Van Halen Tokyo Dome 2013 Proshot

[So this is love]

😟☝️ Ouch ! Come on Terry. You must have watched some videos of Ed & Alex raging on Roth. He was fine unil about 81. Actually I think he was mostly fine until 2008. Except 1994 when I saw him. He was bad. Well so was his dime store band that tour. V.H. started playing too fast on the D.D. & 1984 tours. You try keeping up vocally with those b.p.m. I think he was decent on the Vai tours. And from 99-08. It was over in 2012. By the way a guy is selling boots of both of these shows on Blu ray on ebay already. If you want a hard copy. Fuck the V.H. camp for not releasing this stuff. I just wish a 08 show would've leaked out.....

"V.H. started playing too fast on the D.D. & 1984 tours. You try keeping up vocally with those b.p.m." Glad you mentioned this. I noticed it a long time ago, well even live at the time, but thought no one else or forgot someone would have noticed anyways probly they were on coke of course...

[Terry]

I went to the 2007-2008 tour twice (once at United Center in 2007, once at Allstate in 2008). Dave was really good for both. I can't say which was better.

I went to the 2012 tour once (United Center, as I mentioned). I went with my wife and my cousin (very close friend). My cousin had never seen VH before but had been a fan since the mid-80s...but would NOT go to a Van Hagar show. He'd had to back out of the 2008 Allstate show at the last minute. All three of us (in 2012) listened very closely and we all thought Dave did a great job (except for his temper tantrum in the usual "dog sequence" before ICE CREAM MAN...he lost his shit, which kind of disappointed us...the crew had fucked something up and he couldn't be professional about it).

I have (I think) 3-4 shows from the 2007-2008 period on Blu-Rays. I have maybe 15 shows from 2012-2013 on Blu-Ray. I've listened closely. Roth is fine. One thing people keep not noticing is that the backing vocals were backing tracks in the 2007-2008 period. That's how they got that "high Michael" vocal sound. In 2012, they started just doing live vocals from Eddie & Wolfgang...and they never properly sang the high vocal parts Michael used to do (just low vocals) and it sounded like shit.

And Dave got the blame for that.

I've debated with sheep at the Links over the quality of Roth even back in the old days. These people will watch Montreal 1984 or Largo 1982 (even Fresno '78 & '79) and go on and on about how "horrible" Dave is.

I don't buy it. His voice gets shrill sometimes, sure. He tries to reach notes he shouldn't. But generally, Dave sings on-key. I'm a singer...and I have perfect-pitch...I'm picky about this shit. And I've watched a ton of Dave gigs. It's a form of performance art. He's like James Brown...he's not concentrating on singing every line...he's more interested in a performing package.

I don't defend Dave because I'm some sort of "super fan." I defend Dave because I really think he has it right.

In fact, another thing that doesn't get mentioned nearly enough is during the reunion years, Dave did less moving (he was older, after all) and more singing. He was far more consistent (and clearly using less substances).

The guy who posted Sydney 2013 and Tokyo 2013...he also had a Van Hagar gig from 2015 (the last gig of the tour...pro-shot...not that Toronto gig or that Pensacola gig). I watched some of it out of curiosity. If you listen to Sam in that gig, he's singing fucking flat line after line. He sounds fucking horrible. Do the sheep ever talk about how often that idiot could slip out of tune?

The 2012-2013 tour was Roth's least-consistent...maybe worst tour (at least out of the reunion era). In 2015, he was far more on. I wish I hadn't missed that tour...but my daughter was one, we were ecstatic to have her, I was going to less shows. I NEVER thought Van Halen would never tour again.

I know you don't defend Dave or lack a critical capacity toward him because you're a super fan.

I do also agree that between the 2007-2008 tour and the 2012 tour there was a difference in the backing vocal sound, with the ADKOT tour backing vocals sounding less full than those of the 2007-2008 tour.

Dave's lead vocals (not talking the backing vocals) in 2012 at the show I saw were bad. It was off-putting. To the point where I passed on the 2015 tour. I've watched several shows from the 2015 tour via youtube, and at each of those shows Roth was all over the place vocally and sounded just as bad as he had in 2012. And let's not even go down the "you can't tell about the vocals re: a youtube clip" road. You can hear if somebody's straining off-key on a youtube clip.

