Official 5/1 Tulsa Meetup/Review Thread

[Momshell]

Guess it's too early - that's all I could find. Will look for more later.

[Hardrock69]

Some of my friends from Wichita were at the show tonight, as it is only about 2 1/2 hours from Tulsa. Including one of my closest friends in the world. I look forward to hearing his thoughts on the show, as he had seen them back in the early 80s several times also. Yo, Vin!

[damngoodtimes]

As I begin to type this review, I'm in the process of copying my videos on to my harddrive because I'm a fan of multi-tasking...

To understand what this night means to mean, you have to start at the beginning.

My brother, the House of Pain, former mod of the House of Music and Roth Romper Room here at DLRArmy, is about 8 and half years older than me. We shared a room growing up in a small town north of Tulsa. And like most brothers, we didn't always see eye to eye with each other. I'm sure I was a pain as a 5 year old, until I was 15 or so I understand why he wasn't always a fan of me. The friendship we have was birthed out of Van Halen. My brother always played Van Halen on the badass stereo he had, I mean the thing even had a record player on it and 2 tape decks for recording. How player is that? But I never really got into Van Halen until I turned 16 and started driving. I had a 1976 POS truck with a tape deck... in 1998 (I know, I was awesome.) And in trying to find music to listen to, I found a nice set of old tapes my brother owned. And I recognized Van Halen, so I took 1984 and began listening.

My brother took me under his wing in expanding my =VH= library and made me another mix tape of various Van Halen songs, and at that point I was hooked.

In 1999, I joined tha VHlinks, and eventually became the moderator of the VH Song and Album forums as a 17 year old. Also around that time, I met a couple of superfans, if you will, that eventually became like a brotherhood. Also in this time frame, we joined the Army here representing classic Van Halen. I was a mod here as well in various forums, the Rumor Mill, Song and Albums, and eventually the House of Music.

During this time, I began to collect various bootlegs from the Van Halen tours. I, having been born in 1982, was never fortunate to see Van Halen live. But I had several bootlegs. I had/have at least one from each of the first 6 tours, and plenty of demos. Napster was such a great resource back in the day... Thanks Sean whatever your name is. (Sorry, the Social Network was a little boring)

I'd obviously seen many of the videos from this current tour, and I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect. I didn't go in with low expectations. But as someone who sings and plays the guitar weekly on stage, I know it's not the easiest thing to do. And being consistenly great for 20+ songs is tough.

I know we've always said Dave is a showman. A frontman. An entertainer... let's be honest. Dave is THE entertainer. THE frontman. THE SHOWSTOPPA! THE ICON! (with appologies to Conmee) But I've never seen someone run a show like he did tonight.

That was the single greatest event I have ever been to. In part because of who Van Halen is to me. What those songs mean to me. I mean, the first 10 songs I ever learned on the guitar were Van Halen songs. And I was singing DLR and VH songs several years before I began playing.

But the amazing thing is: they were spot on tonight. I've seen Eddie not nail the Ice Cream Man solo plenty of time, but he was spot on tonight. I've heard Dave have trouble with the second half of the demanding setlist, but he had no trouble tonight during that I'll Wait, HFT, Women in Love, GGB gauntlet. Wolfgang is the man and I don't know what he's going to do in the future, but I'll be listening. He's progressed to the point that I don't need to say Michael Anthony who? Mikes irrelevant, and there is no reason to compare them anymore. Alex is still amazing. Drums pull everything together. I say that as a guitarist who's had not so great drummer in the past. But the songs fit together in no small part because of Alex.

It looks like my videos on my CPU now, but I most go to sleep since I have to be at work in 7 hours. I will make sure the audio is good, then I'll upload them to Youtube so you all too may experience a small portion of what I experienced tonight.

James out.

(I apologize in advance for spelling and syntax errors...)

biblical fuckin' review!! thanks, brother

[redfire]

Just a heads up, when I left I was uploading the videos to YouTube. I'll start embedding the videos when I get home. A buddy if mine recorded some too, so I'll see if any of his videos sound good.

