a case of the entire band firing on all cylinders.

Ed was erratic on the 2007-2008 tour.

Dave was erratic after the 2007-2008 tour.

I think Ed went back to cocaine but what he was getting was laced with something. Probably meth. He had all the signs of a meth head. Fortunately his second wife knew how to handle him. I’m amazed Ed pulled out of it as well as he did. He got to go out on top at least. He got his dignity back.

Then you have flaky Valerie Bertinelli now wanting everyone to know she was married to Eddie Van Halen. Yeah, he seemed miserable because of you. If you were so great how come he didn’t come around like he did with Jani? Go cook your food and shut up!

[Nitro Express]

I saw them on their final tour, got second row seats day of show. The band WAS tight, Ed played flawlessly but he looked like he was on auto-pilot. There was minimal interaction between them, and most of it looked forced. Dave was fair to poor but probably did not care….he was on stage in front of 20 some thousand people, that’s all he was ever after.

I didn’t see Eddie make one mistake or get sloppy the last tour. I was right up front in 84. Ed was more flamboyant, a bit wasted and played pretty good and Al was a drunk fish. I mean they played pretty damn well for a bunch of drunks.

[Nitro Express]

The same IS said for many of Dave's contemporaries out there: I'm saying it! ; )

These aging, wheezing classic rock bands are on the whole too old to get it up.

Had to ask myself several years back, why am I continuing to pay good money for substandard performances? For the privilege of being in the vicinity of 'living legends'?

Fuck 'em. Let others fund their golden years.

Depends. Saw Cheap Trick and they are still good. Robin Zander sings as good as ever. Saw Ace Frehley. Must have been a good night. I enjoyed it. His solos were great. Alice Cooper still worth seeing. With Ace he had a great band. He lays back and let’s the band carry him while he throws picks out but when it’s Ace do a solo time he’s still Ace Frehley.

[Terry]

Depends. Saw Cheap Trick and they are still good. Robin Zander sings as good as ever. Saw Ace Frehley. Must have been a good night. I enjoyed it. His solos were great. Alice Cooper still worth seeing. With Ace he had a great band. He lays back and let’s the band carry him while he throws picks out but when it’s Ace do a solo time he’s still Ace Frehley.

Doubtless some of these old rock stars have held up better than others.

On the whole? Not worth my time or money anymore.

It's just age. Whaddayagunna do, right?

[Terry]

I think Ed went back to cocaine but what he was getting was laced with something. Probably meth. He had all the signs of a meth head. Fortunately his second wife knew how to handle him. I’m amazed Ed pulled out of it as well as he did. He got to go out on top at least. He got his dignity back.

Then you have flaky Valerie Bertinelli now wanting everyone to know she was married to Eddie Van Halen. Yeah, he seemed miserable because of you. If you were so great how come he didn’t come around like he did with Jani? Go cook your food and shut up!

I'd say with the 2012 and 2015 tours, Ed managed to pull himself together and relearned how to play the CVH stuff well enough to do it justice live. In that sense, I suppose one could say he got to go out on top with his dignity restored. I'd have to agree that certainly from 2000 to 2006, from all appearances Ed seemed to be in free fall.

2007-2008, his playing was spotty.

He managed to pull his life together and replicate his old CVH licks. It perhaps spoke of how far he had let himself go that just managing play his old stuff was a mark of excellence - to be honest, it seemed like the bar was set pretty low in terms of expectations there - but, he did it.

[Nitro Express]

He pulled out of the nose dive. Wolfgang said why his dad went out on the road in shifty shape is the family had done interventions to no avail. Ed would only go out if Wolfgang was in the band. It explains the weird situation but they figured Ed being the professional he was, would be forced to clean up. It didn’t work. It was a train wreck and ended the up with smashed guitars and monitors being thrown off stage. But understanding the situation it makes sense. Ed was a handful.

[Terry]

He pulled out of the nose dive. Wolfgang said why his dad went out on the road in shifty shape is the family had done interventions to no avail. Ed would only go out if Wolfgang was in the band. It explains the weird situation but they figured Ed being the professional he was, would be forced to clean up. It didn’t work. It was a train wreck and ended the up with smashed guitars and monitors being thrown off stage. But understanding the situation it makes sense. Ed was a handful.

Although there were some medical rationales given, I'm fairly sure Ed had a relapse early in the second leg of the 2007-2008 tour,

The Tampa gig I saw in 2008, Ed just came off as drunk.

By the time they played Tampa in 2008, Van Halen were...what, 40 or 50 gigs into that tour. The setlist for that tour didn't vary much, so the band were essentially playing the same songs in the same order every gig. I had seen a bunch of the 2007 gigs online, and Ed was playing reasonably well, Thus, logic dictated that if Ed was going to be slightly unsteady playing-wise in the early leg of the tour due to having to refamiliarize himself with playing those older CVH tunes again, that surely he would as a matter of course become more adept at playing them with each subsequent show. That after 40 or 50 shows, certainly Ed would be playing the tunes better than he did with the first handful of gigs.