I mean, the Van Halen brothers have come across as a couple of idiotic dickheads to me since at least 1996. BUT the Van Halen brothers were still able to get the job done on those last two Van Halen tours. Dave wasn't.

I would say, though, had I known at the time the 2015 tour was gonna be the last one...I may well have went.

Sometimes it was almost as if my level of appreciation for Van Halen and my expectations for a reunion worked to my detriment when Roth finally rejoined the band, in that were I a more casual fan of the band I wouldn't have felt as disappointed at times. But what else can I say? Ed was too drunk to play well in 2008. Dave sounded awful more often than not to me after 2008.

Shit, I wish the original lineup had gotten their act together in 1996 when they were still on the young side of 50 years old instead of fucking around for a decade. But, well, they didn't.

[DLR Bridge]

There’s something about the memory of seeing that band for the last time that resonates with me. I had taken oldest daughter with me who was 11 or 12 at the time. Got cheap seats towards the back, literally just ahead of the lawn seat crowd. She had a blast, but towards the end, she was getting a massive headache from all of the pot smoke we were surrounded by. I knew they would end with Panama and Jump, so at the first chord of Panama, I figured we’d better head out to the car. We headed directly towards the front of the stage before veering out of there, and I could not believe how amazing that sounded. Made me wish I’d sprung for something better, but really resent how expensive seats have gotten. By the time we got out to the car, Jump was swirling through the air and I do remember thinking, til next time.

[DLR Bridge]

Ed was too drunk to play well in 2008. Dave sounded awful more often than not to me after 2008.

Shit, I wish the original lineup had gotten their act together in 1996 when they were still on the young side of 50 years old instead of fucking around for a decade. But, well, they didn't.

It is something how they were almost like ships in the night in that regard. ‘07-‘08 Dave with ‘12-‘15 Ed would have been something special.

Had they gotten it all together in the ‘96-‘00 area, that would have been the shit. If it ended in 3 or 4 years, I’d still be glad that it at least happened.

[nick500]

Sorry...you're right. I meant to write 1995. The guy had a BALANCE era show...and it's stunning how off-key Hagar is. Dude is a complete throat singer. It makes me sick when I read sheep going on about how he's the best singer in rock and roll history. Sam Hagar isn't 1/100th the singer that Freddie Mercury was...not 1/50th the singer Ian Gillan was...Dio... His voice seems to go a lot in Van Hagar clips. These sheep act like he's Steve Perry. I do NOT like Journey, but I will admit that dude could sing. And Sam Hagar is not even in the same universe.

You are correct, sir (when it comes to singing). Singing when your throat is sore or you can feel your voice going...it just sucks. You can sing through the pain and the uncomfortable feeling in your throat. But there's NOTHING you can do when your voice just won't do it.

Dave bitching about the road crew live...who wants to hear that? (That said, I believe his story about Wolfgang kicking the person out who had the bonus checks for the road crew. We're really supposed to believe that Wolfgang is somehow above such behavior? Look at how he treats anyone publicly. Look at how he talks to fans. That fat fuck is not above treating the "common employees" like crap.)

Sammy Hagar is one of the most overrated singers in rock history. Like Ed said: a B+ singer.
If I remember he also said something like "Roth isn't half the sing Hagar is, but the creativity..."
He knew Hagar was a lazy hack. The two eras are there for everyone to hear.
Dave is a better singer than people give him credit for, including Ed.
Even on Ice Cream man during the Sydney Stone Festival he sounds pretty good by himself.

[Terry]

It is something how they were almost like ships in the night in that regard. ‘07-‘08 Dave with ‘12-‘15 Ed would have been something special.

Had they gotten it all together in the ‘96-‘00 area, that would have been the shit. If it ended in 3 or 4 years, I’d still be glad that it at least happened.

I mean, retro hypothetical daydreaming or whatever...pointless, but from what I can suss out I'm along the same lines as you re:

A single tour of the CVH lineup in the late 1990's would have been preferrable to the net result of the 2007-2015 tours.

