There is a picture of WARF here in this Blabbermouth article as well.
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It is hard to get in "The Middle" not only in a small club, but most of the sounds produced by bands come from right where each performer is so if you are filming stage left snagglepuss then the majority of the sound you are recording is whoevers instrument is on that side.
I am no engineer but I believe the only way to get in, "The Middle" is to be plugged into the sound board.
I know it is perhaps hard to let Dave be Dave he loves to talk and I dig that part of the shows. Dave personalizes the day.. the creative Ed Al and Wolf and the addition of DLR as a carnival barker is music to me ears.
Mutha on and what a show.Leave a comment:
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Andy from Rolling Stone is still bitching about Mike Anthony being pushed out of the band. WTF??
Mike Anthony was not pushed out of the band. There would be NO BAND if Ed did not want to tour WITH WOLFGANG. The sole purpose of reuniting with Roth was to tour with Wolf!! and guess what? he's on bass. It's Ed right as a person and a father to do whatever the fuck he wants with his kid. Why is this so hard to comprehend??? Get over it! please.Leave a comment:
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Sammy will just turn interest in VH as a way of flogging Chickenshit.Leave a comment:
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WOW. Dave is running shit or they're really taking what he says seriously. No noise, then BOOM! Van Halen lands on the Village. He talked about it before he was even back in the band. Two things I'm tired of though,people questioning Wolfgang's ability and the word reunion. It's not a reunion, it's Van Halen. They declared that in the pressconference in 2007, and proved it when they released the picture with the Inerscope guys. As far as Wolfgang goes, check out videos from the last tour again.
I bet Dave gets his Carhartts from Dave's Army Navy on Avenue of the Americas. Is it still there? Now I gotta go look tonight!Leave a comment:
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My pleasure to share! I think the problem with not hearing Dave well on the video is that I was right up in front of him -- less than arm's length (I could literally see fillings in his mouth) -- and probably getting actual sound *from* him directly, instead of the sound system.
I am still stunned that I was able to be right in front of him at the stage. All I did was walk right up to that spot and stand there. Nobody asked me to move, and I was right next to their official photographer (WARF was on the other side of her, also having THE best spot in the place) for the entire show.
One highlight of the night was meeting WARF, Jeff from VHND and one of the guys from the Links, and enjoying the show with these great people!
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Reunited Van Halen Play Blazing Show at Tiny NYC Club
The group debut new song 'She's The Woman,' originally recorded as a demo in 1976
By ANDY GREENE
January 6, 2012 7:30 AM ET
"It's like climbing into a rocket in here," David Lee Roth said he stepped onto the matchbox-sized stage at New York's 250-capacity Cafe Wha? for Van Halen's first concert in four years." "It's a rocket that comes from way back into the past into what the future's going to look like. Welcome to Occupy Van Halen, ladies and gentlemen!"
With those words Eddie Van Halen kicked into the opening notes of "You Really Got Me" and the crowd –composed almost entirety of journalists and music industry insiders – went absolutely bonkers. Over the next hour, the group played a stunningly tight set of songs from their 1978 debut LP all the way through David Lee Roth's swan song, 1984. It was a show guaranteed to make any crowd go into a collective state of hysteria, but the happiest man in the house could have been Roth himself. Dressed in beige overalls and a Brian Johnson-style newsboy hat, the singer had an ear-to-ear grin on his face all night, especially when he looked over at his 92-year-old uncle Manny – the founder of Cafe Wha? – who was seated in the corner. "Last time I stood on a stage this low I had to have the car back by midnight," Roth joked early in the night. "This is one of our best nights ever."
I stood a good five feet in front of Eddie Van Halen (dressed in ripped jeans and a black t-shirt) and the man played absolutely flawlessly. It was a beautiful sight. Before the start of a Van Halen tour you never know what Ed you're getting. The 2004 Van Hagar Ed was a drunken, shirtless mess. The 2007/08 reunion Ed was cleaned up and together, and that clearly is the case today. While Roth ordered drinks from the stage and took some shots, Ed restricted himself to bottled water and a couple of Red Bulls.
