Great Stuff Revisited

[ZahZoo]

It's been a long time since I watched this performance... reminded me just how fucking great Van Halen was LIVE in their prime.

[Vinnie Velvet]

THE MIGHTY VH!

A real shame the band broke up when it did. But thats how history unfolded.

[FORD]

How about some grainy 1980 footage?

[Terry]

It's been a long time since I watched this performance... reminded me just how fucking great Van Halen was LIVE in their prime.

Half in the bag and STILL killed it.

Back when rock stars acted like rock stars and didn't apologize for their behavior or try and drown the audience with weepy sentimentality.

Man, I shore dun miss dem daze!

[Seshmeister]

Or having their drummer play along to a click track so that they can have a backing vocal tape, someone doing live auto tune on the lead vocal who pushes a recording of that into the mix where needed and a couple of off stage guys filling in some keyboards and rhythm guitar.

[Nickdfresh]

Half in the bag and STILL killed it.

Back when rock stars acted like rock stars and didn't apologize for their behavior or try and drown the audience with weepy sentimentality.

...

Well, there was Journey...

[Terry]

Or having their drummer play along to a click track so that they can have a backing vocal tape, someone doing live auto tune on the lead vocal who pushes a recording of that into the mix where needed and a couple of off stage guys filling in some keyboards and rhythm guitar.

Gotta say, for me when these aging rock bands - specifically these 3, 4 or 5 piece combos - get to the point where they need to detune the songs to accommodate aging vocal cords, have more replacement members in the band than original members (or members of the definitive lineup) and have to supplement their sound with musicians - offstage or on - playing keyboards/rhythm guitar/backing vocals...or piping in pre-recorded sounds into the p.a. (or autotuning the vocals)...I have zero interest.

Van Halen did some of that in 2008 and 2012, but at least Ed's guitar and Dave's lead vocals were still live re: in some weird way it was interesting that I saw/heard Ed have a shitty show in 2008 and saw/heard Dave have a shitty show in 2012. Doubtless, I'd have rather both of them had good shows at both of those gigs, but at least they weren't miming it.

And I say these things and some will say I'm being unreasonable re: the way things are now.

It's like, fuck, all I expect from a rock band live is for the music to be generated from the musicians visible onstage and the tunes to sounds reasonably like the way they were originally recorded.

Last decent show I saw was X in 2015. Pretty much their whole set was tunes originally recorded from 1977 to 1983. They still had the original 4 members onstage. They had one supplemental musician onstage who was both introduced by the band and clearly visible. He played rhythm guitar for a few tunes and played drums for a tune or two when D.J. Bonebrake played the xylophone. The setlist, most of which was 30 + years old, was played in the original recorded keys. Sometimes singers John Doe and Exene had to struggle a bit vocal-wise, but they were TRYING. Guitarist Billy Zoom had to sit on a stool at points because of age and health problems, but he played beautifully.

It's like, fuck, an aging L.A. punk band can perform properly but these aging hair metal bands can't?

[Terry]

Well, there was Journey...

Yeah, there was Journey.

Truth be told, I liked Journey. Wasn't over the moon about them and am not one of those guys who says "everything after Gregg Rolie left sucked." But I liked 'em.

Mostly because I remember even as far back as a pre-teen liking them before I was informed by peers/music critics that I wasn't 'supposed' to like them. Even all those schmaltzy hits like Open Arms. Say what one wants about the lyrical content (which, admittedly, was trite) or Jonathan Cain 'ruining the band' or whatever. But Steve Perry...man, what a voice he had. The dude had a fantastic voice.

And Perry has been realistic and forthcoming over the last decade about the ultimate reason now as to why he won't do the reunion with Journey so many people say they want. He has flat-out said that his voice isn't what it used to be and he simply can't hit those notes anymore. I contrast that with the Def Leppard show I saw 15 or so years ago where Joe Elliott ducked and avoided every high note in the set by putting the mic toward the audience and asking them to sing: hey, asshole, I didn't pay what I did to hear a bunch of off-key assholes in the audience do your job. Or Vince Neil in 2015 being bloated and unable to sing much of anything. Or Paul Stanley in 2021 trying to croak his way through a set. Compared to those schmucks, Steve Perry has class in my book.

[twonabomber]

Frontiers was my first show. Cain posted on FB about the album being 40. They've got a second keyboardist now, I think Cain is playing more guitar. Saw them on Raised On Radio tour too. I won't go now.

Vince Neil couldn't sing much better in '97! Wasn't really that good when we saw him on the Feelgood tour, either.

[Terry]

Frontiers was my first show. Cain posted on FB about the album being 40. They've got a second keyboardist now, I think Cain is playing more guitar. Saw them on Raised On Radio tour too. I won't go now.

Vince Neil couldn't sing much better in '97! Wasn't really that good when we saw him on the Feelgood tour, either.

He wasn't all that great when I saw Crue open up for Ozzy in '84, in that he didn't sound nearly as good as he did on the SATD album, but at least he sang all the verses. Back then, he kinda had to, I guess...sing all the songs, that is. As I remember it, the band had some dry ice and a little bit of pyro by way of some roman candles for stage effects. No backup singers. So, it was essentially just the four of them and their music...and it wasn't all that great.

Then again, more than a few of those hair metal bands were underwhelming live to my ears. Ratt, Quiet Riot and Dokken elicited a similar feeling when I saw them opening for other acts around the same time: stripped away from the safety of the studio mix and multiple takes or the larger-than-life music video imagery, all four of those groups didn't really live up to the hype live. Perhaps it's because I saw all of them opening for other bands, so they didn't have massive stage productions or whatever to distract from or enhance their musical shortcomings. Poison was the same way when I saw them as an opening act, and the same went for Bon Jovi as an opening act before Slippery When Wet.

[Vinnie Velvet]

From what I've seen the singers who delivered live in the past without any enhancements were Halford, Dio, Bruce Dickinson, even Paul Stanley before his issues and from seeing it first hand in my opinion Dave was awesome on the EEAS tour. Singing great while going full tilt with his physical performance.
Ozzy on the other hand had his moments. All depended on what show you saw during his solo years. Some shows were great others not so much.

[Seshmeister]

He's obviously a bit of an ass but Sebastian Bach was impressive back in the day and Geoff Tate.

Some people, actually many people are all about the vocals being everything I've always thought it was just one of many things I'd be listening to.

In recent years doing some live stuff with an outstanding female singer it does really take the pressure off though when you know no one is listening to your guitar at all.