Like, even if the band had just put out the two Roth BOV1 tracks in 1996 and then it took them a year to record a new album and have the time for Ed to address his then-medical issues, that would have been cool. I mean, it took the band about a year and a half after the announcement in the fall of 1996 that Roth was out and Cherone was in for the Van Halen III album to be released and the Van Halen III lineup to hit the road anyway so I would have been fine with the band taking that same 18 months they ended up using if a CVH album and tour was the end result instead of Van Halen III.

The 3 tours the band did end up doing with Dave...in the end I thought the band could have produced a better result but for their own fuckups. They fucked up by chucking Anthony out. They fucked up by wasting a decade. Eddie fucked up on the first tour. Roth didn't sing as well on the last two reunion tours as he did the first reunion tour.

Couldn't even be bothered watching the clips of that 2013 stuff...the Japan gigs or the Down Under gigs...I'm not gonna say the last three reunion tours with Dave were shit from top to bottom, but watching that stuff just makes me wistful for the CVH years. Back when the band were still crushing it. Even with the 1984 tour and album when Roth and the rest of the band were probably getting along the worst they ever did during the CVH years, the band still put out a great album and could deliver the goods live.

But, whaddayagunna do, eh?

[Silexxx]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4mXVkVMmjC/?igsh=MTk2dWRyajAzeW1mdQ==

Just saw this on Instagram. People are now sharing little clips of this show, with Tokyo CD audio added. This clip of You Really Got Me has already over 800k views and 14k likes. Imagine if VH actually promoted stuff like this.

[ZahZoo]

We can critique the 2007-2015 tours and ADKOT... but frankly given the way Edward was spiraling towards the graveyard from 2000-2006 with his substance abuse and cancer battles... we're pretty dang lucky we got what we got rather than the Hagar reunion, a shitty porn soundtrack, funeral and some sappy tributes.

[Rikk]

We can critique the 2007-2015 tours and ADKOT... but frankly given the way Edward was spiraling towards the graveyard from 2000-2006 with his substance abuse and cancer battles... we're pretty dang lucky we got what we got rather than the Hagar reunion, a shitty porn soundtrack, funeral and some sappy tributes.

This.

I'm still thankful beyond belief that we got three tours with Dave, a new album I still love and a live album that I personally still enjoy.

There are tons of shows on YouTube that I watch often.

Van Halen with Dave broke up when I was 9. Decades later, I finally got to see them.

Consider what a joke Van Halen had become for years before the Dave reunion...

...I stay out of the conversations in which people love to bitch about certain elements that weren't the same during the reunion years.

I'm just thankful we got the Van Halen we got from 2007-2015.

Thankful is how I will always feel.

[Terry]

We can critique the 2007-2015 tours and ADKOT... but frankly given the way Edward was spiraling towards the graveyard from 2000-2006 with his substance abuse and cancer battles... we're pretty dang lucky we got what we got rather than the Hagar reunion, a shitty porn soundtrack, funeral and some sappy tributes.

I can't disagree that considering how Eddie was looking from 2000-2006 it was...I mean, come the summer of 2006, I wouldn't have given odds that Eddie would be around for even a single tour with Roth that was to commence in the fall of 2007, much less three tours with Roth and another Van Halen album.

I also couldn't disagree that whatever my critiques of the 2007-2015 years, in the end for me as a fan of what the guy did...it was a good thing to see him regain his ability and conclude his career with a last tour where he was playing well. AND his final tour was one where he was playing CVH material.

[78/84 guy]

It's to bad those pricks in the V.H. camp made him take these shows down. Or at least I would think that's what happened. Eddie plays great on both. I think Roth tried bringing his A game on the Sydney show. Yeah, he's faltering on a few songs like Dance The Night Away but his usual spirt is there. He was a little too much all over the joint on the Tokyo show for me.

[nick500]

It's to bad those pricks in the V.H. camp made him take these shows down. Or at least I would think that's what happened. Eddie plays great on both. I think Roth tried bringing his A game on the Sydney show. Yeah, he's faltering on a few songs like Dance The Night Away but his usual spirt is there. He was a little too much all over the joint on the Tokyo show for me.

Looks like it's already being bootlegged. Maybe they synced it with the record:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/235466440343?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&srsltid=AfmBOoq4eFJBkoxJClE-sNiIynwvps-iM6BvyYsadgUBFkZXUQiAXzTQlds