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First Roth Army Kiwi To See Van Halen Live 6/16/2012 Phoenix Arizona. -
Pants off, and beer in hand...no updates???
American by birth. Southern by the grace of God.
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No Beer,No Pants And No Hair-Pie.
First Roth Army Kiwi To See Van Halen Live 6/16/2012 Phoenix Arizona.Comment
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Ahh...but happiness awaits you in the Nancy Grace thread, my friend.
American by birth. Southern by the grace of God.
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Never Been To Canada.First Roth Army Kiwi To See Van Halen Live 6/16/2012 Phoenix Arizona.Comment
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Unchained
Runnin' With the Devil
She's the Woman
The Full Bug
Tattoo
Everybody Wants Some!!
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
China Town
Hear About It Later
Pretty Woman
Alex Van Halen Drum Solo
You Really Got Me
The Trouble with Never
Dance the Night Away
I'll Wait
Hot for Teacher
Women In Love
Outta Love Again
Beautiful Girls
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solo
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
JumpComment
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Not a single youtube yet.Stay Frosty!
THE DAY IS DONZO LET'S HAVE SOME FUNZO!!Comment
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Old-school throwdown
GERRY KROCHAK, CALGARY SUN
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 09, 2012 10:23 PM MDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 09, 2012 10:33 PM MDT
Van Halen rocks the dome
Maybe you can turn back the hands of time to 1984 — if only for a couple of hours.
Although Sammy Hagar is a good singer, so-so songwriter, solid frontman and expert tequila maker, Van Halen was never really Van Halen without David Lee Roth. It’s true.
At 57 years of age, the clown prince of rock ’n’ roll hijinx, shenanigans and tomfoolery was actually in fine form Wednesday night in front of a semi-disappointing crowd of only 9,700 at the Saddledome.
Unlike Hagar, Diamond Dave was never much of a singer, but for some reason or another … it’s never really mattered. And it didn’t Wednesday.
The verticals of his patented flying scissor kicks aren’t quite what they used to be, but Roth brought the excited Calgary classic rock contingent to its collective feet as he first appeared on the massive minimalist stage and launched in the quick one-two punch of Unchained from 1981’s Fair Warning and Runnin’ With The Devil from the still outstanding self-titled 1978 debut.
Resplendent in black sequined jacket, pants and white scarf, Roth could barely contain himself.
“We’re off to a flying start tonight, Calgary!” he bellowed to raucous applause in front of the giant LED video screen.
Flanked by bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, Uncle Alex on drums and dear old dad, Eddie, on guitar, the tales of internal dysfunction and destruction seem to be a thing of the past.
Touring behind the first new Van Halen record in 14 years — and the first with Roth in 28 — the key players of Roth and Eddie Van Halen seem committed, fit, healthy, disease-free and even … happy.
For all of his mad genius guitar histrionics, flakiness and overall craziness, Eddie remains one of the great rock guitarists of all time. Some 35 years after forming the band in Pasadena, Calif., his style and techniques are still oft-imitated, but never duplicated.
He smiled brightly while finger-tapping his way through She’s The Woman, first single, Tattoo, from the new A Different Kind Of Truth album, Everybody Wants Some!! from Women and Children First and Somebody Get Me A Doctor from the second album. After all, it wasn’t like we were going to be hearing anything 5150 or OU812.
The interplay and chemistry between father and son was as effective as it was, er, heart-warming. The kid can play and the harmonies of Wolfgang and Eddie often overshadowed Diamond Dave. Is it live or is it Memorex? You be the judge. Unfortunately live sometimes just isn’t live anymore.
The band poured it on through Hear About It Later, the Roy Orbison nugget Oh, Pretty Woman, its second most famous cover of the Kinks’ You Really Got Me, and Dance The Night Away from Van Halen II. Indeed, these were the tunes everyone came to hear.
The crowd was far from ready to go home as the group pulled out Beautiful Girls, Ice Cream Man and Panama.
It wouldn’t be an old-school Van Halen throwdown without a 10-minute guitar solo, and EVH provided the flash and substance as only he can. Eruption — man, forget about it. This guy is still really something.
The show had yet to conclude at press time, but, not surprisingly, every show on the current tour has ended with Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love and, of course, Jump.
First up was, uh, Kool And The Gang — a curious and eyebrow-raising opener choice, to be sure. But the 10-piece funk, boogie, soul and R&B pioneers began to make more sense through tunes such as Fresh, Jungle Boogie, Ladies Night, Get Down On It and, of course, Celebration.
Decent.
Weird ... but decent.Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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Maybe the most harsh criticism of the tour for DLR.....
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Review: Van Halen solid but lack sparkle in Saddledome show
BY MIKE BELL, CALGARY HERALD MAY 9, 2012
Somewhat Flyersian are Van Halen.