In Tampa, Ed was okay for the first half dozen tunes, and then things went sideways. It was as if he was having trouble getting his picking hand and his fretting hand to synch up at times. I remember during his solo spot, he was having trouble playing parts of Eruption...and with Eruption, it was hardly a case of Ed having not played that bit of music since the early 1980s. The crowd was largely silent during Ed's solo spot, because it was readily apparent from what we were hearing and seeing on the jumbotron screen that Ed couldn't quite cut it. Frankly, I remember walking out of that show feeling a bit ripped off: I paid $125 a ticket to see Eddie Van Halen basically screw the pooch because he was bombed. If memory serves, the band did a few more gigs after Tampa, then cancelled a bunch of shows and resumed the tour a month later. Roth and Al carried that first reunion tour (I could barely hear anything Wolfgang was doing, and the kid had zero stage presence, and the backing vocals were clearly a combo of live vocals and piped in backing tracks).

BUT...

Ed did vindicate himself at the 2012 gig I saw. His playing was on point, and he was essaying the CVH tunes with competency and proficiency. Which, to be fair, as a concert goer, well...for $125 a pop that's kinda what I'm fucking paying for, right? So maybe vindicate isn't the right word...Ed earned his pay in 2012.

[Terry]

But it's perhaps too easy to say that Ed should have just stopped drinking and drugging at any given point down the line...the guy was an alcoholic and a drug addict...for a long time. A person doesn't stop that behavior unless they ultimately want to for themselves: not to make their family happy, or to satisfy their management or whoever is insuring the tour or the promoters or whoever. Ed could - and did - do plnety of buff and shine rehab stints, but none of them were gonna take until Ed made the choice that he wanted to be clean.

[Von Halen]

I'm fairly sure Ed had a relapse early in the second leg of the 2007-2008 tour

So, I was fortunate to get to watch the whole soundcheck at The Palace Of Auburn Hills here in Michigan on the 2007 tour. I posted about it here, at the time. It was a closed soundcheck. Not even arena staff were allowed in. I was standing there talking to Doug, the sound man, and Ed walked up. I had been briefed as to act like I belonged if I were asked. Not to panic, or act like a fan boy. Only speak if I was directly asked a question. Don't dare pull out my phone. Well, I nearly shit myself when Ed walked up. I was standing right by the legend. He was talking to Doug and then looked at me, looked back at Doug, and then asked Doug who I was. Doug simply said something about me being okay, I was with him. I thought for sure I was going to get tossed out. I never said a word. But, to your point of the relapse Terry. They brought out a 6 pack of bottled beer, and set it side stage. I saw it with my own eyes. I remember being so disappointed. Since Dave doesn't do soundchecks, Wolf sang all the songs. As I recall, I ran into some dude from this site before the show started, who was up from Tennessee. I gave him my pass and he went backstage and ended up running into Dave!

[Von Halen]

Saw them plenty in that era. They had more stage energy but in the technical music sense they played the best that last tour. I bet Alex Van Halen would agree with me. As far as a complete rock and roll presentation the early days were legendary.

The 2007-2015 shows don't measure up to the '78-'84 shows, or before, in any metric. NONE.

[Kristy]

I saw them on their final tour, got second row seats day of show. The band WAS tight, Ed played flawlessly but he looked like he was on auto-pilot. There was minimal interaction between them, and most of it looked forced. Dave was fair to poor but probably did not care….he was on stage in front of 20 some thousand people, that’s all he was ever after.

More or less what the Red Rocks show was like with one exception. I thought Eddie played brilliantly and really energized the audience. Seems the onus was on him to not only carry the band but Roth as well and there were times when Eddie looked upon Dave with contempt. Roth was irascible when Eddie upstaged him and that alone ruined that show for me. I guess if you were one of the lucky ones who saw them play back in '78-'82 (maybe '84) you'll have great memories of them but in 2015 hearing Roth sing was like going to a dentist without any anesthetic.

[Kristy]

The best you ever saw them play? I'm guessing you never saw them from '78-'84 then.

I often wondered just how loud Eddie was playing in those days

[Heater]

More or less what the Red Rocks show was like with one exception. I thought Eddie played brilliantly and really energized the audience. Seems the onus was on him to not only carry the band but Roth as well and there were times when Eddie looked upon Dave with contempt. Roth was irascible when Eddie upstaged him and that alone ruined that show for me. I guess if you were one of the lucky ones who saw them play back in '78-'82 (maybe '84) you'll have great memories of them but in 2015 hearing Roth sing was like going to a dentist without any anesthetic.

First saw them in Philly in ‘84, 2 nights in a row. They filmed the concert and crowd scenes for the Panama video there, if you look really hard you still won’t see me. They were probably at their apex then, but it was the David Lee Roth show with a slamming band. I remember how both shows were identical, set list, ad libs, Dave’s “jokes”, forgetting the same lyrics at the same point. Loooong breaks between songs for you know who to pontificate…..still one of the best concerts I ever attended.

[Heater]

Depends. Saw Cheap Trick and they are still good. Robin Zander sings as good as ever. Saw Ace Frehley. Must have been a good night. I enjoyed it. His solos were great. Alice Cooper still worth seeing. With Ace he had a great band. He lays back and let’s the band carry him while he throws picks out but when it’s Ace do a solo time he’s still Ace Frehley.

Haven’t seen Ace Frehley live in a long time, but there’s plenty of YouTube’s that are recent where he is really good. Back in his heyday, brief though it may have been, I think he did a great job. His solos fit the song and they were well executed. Ace made me want to pick up a guitar, and then others came along who made me not want to put it down.