About half a second after the end of "You Really Got Me," Wolfgang Van Halen played the opening notes of "Running With The Devil." By that point that crazy reality that we were seeing Van Halen in a tiny, sweaty basement club began to kick in. These songs (not to mention the performers) were programmed to rock massive baskeball arenas. Seeing that all that energy crammed into a basement club was surreal. It's a shame so few fans outside of the press were able to witness it.
It was clear that Dave's voice isn't quite as strong as it was back in the day, but he more than compensated for that with incredible energy and charisma. It must be said, however, that original bassist Michael Anthony's backing vocals were sorely missed. They need them now more than ever, and as talented a bassist as Wolfgang clearly is (especially for a 20-year-old), it was a real lame move to push Anthony out of the band.
After just two songs, Dave began a long spoken interlude that clearly tested the patience of the Van Halen men. "I could see your naked, steaming eyes," Roth said. "I see a lot of familiar faces. A lot of folks from the media. A lot of folks from the record company. A lot of folks that we grew up with here. How many of you people know Lady Gaga? I was watching her on New Year's Eve with Mayor Bloomberg and it's kind of an interesting story . . ." This went on for a few long minutes, but then Dave screamed out,"Someone Get Me A Doctor!" and all was forgiven.
The return of Roth to the band means that the group's entire history with Sammy Hagar (not to mention Gary Cherone) has essentially been erased. That still leaves them with plenty of great material, and the setlist for the show seemed like the playlist for a classic rock radio station. They also played "Everybody Wants Some!!," "Dance The Night Away," "Hot For Teacher," "Ice Cream Man," "Panama," "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" and "Jump." The only song from their upcoming LP was "She's The Woman," but there's a good reason that it sounded so much like a classic Van Halen song: It's a demo from 1976 that's been circulating in the fan community for years. Parts of it were eventually used on "Mean Street." They have since fleshed out the track, but its inclusion on the new album seems to bolster Sammy Hagar's contention that parts of the disc are recycled old bits – not that it really matters. A good song is a good song and they should use the best material they have available to them.
Midway through a blazing "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" Roth explained to the crowd that it was impossible to leave the stage for an encore, so we were instructed to pretend that they left and came back. The finale of "Jump" didn't quite take off – partially due to the fact that they piped in keyboards were largely inaudible –but it hardly mattered. Van Halen had braved a crowd that seemingly contained every music journalist in the city, and proved to all of them they still have the goods. They have yet to grant a single interview, but it's clearly all part of a strategy to build buzz around the new disc and tour – though they didn't play their upcoming single "Tattoo."
A setlist taped next to Alex's drum kit said that "Beautiful Girls" and "Unchained" were supposed to wrap up the show, but after "Jump" the band was ushered out a back door and driven away. A new single and video are going to be released soon, and their tour is going on sale January 10th.
The last 14 years have been rough for Van Halen fans. The last three tours featured three different singers, and for most of that time the band was completely inactive. Let's hope this club show is the dawn of a better, more productive era for the band. It sure seems like that's the case.Leave a comment:
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Arena Rock, Well Preserved and Condensed
By JON PARELES
Published: January 6, 2012
As press briefings go, it rocked. On Thursday night, Van Halen took to the stage of the venerable Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, capacity 250. “Last time I stood on a stage this low, we had to have the car back by midnight,” said the singer David Lee Roth. The objective was to prove Van Halen is alive and amicable for an arena tour that starts Feb. 18 in Louisville, Ky.,after the Feb. 7 release of a new album, “A Different Kind of Truth.” It’s to be Van Halen’s first full album with Mr. Roth as lead singer since the band fired him in 1985, although they have done previous reunion tours.
There was no formal announcement at Cafe Wha?, just a blast of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar, a rumble from Alex Van Halen’s drums, and a motormouthed Mr. Roth declaring, “It’s like climbing into a rocket in here, and it’s a rocket that comes from way, way back in our past all the way into what the future’s going to look like according to — Welcome to Occupy Van Halen.” .That introduced an hourlong set from a grinning band, reclaiming its oldies and introducing a new song announced by Mr. Roth as “She’s the Woman.”
Nearly all the audience was “the world’s press, the world’s media,” Mr. Roth said, along with record-company staff. Jimmy Fallon and Kirk Douglas, the Roots’ lead guitarist, were also spotted in the narrow, packed basement club.
From the Rolling Stones to Kanye West, a big act in a small room has proved a surefire attention-getter. Leaking the location so that fans cluster outside is part of the plan.