[vandeleur]

Great review redfire

[SLAUGHTER MAN]

Some of my friends from Wichita were at the show tonight, as it is only about 2 1/2 hours from Tulsa. Including one of my closest friends in the world. I look forward to hearing his thoughts on the show, as he had seen them back in the early 80s several times also. Yo, Vin!

HARD ROCK69...can't fuckin' wait to read your post about the Tulsa show. It sucked that St Louis didn't get ROMEO DELIGHT (one of top 5 VH songs) and GIRL GONE BAD..I wish they would have put GGB in PRETTY WOMAN'S place....completely changed my attitude on I"LL WAIT..it smokes like Tommy Chong 4/20. Was good in 2007/08...is beyond killer,slap your woman's ass, light a bomb bad ass on this tour,

[Jagermeister]

Well great show last night. Set list was already posted so I won't rehash that.

First of all it was fucking hot in that place. I stood up the entire show and wasn't real uncomfortable during it but it was warm. I don't know that it really helped Dave out much which I will explain in more detail later.

The band was on fucking fire. Sound quality was excellent as it usually is in this venue. I tried to shoot some video on my wife's phone but it didn't work. O well. Tons of people were shooting so I am not to worried about it. I wanted to enjoy the show. Like the other shows this one was fast. Not many breaks between songs. Before Ice Cream Man Dave had an Oklahoma rant about his dogs and cows. It was kinda cool. I think we exited the place at 1100 pm. We could have got out quicker but my wife's friend was drunk as hell so we were a little slow getting out. It wasn't sold out but it was close. The place was packed. It seats about as many as MSG to give you an idea of how big the place is.

Ok Dave was in top form for most of the show. As it went on his voice was giving out to the point where by the last two songs I think he could barely speak. It looked almost painful to me. He managed to get all the words out but it was tough. Weird deal. I don't know if anyone else noticed it or not but I sure did. It wasn't before Jump but the song before that (ATBL as I review my notes)he went back to the drum riser and got a drink of something and spit some of it out.


Ed was on fire. Guitar solo was EPIC!

I may post more details as the cob webs clear form my head. Plus I have some work to do so I'll check back later.

Viva Van Halen!

[houseofpain]

Very moved my brother. Awesome show. Mind blowing. So happy I was able to experience the greatest band ever with you. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if KEB had been able to come with us.

Tom

[houseofpain]

For all the complaining about the arena and temperature, I wore jeans and a t-shirt and was fine. It was warm, but never uncomfortable.

[Momshell]

Clip of HFT

[Momshell]

and another clip of HFT

[loucap81]

I really think they're hitting their stride now, in "midseason form" to use a sports phrase. I have a friend who was at this show as well, a well-known guy on other boards and in the VH bootleg community. He registered here but I don't think he's ever posted here. I encouraged him to submit a review. Anyway he was just lavishing praise about this show. Here were the texts I got:

"Yes they are great. Awesome" (This was in response to my telling him that redfire was telling everyone how great it was)

"Eddie just did a wild feedback thing during EWS"

"Great jam in YRGM"

"Biggest cheer of eve for DTNA"

"Eddie just tore up solo for ICM"

[Jagermeister]

I want to see a clip of Panama.

[fourthcoming]

You know what, this Fuckin' band kicks ass.......their steamrolling through cities now.......they had a rough patch here and there, every band gets fatigued.....but their tearing heads off again. Am I the only one still blown away by the new album btw? I listened to it so much it was bordeline rediculous when I first bought it. Had to put it down for a week or two.....switched to listening to boots of all the shows from this tour......I'm back to listening to nothing but ADKOT.....still completely blown away and still get emotional listening to it. I still have to sometimes stop and think to myself......I can't believe after all the drama, that my favorite rock and roll band released a full length, kick ass record with Diamond Dave. Has this been happening to anyone? I'm sure it has......it just still seems surreal to me sometimes. You stop and think about all the bands people have wanted to get back together over the course of time and the likelihood of Van Halen ever getting back and recording with Dave, it still blows my mind. It's a very special thing, a special time, and it truly means alot to me. That's my 2 cents.

[redfire]

I think I have audio of ATBL, so I'll have to check that out when I get home.

HOP, sorry they didn't play House in your house last night. Next tour maybe...