For just as there’s forever a question surrounding the man backstopping the Broad Street Bullies, the talk inevitably turns to the man fronting for the mainstream rockers.
Both are constantly in search of the right chemistry with the man between or with the pipes, hoping he can help return them to past glories. And just as Philly has tied its fortunes to fifty-million-dollar man Ilya Bryzgalov, so, too, has Eddie seemingly, for now, hitched his wagon to Diamond David Lee Roth.
In each case, for the good and the bad.
One is prone to saves of remarkable athleticism while also allowing beach balls betwixt his legs, the other, well, the other has charisma and cachet, but he also ain’t what he used to be.
The former showed it Tuesday night in front of a disappointed home crowd, while the latter gave a pretty great display of what he now is Wednesday in front of a somewhat disappointing Dome crowd of 9,000.
Yes, the “classic” lineup of Van Halen — minus bassist and founding member Michael Anthony — made its return with new album A Different Kind of Truth in tow and old frontman back centre stage, and he proved to be their greatest liability.
No, nobody has ever accused Roth of being one of rock’s great vocalists, but he was always considered one of its better frontmen, and Wednesday night he had neither of those things going for him, and the show plodded and limped into the concert off-season as a result.
He was buried deep into the already muddy mix, with neither the power nor vocal personality left to really punch out, without resorting to shoutiness and strained caterwauling. The only time there was any real spark was during a latter evening version of Dance the Night Away, but that was due mainly to some interband harmonizing,
Even worse, with Roth’s past as a focal point taken into account, he was comparatively immobile on the sparse, clean stage, providing very little to look at — save the odd, half-arsed high kick, foot shuffle, mic stand twirl and facial mugging, made big only by their transmission on the massive screen behind — and even less energy to feed off of.
He wasn’t funny, he wasn’t particularly cocky or likable, he wasn’t a showman, he wasn’t enigmatic, hell, he wasn’t even Sammy Hagar. He was a sad, airband version of his former self.
He even managed to kill some momentum heading into the final act of the show, with a bizarre, rambling talk about his dog-herding hobby, as scenes of his animals doing their work played behind him.
It’s something of a shame because, musically, there was so much to work with, with the Van band — guitarist Eddie, drummer Alex and bassist Wolfgang — providing an incredible offensive threat, that, in the past 10 years may have been missing. Eddie, especially was in dynamite form, looking healthy and fantastic, while providing the unbelievable fretwork that has been his trademark for the past four decades.
But he nor the other two aren’t necessarily demonstrative performers, relying instead on their considerable chops.
As for the songs themselves, well, for many fans those might have been enough, with a set list that was pretty well balanced. The new material sounded surprisingly fresh in a live setting — tracks such as She’s the Woman and Tattoo from their new/old album A Different Kind of Truth. And there were plenty of perennial faves, such as Runnin’ With The Devil, Everybody Wants Some!!, Hot For Teacher and Panama along with their well-aimed covers of Oh, Pretty Woman and You Really Got Me.
Musically, save for the murkiness, you couldn’t complain about how they sounded and the ubiquitous solos were as bang on as they could be, setting things up as skilfully as they could.
As for Diamond Dave, he couldn’t seal the deal, and, ultimately, with a performance that could best be described as lacklustre, laboured and entirely mailed in, he gave it all away.
While certainly not brand new, opening act Kool and the Gang were more like papa’s partially successful bag. Nowhere near the travesty many might have expected when the pairing was originally announced, the R&B, jazz, funk and disco veterans weren’t the party starters that had been promised. Well, not initially.
It took them a full half of their 50-minute set to get into the groove, which, not surprisingly, also coincided with the dropping of one of their most memorable tracks Jungle Boogie, which, in some sort of Pulpy, Pavlovian response, perked up every one of the ears in the half-empty arena.
After that, the tight, well-oiled and remarkably energetic 10-piece — including a core quartet of co-founders led by Bell brothers, Ronald and Robert (a.k.a. Kool) — kept the crowd up and the mood even higher with extended jams of hits Ladies Night, Get Down on It and, of course, the song that every winner wants to hear, Celebration.
Oh well, Flyers, Van Halen— there’s always next time.
Review: Van Halen with Kool and the Gang at the Saddledome Wednesday night. Attendance: 9,000
mbell@calgaryherald.com Twitter.com/mrbell_23Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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Someone's a Sammy fan and a Flyers fan......poor guyComment
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That's a pretty bizarre analogy trying to compare a rock band to a hockey team. And why would anyone in Calgary care about the Flyers? I guess the guy is a Flyers fan.
What kind of show will sell out in Calgary anyway? Soundgarden played the Saddledome last year and I think the attendance was even worse.Comment
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Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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