But there was another reason for choosing Cafe Wha? instead of a club or theater that could have accommodated more fans. In the club’s 1960s heyday, when Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix performed there, Cafe Wha? was owned by Manny Roth, David Lee’s uncle, who sold it in 1988. Now 92, Manny Roth beamed in the audience while David Lee Roth reminisced about his first visit to the club, in 1961. “It took us 50 years to get this gig,” the singer said. “It was easier getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
Van Halen didn’t play like an arena band concerned with lighting cues and special effects; for the night, it was a club act treating songs like jams. “We used to play gigs like this five nights a week, and we used to do five 45-minute sets a night,” Mr. Roth said during “Dance the Night Away.”
Van Halen is still one of the most limber bands in hard rock, with a higher center of gravity than most. Alex Van Halen places the beat as much on cymbal and tom-toms as on bass drum; the band rides its bass riffs, now played by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son. Meanwhile, Eddie Van Halen’s guitar is in constant, multiple-personality dialogue with itself; riffing power chords and then replying with leads that wriggle from the whammy bar, scamper in notes tapped on the fingerboard or screech from a scrape up a string.
The 11-song set started with the Kinks song “You Really Got Me,” stretched so that Mr. Roth and Eddie Van Halen could trade improvised vocal yowls and guitar squiggles. They were at it again in “Everybody Wants Some!!,” with intergalactic siren noises from the guitar and jungle cackles from Mr. Roth, who also updated the lyrics to talk about texting and e-mailing a racy photo. In “Panama,” Mr. Roth suddenly decided to do his impression of Jim Morrison singing “Stairway to Heaven,” then called for a drink. “I’ve gotta have a double, I got a long drive home,” he joked.
For its mini-set, Van Halen stuck to staples like “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Panama” and a final “Jump.” The new song fit right into the repertory, with a turbo-boogie riff, lusty lyrics and a cheerfully tangential guitar interlude.
Mr. Roth, 57, showed some wear in his high notes, and he wasn’t taking his shirt off for this gig; in fact, he was wearing overalls. But as the band socked its riffs and Eddie Van Halen filigreed them with virtuoso guitar, the songs were still testimonials to hyperactive teenage hormones and musicians who remember them. “I told you we was comin’ back,” Mr. Roth boasted during “Hot for Teacher,” adding, “Say you missed us.”Leave a comment:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/ar...w.html?_r=1Van Halen Delivers Big Nostalgia on a Small Stage
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: January 6, 2012
When the rock band Van Halen played in a cramped basement club in Greenwich Village on Thursday, dozens of fans clustered around the back door, listening to the slightly muffled strains of hard rocking songs like “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher,” like children eavesdropping on an adult conversation in the next room.
One of them, George D’Anna, who is 50, had a plastic shopping bag containing a program from one of the band’s early tours in the late 1970s and several Van Halen albums — the old-fashioned kind on vinyl. On the paper sleeve covering “Women and Children First” he had written down all the Van Halen concerts he had attended as a young man when he first got hooked on the group, beginning with a show at a Manhattan nightclub in May 1979. Eddie Van Halen’s dazzling guitar solos bewitched him — the superfast runs, bell-tone harmonics and almost animal-like sounds.
“I snuck in with a friend to see them at the Palladium,” he recalled. “They were different than any band. Eddie’s guitar was different.”
There was no way to sneak in to see Van Halen on Thursday. Metal barriers had been set up around the front door of “Café Wha?” on MacDougal Street, and a team of bouncers and promoters were checking the driver’s license of everyone in line to make sure they were on a carefully selected list of guests. Several police officers had been assigned by the local precinct to control whatever crowds developed. The guest list included every music writer in the city, scores of people from the music industry with miscellaneous friends in tow and a handful of celebrities, among them Jimmy Fallon and John McEnroe.
Van Halen is a famous heavy-metal quartet that can still fill arenas and stadiums with ease. Ostensibly, the reason the band did a concert in a club that seats perhaps 250 people was to announce a new tour of 45 cities and to promote the release of a fresh studio album later this year, the first they have recorded with the original front man, David Lee Roth, since 1984.
