Official 5/7 Vancouver Meetup/Review Thread

[Momshell]

Once again - thanks Light Em Up for all of the updates and tweets! Wish I could hang with you guys - if I was up til 2am I'd get less than 3 hours sleep and that just wouldn't cut it. Can't wait for them to move a little further east so I can join you all again. I promise if you and Sniper are at a show and you are texting me I'll stay up for that one - even if I have to call in sick the next day!

[ALMOSTsaved]

Here's a review from a poster over at Metal Sludge. Keep in mind there's a few folks over there that think VH shouldn't even exist at this point and also a few who think they should have the other singer. So take this review with a grain of salt:

Van Halen Vancouver Concert Review:

Kool and the Gang were a solid warm up act. They hit the stage early. I was at my seat just before 7.30 and they had already started! They played the big hits later in the set and by then the crowd was really into it. It was a little sad to see so few people there for most of their set, but it did fill out near the end.

Van Halen
Unchained is a great song but it was a mess live.
My girlfriend who is a singer and dancer stated DLR had no melody. Not that you need to be a singer to know that! She thought he was entertaining though in a slightly awkward way. And I would have to agree. In his prime there is no doubt he was a great frontman, but stuff that worked when he was in his 20s and 30s just feels contrived now. Plus he did a weird story 3/4s of the way through about his dogs and trucks or something. Also his martial arts moves were impressive at first but they got a little tiring later in the show.

'Runnin with the Devil' really got the show going for me. The big hits went down the best as was to be expected. Songs such as 'The Full Bug' and 'Hear About It Later' did not translate so well live. i love these songs on the record and as a major fan it was great to hear, but the crowd was lackluster to them.

For the new songs, 'She's the women' fits in nicely, and 'Tattoo' is a nice change of pace. The 'Trouble with Never' does nothing for me on record or live. They should drop it for 'You and your blues'. I like 'Chinatown' on record but its weak live.

Alex Van Halen was solid. Good drum solo.

Wolfie is musically very good, but as many have noticed he has very little stage presence. Not that it matters too much because most are there to see DLR and Eddie when it comes down to it. Good backing vocals though.

Eddie Van Halen was on fire. Star of the show for me. I've never seen his solo but I was mesmerized. He looks healthy and seemed to be enjoying himself. At the start of the concert my girlfriend stated that the guitarist really doesn't like the singer and that he was laughing at him for the first few songs. She wasn't aware of the band history and the disputes between Eddie and Dave.

The backing vocals of Eddie and Wolfie really helped Dave a lot. In fact DLR was so low in the mix it was sometimes unclear exactly which song it was at some points!

Even though they are good songs I've never been crazy about 'Women in Love', 'Beautiful Girls' and 'Girl Gone Bad' but they came off really well live.

For people saying drop 'Pretty Women'. Doesn't make sense. Big crowd pleaser and sounds good live.

For me the second half of the show was far better than the first half.

Highlights of the show:
Eddie Van Halen
Everybody Wants Some
Women in Love
Beautiful Girls
Runnin With The Devil
Ain't Talkin About Love
Oh Pretty Women
Panama
Jump
Actually most of the songs were great

Low-lights
DLR vocals on occasion
Sometimes unclear in which song it was (probably because of the previous lowlight!)
Unchained
Chinatown
The Trouble WIth Never

This was my first Van Halen concert and it was great to finally see them (minus Michael Anthony ). Overall I had a good time and I didn't pay anything so it was worth the money for me! In all seriousness I would pay good money to see Van Halen again, especially if Eddie was performing like he did tonight.

8 out of 10

Oh and the attendance was solid. About 90%.

Edited to add another Metal Sludge poster's response to this review:

had the subject read: "Van Halen Vancouver concert review by me and my girlfriend" i never would have bothered clicking in here. it's like sending my 76 y/o neighbor (who lost most of his hearing working in a factory) to a show and asking him what he thought of the concert.

and tell your girlfriend that singing along to Girls Girls Girls while swinging around a brass pole doesnt qualify her as a singer and a dancer.

