I had mixed emotions about posting my Van Hagar review at the ARMY but I received alot of PM's from people asking me too.. so what the hell, Here it is...
Van Halen
8/6/2004
Las Vegas NV
Mandalay Bay Events Center
Setlist:
Jump
Runaround
Humans Being
MA Bass Solo
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Poundcake
It’s About Time
AVH Drum Solo
Top Of The World
Unchained
Why Can’t This Be Love
SH Solo Eagles Fly/ Hallelujah
Seventh Seal
BOBW
EVH Guitar Solo w/ Wolfie
Dreams
Aint Talkin Bout Love
Right Now
Encore 1
You Really Got Me
Panama
Encore 2
When It’s Love
Ok here it is folks… My FABulous review of night one in Vegas. As badly as I wanted to write to sparkling reviews of the two Van Halen shows I saw in Vegas, I have to admit I’m still not exactly sure what happened at the Aug 6th show…
The show was sold out! Everyone there seemed just as excited as we were to FINALLY be at Van Halen concert after such a long wait! Shinedown played… We missed that. Arriving in Vegas with just enough time to get to the hotel change clothes and get to our seats, we arrived just in time to hear the keyboard wailing the opening notes to JUMP! The crowd went WILD! It was LOUD! I was in Rock-n- Roll Heaven! I remember thanking God because Eddie’s hair was down. LOL. Eddie did a few flying Eddies, Sammy strolled the stage! Mike was Rocking, Al was pounding and then… It started going downhill…
Eddies was fiddling on his guitar and it sounded weird, I thought he might switch but he went on into Runaround anyway. It sounded BAD, but he still kept playing with the same guitar. Next they went into Humans Being… They started it SLOW… I was THRILLED! They had never played this live before! I grabbed Chelle! Grabbed Wolf! OMG! I could have cried if I let myself… But then I noticed… The guitar STILL sounded weird. But he played the whole song with it. It killed the vibe for me. Oh well… There’s still tomorrows show.
Mikeys solo was next. I never like Mikeys solos… SO…
Eddie came back after Mikey’s solo with a new guitar… The black and yellow striped one. (THANK GOD) They did a decent version of Somebody Get Me a Doctor in which Mikey sang and he did a damn good job! Sammy acted like he was fighting him for the mic. Sammy sang the chorus. Eddie played a little slow and off pace the entire song but Alex kept helping out with the drums. Next they did Poundcake and it was becoming clear that something was wrong with Eddie, his equipment, or both.
Alex did his drum solo, which I thought was pretty good. The crowd seemed to love it!
He had a lot of energy and he clearly put it into banging those drums! When it was over Eddie went to the mic and spoke for the first time that night… He slurred… “Hey, It doesn’t get any fucking better than that!” and then he bowed to Al. His speech was impaired. Probably by the surgery… Some say it is because he was drunk. I don’t think he was. But I do think he was out of it.
The show went on… Mike and Sammy were having a ball up there and Eddie seemed to be just getting by. He seemed week, broken… LOST…
Guitar Solo… He comes to the mic and says… “I’m gonna fuck around for a few minutes” The crowd went NUTS! Then SILENT! He really made no attempts to do anything interesting but nobody cared, I didn’t, I was happy just to watch him. He played Cathedral, More noise, a little Eruption, more noise… Then he laid down on the stage and started 316 and that is when Wolfgang came out. It made me cry. I bet Eddie would have laid there all night. He seemed content just to lay there and play 316 with Wolfie!
He finally got up and said “Wolfgang Van Halen just kicked my ass” The crowd gave um a big round of applause and Wolfie left the stage as Eddie watched until he could see him no more…
By this time it was apparent that this was going to be the state of the concert. Mikey and Sammy were holding the show together and Eddie was in a world all his own where Wolfie and Alex had starring but minor roles.
Sammy’s solo was ok. I’m not much into Sammy’s solo material. He admitted at the beginning of his solo that he and Mike missed their plane and missed sound check. His guitar sounded like it too. I wondered if there was bad blood because of that? Who knows? Mona Came on stage and sang backgrounds on Eagles Fly. (YAWN). I made a note to do a beer run during this set the next night and I did!
Sammy was signing stuff all night long for the fans. I thought that was cool! He was very careful about what he signed and I even saw him throw a few things back that he refused to sign. He did Ok and the ROTH tunes. The crowd LOVED hearing them! A few other times he turned the mic over to people in the pit to sing parts of the DLR classics. During Ain't Talkin' Bout Love, He gave the mic to a guy that went into a DLR impression "look at all the people here tonight I sayyyy" The guy went on with what Dave would have said and done during the middle of Panama and for a few seconds it was like the ghost of Dave had entered the arena and stolen his microphone back. The guy was cool and actually gave props to both Eddie and Sammy!
The set list was good. I would have liked to hear Finish What Ya Started though. They finished with When It's Love, which still strikes me as an odd choice for a closing number. But at the end of the show crowd was still fired up which IMO means they enjoyed the show. So as bad as it was… It was still Good! I went away wondering… was it me? I didn’t feel the MAGIC I used to feel when I saw Van Halen… Oh well, Maybe tomorrow night!
08/07/2004 & 8/16/2004 review & Pics coming soon… (I'll post it in the same thread...)
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EAT US AND SMILE!!!!