Although Mr. Roth’s rambling monologues on stage covered many topics, including Lady Gaga and working as a medic in the Bronx, he never actually made the announcement. Instead it was posted on the internet. The new album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” will be released on Feb. 7 by Interscope Records, and the tour begins in Louisville, Ky., the following week. Van Halen will play Madison Square Garden on Feb. 28 and March 1.
But Mr. Roth did expound on about his ulterior motive for wanting to rock out at “Café Wha?” a fabled club where many famous rockers and folk musicians played in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His uncle, Manny Roth, who is 92, opened the club in 1960, and laid the marble floor himself.
After the band had delivered a tight and joyous rendition of “Hot for Teacher,” David Lee Roth recounted how he had been brought to the club when he was only 7 and saw his uncle appeal to the audience to help a young folk singer named Bobby Zimmerman find a place to stay. His uncle beamed at him from a booth across from the stage.
“It took us 50 years to get this gig,” Mr. Roth said. “This is a temple. This is a very special place and I am more nervous about this gig than I would ever be at the Garden. There is no hiding up here. There are no fake vocals. There is no fake anything.”
There was some truth to those words. Removed from their stadium-sized pedestal and placed on the foot-high stage, Van Halen seemed to be reduced to its elements: the blues-rock power trio, the unwavering drum lines of Alex Van Halen, the soaring virtuosity of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work, and Mr. Roth’s endearing and gutsy vocals. (The original bass player, Michael Anthony, has been replaced in this incarnation of the band by Wolfgang Van Halen, who is Eddie Van Halen’s son.) If you squinted and lost yourself in the music, it was possible to forget they were stars and imagine they were just another rock band, a bit long in the tooth perhaps, but extremely good at what they do.
And what they did pleased many in the crowd. That was no small feat since their diehard fans were outside in the cold and some of the best critics in the business were listening. They started with a roaring version of “You Really Got Me,” the Kinks cover that was one of their early successes, then played with gusto through several of their biggest hits: “Dancing the Night Away,” “Panama,” “Hot for Teacher,” and “Jump.” They also unveiled a new song from the recently recorded album, “She’s the Woman,” which features a fast hard-rock riff that echoes their early style.
For some in the audience, the songs triggered a nostalgic response. Jonathan Cohen, who books bands for the Jimmy Fallon show, could not stop dancing and singing the lyrics. “1984” was the first album he bought from himself, he said, and he recalled leaving the dinner table early to see the debut of the video for “Hot for Teacher. “It was the first time rock and roll was really connecting with me in a major way,” he said. “There really aren’t new bands that sound like this.”
Seated nearby, Kirk Douglas, the guitarist with the hip-hop and ne0-soul group The Roots, said he felt overcome with emotion during the set. Eddie Van Halen had been one of his guitar idols when he was learning to play, he said. “I can’t believe I just saw that,” he said. “He got me started on guitar. The way he made it sound like an organ.”
Outside, some fans grumbled it would have been nice if the band had done a second date in the club and let the hoi poloi buy tickets. “Even a lottery would have been better than this,” said one fan, who gave his name only as Tony. Others said they had called everyone they knew in an effort to get on the list, to no avail. Still, they lingered outside in the chill, hoping the band would let a few extra people in, then hung around the back door to hear what they could. “That’s what we do,” said Kimberly Barnhill, 21, an aspiring singer. “We wait in the cold weather for our band.”
There were some consolations for the patient. As he left the club, Mr. Roth signed Mr. D’Anna’s copy of “Women and Children First” with a silver marker. Mr. D’Anna had spotted Mr. Roth earlier in the evening and memorized the license number of his hired car, so he knew which car to stake out after the show. “Always memorize the license plate,” he said, smiling as he showed off his prize autograph.Leave a comment:
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Grant!!!!UNBELIEVABLE!!!
I gotta say that for past few years I've pretty much not given much of a shit with any prospects for a VH return to form, preferring to lurk around in Non-VH Forums (even that out-of-the-blue Aussie gig, that the incompetent promoters eventually stuffed up, didn't quite encourage me as much as it normally should've done - but maybe that was some kind of sign there?)
...BUT WOW, JUST WOW...WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR THAT WAS!!!
Cheers to WARF, Pojo, GEM, and all the rest here at the ARMY!
Cheers again!
Good to see you again! It's been too damn long!!!!!
Hope everything is going well for you!Leave a comment:
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