[fwacf]

First Problem....My girlfriend who is a singer and dancer stated DLR had no melody. Not that you need to be a singer to know that! She thought he was entertaining though in a slightly awkward way.
))))))SIDE NOTE((((((
Shooting nickles from ones Va-Jay-Jay does not make you and Dancer......it makes you a human slot machine!

[SLAUGHTER MAN]

Here's a review from a poster over at Metal Sludge. Keep in mind there's a few folks over there that think VH shouldn't even exist at this point and also a few who think they should have the other singer. So take this review with a grain of salt:

Van Halen Vancouver Concert Review:

Kool and the Gang were a solid warm up act. They hit the stage early. I was at my seat just before 7.30 and they had already started! They played the big hits later in the set and by then the crowd was really into it. It was a little sad to see so few people there for most of their set, but it did fill out near the end.

Van Halen
Unchained is a great song but it was a mess live.
My girlfriend who is a singer and dancer stated DLR had no melody. Not that you need to be a singer to know that! She thought he was entertaining though in a slightly awkward way. And I would have to agree. In his prime there is no doubt he was a great frontman, but stuff that worked when he was in his 20s and 30s just feels contrived now. Plus he did a weird story 3/4s of the way through about his dogs and trucks or something. Also his martial arts moves were impressive at first but they got a little tiring later in the show.

'Runnin with the Devil' really got the show going for me. The big hits went down the best as was to be expected. Songs such as 'The Full Bug' and 'Hear About It Later' did not translate so well live. i love these songs on the record and as a major fan it was great to hear, but the crowd was lackluster to them.

For the new songs, 'She's the women' fits in nicely, and 'Tattoo' is a nice change of pace. The 'Trouble with Never' does nothing for me on record or live. They should drop it for 'You and your blues'. I like 'Chinatown' on record but its weak live.

Alex Van Halen was solid. Good drum solo.

Wolfie is musically very good, but as many have noticed he has very little stage presence. Not that it matters too much because most are there to see DLR and Eddie when it comes down to it. Good backing vocals though.

Eddie Van Halen was on fire. Star of the show for me. I've never seen his solo but I was mesmerized. He looks healthy and seemed to be enjoying himself. At the start of the concert my girlfriend stated that the guitarist really doesn't like the singer and that he was laughing at him for the first few songs. She wasn't aware of the band history and the disputes between Eddie and Dave.

The backing vocals of Eddie and Wolfie really helped Dave a lot. In fact DLR was so low in the mix it was sometimes unclear exactly which song it was at some points!

Even though they are good songs I've never been crazy about 'Women in Love', 'Beautiful Girls' and 'Girl Gone Bad' but they came off really well live.

For people saying drop 'Pretty Women'. Doesn't make sense. Big crowd pleaser and sounds good live.

For me the second half of the show was far better than the first half.

Highlights of the show:
Eddie Van Halen
Everybody Wants Some
Women in Love
Beautiful Girls
Runnin With The Devil
Ain't Talkin About Love
Oh Pretty Women
Panama
Jump
Actually most of the songs were great

Low-lights
DLR vocals on occasion
Sometimes unclear in which song it was (probably because of the previous lowlight!)
Unchained
Chinatown
The Trouble WIth Never

This was my first Van Halen concert and it was great to finally see them (minus Michael Anthony ). Overall I had a good time and I didn't pay anything so it was worth the money for me! In all seriousness I would pay good money to see Van Halen again, especially if Eddie was performing like he did tonight.

8 out of 10

Oh and the attendance was solid. About 90%.

Edited to add another Metal Sludge poster's response to this review:

had the subject read: "Van Halen Vancouver concert review by me and my girlfriend" i never would have bothered clicking in here. it's like sending my 76 y/o neighbor (who lost most of his hearing working in a factory) to a show and asking him what he thought of the concert.

and tell your girlfriend that singing along to Girls Girls Girls while swinging around a brass pole doesnt qualify her as a singer and a dancer.

This guy has to be given a golf clap for the effort...but sometimes he seems clueless as Courtney Love at Hole rehearsal. I gotta see UNCHAINED from this gig...how could blow??? It was epic beyond words in the STL. His girlfriend is such a great musician huh??? Maybe somebody needs to school her ass that it ain't all scales, melodies and other bullshit there Celiene Dion. Hope somebody spilled some beer on the both of them,

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I have a feeling this guy's review will result in a comment or two....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Review+Halen+quite+1984+Vancouver/6582397/story.html

Review: Van Halen--not quite 1984 in Vancouver

Older VH stiff but still kicks out the jams at Rogers Arena

BY FRANCOIS MARCHAND, VANCOUVER SUN MAY 7, 2012

VANCOUVER, B.C.: MAY 07, 2012 - Veteran rockers Van Halen with David Lee Roth on vocals performed at Rogers Arena Monday May 07, 2012 in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER -- As much as everyone despised Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth's lead-off single Tattoo, there isn't too much to quibble about when it comes to the first album recorded with David Lee Roth since 1984's 1984.

Sure, Tattoo is a spin-off of an old track the band used to play live in the late '70s (Down In Flames), but what could you really expect from A Different Kind of Truth anyway? Depth and re-invention?

No, what Van Halen fans wanted was Van Halen: Young, dumb and full of spunk.

Deep into their 50s, Diamond Dave and Eddie and Alex Van Halen (who turns 60 on May 8) aren't the freshest flowers in the bunch any more, yet they can still kick out the jams.

(The exception of course is Eddie's 21-year-old son Wolfgang, who has replaced Michael Anthony on bass.)

Same goes for the live show: You go to a Van Halen gig expecting Van Halen to show up, and you don't flinch one bit when Diamond Dave wails, "I'm your man in shining pickup truck" during She's The Woman. (Yes, that dumb surface does cover a deeper sense of pop-rock mastery.)

Musically, Van Halen showed they still have gas in the tank and a whole lot of torque at Rogers Arena Monday night.

A clean, sober and apparently illness-free Eddie was, from behind his array of pedals, the main driving force. His guitar skills remain phenomenal: Arpeggiated riffs, whammy bar mind-benders and other six-string tricks were all on the menu, and you got a buffet's worth to please the beer-swillers in the audience.

A common enough gripe with some purist fans, Wolfgang playing bass instead of Anthony (who now provides the low-end with Sammy Haggar's Chickenfoot), wasn't that big of an issue.

The back end, with Alex hammering the skins just as expertly as his brother can play the guitar, was mighty tight.

The illusion was shattered by Diamond Dave and his gaudy leather/sequin/scarf outfit, who despite attempts at showing off his classic swagger isn't so flexible any more, both vocally and physically.

At 57, DLR knows well enough that he's not about to do the split-jumps he used to, though he managed to pull out a good kick during Everybody Wants Some and a couple slide splits during Beautiful Girls, the latter of which were quickly shown in slo-mo replay on screen.

"I was making sex tapes before you were even born," he chirped at a young fan at one point.

Diamond Dave hasn't lost his sense of humour but he was mostly a wax mannequin version of his former self.

Thankfully his apocalyptic braying, which was often hit-and-miss, hasn't completely given out yet.

That being said, Eddie and Wolfgang sang the harmonies right (with the help of some pre-taping?) and the sound mix was mainly focused on the band, which helped keep Unchained, Runnin' With the Devil, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman, The Kinks' You Really Got Me, and a fiery Hot For Teacher on the rails. (And what do you know? Tattoo got a big cheer too.)

The band's boldest move may have been its no-frills presentation, a big LED video wall and stripped down lighting making it about the band and nothing else.

In the opening slot, veteran funksters Kool & the Gang churned out the sweatier, more party-oriented cuts from a catalogue that spans close to 50 years.

Contrary to expectations, it wasn't that odd a pairing since it was more Hollywood Swinging, Jungle Boogie and Celebration than, say, softies like Cherish, which ironically enough came out at the same time VH were crushing it with Jump and Panama.

So, 1984 after all? Not quite.

[ALMOSTsaved]

That review reminds me of some of the Tweets we post here by assholes who REALLY don't want to be there....Go just to be part of the event and to pick it apart. Oh and he probably looks like Elvis Costello too.

[Angel]

Speaking of tweets...don't know how to copy them on my phone but one guy had two hilarious ones:

"And with the first note he sings, DLR impregnates every woman in the audience"

"And with the first note by Eddie, all those pregnancies are aborted"...

Or something along those lines...laughed so hard the coffee almost came out my nose, lol

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[ThatArtGuy]

I have a feeling this guy's review will result in a comment or two....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertai...397/story.html

Someone's been reading too many of Elvis' posts. And what do you expect from someone who was probably raised in a Vancouver Francophone school?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Yeah, I think the guy provided his rationale right in the title of the article.... "Van Halen--not quite 1984 in Vancouver"......

Well, no shit Sherlock.....

Look, we've all been saying it for months now.... If you're walking into that arena and expecting that you're going to be getting a show on par with the 1984 tour, you undoubtedly will come away disappointed.....

That isn't because the 2012 version of Van Halen isn't a fantastic show.... It isn't because EVH has "lost a step" guitar-wise....

But it's for the sheer fact that age takes its toll..... And moreover, there haven't been many tours to this day that could come close to the extravaganza that was the 1984 tour.... VH was on top of the rock world that year, and it wasn't even close..... So if you're a critic and expect to see 1984 - Part Deux, #1 - You're an idiot, and #2 - You're being extremely unfair to the band.

And that really holds true for DLR.....

You might not be expecting him to be doing the flying splits off the drum riser at age 57, but if you even think that he should be coming close to doing the acrobatics he did 30 years ago, that's not fair to DLR.....

I repeat, the man is 57 years old.....

The criticisms on his vocals, IMHO, are valid... But, once again, let's put it into perspective.... There aren't many artists at DLR's age that can sustain their vocal range of 30 years ago....

So I think this guy's review falls in line with several others we've read so far in the tour.... They're writing as if they're looking for the 1984 Van Halen, and when it doesn't come, they unfairly scrutinize....

[TJMKID]

I've never been impressed with Canada ---- all their biggest stars move to the USA ---- can't be that great of a country

I have a feeling this guy's review will result in a comment or two....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Review+Halen+quite+1984+Vancouver/6582397/story.html

Review: Van Halen--not quite 1984 in Vancouver

Older VH stiff but still kicks out the jams at Rogers Arena

BY FRANCOIS MARCHAND, VANCOUVER SUN MAY 7, 2012

VANCOUVER, B.C.: MAY 07, 2012 - Veteran rockers Van Halen with David Lee Roth on vocals performed at Rogers Arena Monday May 07, 2012 in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER -- As much as everyone despised Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth's lead-off single Tattoo, there isn't too much to quibble about when it comes to the first album recorded with David Lee Roth since 1984's 1984.

Sure, Tattoo is a spin-off of an old track the band used to play live in the late '70s (Down In Flames), but what could you really expect from A Different Kind of Truth anyway? Depth and re-invention?

No, what Van Halen fans wanted was Van Halen: Young, dumb and full of spunk.

Deep into their 50s, Diamond Dave and Eddie and Alex Van Halen (who turns 60 on May 8) aren't the freshest flowers in the bunch any more, yet they can still kick out the jams.

(The exception of course is Eddie's 21-year-old son Wolfgang, who has replaced Michael Anthony on bass.)

Same goes for the live show: You go to a Van Halen gig expecting Van Halen to show up, and you don't flinch one bit when Diamond Dave wails, "I'm your man in shining pickup truck" during She's The Woman. (Yes, that dumb surface does cover a deeper sense of pop-rock mastery.)

Musically, Van Halen showed they still have gas in the tank and a whole lot of torque at Rogers Arena Monday night.

A clean, sober and apparently illness-free Eddie was, from behind his array of pedals, the main driving force. His guitar skills remain phenomenal: Arpeggiated riffs, whammy bar mind-benders and other six-string tricks were all on the menu, and you got a buffet's worth to please the beer-swillers in the audience.

A common enough gripe with some purist fans, Wolfgang playing bass instead of Anthony (who now provides the low-end with Sammy Haggar's Chickenfoot), wasn't that big of an issue.

The back end, with Alex hammering the skins just as expertly as his brother can play the guitar, was mighty tight.

The illusion was shattered by Diamond Dave and his gaudy leather/sequin/scarf outfit, who despite attempts at showing off his classic swagger isn't so flexible any more, both vocally and physically.

At 57, DLR knows well enough that he's not about to do the split-jumps he used to, though he managed to pull out a good kick during Everybody Wants Some and a couple slide splits during Beautiful Girls, the latter of which were quickly shown in slo-mo replay on screen.

"I was making sex tapes before you were even born," he chirped at a young fan at one point.

Diamond Dave hasn't lost his sense of humour but he was mostly a wax mannequin version of his former self.

Thankfully his apocalyptic braying, which was often hit-and-miss, hasn't completely given out yet.

That being said, Eddie and Wolfgang sang the harmonies right (with the help of some pre-taping?) and the sound mix was mainly focused on the band, which helped keep Unchained, Runnin' With the Devil, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman, The Kinks' You Really Got Me, and a fiery Hot For Teacher on the rails. (And what do you know? Tattoo got a big cheer too.)

The band's boldest move may have been its no-frills presentation, a big LED video wall and stripped down lighting making it about the band and nothing else.

In the opening slot, veteran funksters Kool & the Gang churned out the sweatier, more party-oriented cuts from a catalogue that spans close to 50 years.

Contrary to expectations, it wasn't that odd a pairing since it was more Hollywood Swinging, Jungle Boogie and Celebration than, say, softies like Cherish, which ironically enough came out at the same time VH were crushing it with Jump and Panama.

So, 1984 after all? Not quite.

[Romeo Delight]

I had the best of intentions to tape the opening song and post...I lasted about 10 seconds and had to stop that nonsense.

Sorry guys but I was having waaaay too much fun. I did happen to catch about 20 minutes later in the show, but its not great quality (no zoom).

i was pretty close to the stage so it was pretty epic.

One thing that was different about the show is that the Dave/ED jam was in the middle of YRGM and not Unchained. In it's place was a different interlude dominated by King Edward.

kind of a shame I didn't catch it, but again, there was no way I had the ability to stand still at that point of the show. I'll post some comments later

[Romeo Delight]

I've never been impressed with Canada ---- all their biggest stars move to the USA ---- can't be that great of a country

Yes...it is a horrible place. Never come here.

This is where the pre-concert festivities began. As you can see from the pics, Canada is a place you should stay away from. There is nothing for you here

http://imonlyhereforthefood.com/2009/09/the-mill-marine-bistro/

[perrin29]

Yes...it is a horrible place. Never come here.

This is where the pre-concert festivities began. As you can see from the pics, Canada is a place you should stay away from. There is nothing for you here

http://imonlyhereforthefood.com/2009...marine-bistro/

I agree, feel free to stay out.

[loucap81]

So does anyone have a setlist for this show? It's not even up on setlist.fm yet.

[VanCanHalen]

Be patient uploading footage on youtube right now from row 2 center, recorded on my new Sony HD Camcorder at 1080P/60P large files looks GREAT!!!