Official 3/17 Toronto Meetup/Review Thread

[guwapo_rocker]

That is the best review I have seen her give anyone ever!!

[guwapo_rocker]

Noticed that when they took their bow at the end it was Dave and Alex together holding hands. I don't remember seeing that recently.

[moose]

That is the best review I have seen her give anyone ever!!

True very true

[tommyv]

http://www.toronto.com/article/718019--van-halen-review-the-dave-and-eddie-show-rocks-again-30-years-on

Van Halen review: The Dave and Eddie show rocks again 30 years on
By GREG QUILL
Mar 18, 2012

It’s still a work in progress, but four years after guitar god and brand-owner Eddie Van Halen made up with singer David Lee Roth, the flashy showman who fronted the California hard-rock outfit’s classic line-up during their halcyon days in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there’s no doubt Van Halen, the band, is well on the road to recovery.

Not necessarily from drugs or alcohol or other kinds of abuse. The reunited quartet’s previous tour, in 2007-2008, was reported to have been cut short to allow Van Halen to re-enter rehab, to have surgery performed on one of his hands, and to mend fences with his son Wolfgang, who replaced the vintage VH-era’s Michael Anthony on bass.

Saturday night’s jammed-to-the-rafters show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the local stop on a North American tour built around the recently released album, A Different Kind of Truth, the first collection of new material featuring Roth since he was ousted in 1984, provided no evidence of excess — except for the mind-splitting volume of the 2-hour assault, and the otherworldly noises Van Halen, the guitarist, wrenched with jaw-dropping efficiency from his customized Fender EVH Wolfgang.

We’re talking recovery of the market-share variety here. Though Van Halen has never stopped working or touring — most successfully in the post-Roth era with Sammy Hagar — it seems there’s no real substitute for Diamond Dave and Eddie front and centre, grinning like a couple of warrior bros.

So, four years after the tentative reunion ramble that gave them their biggest tour gross in the band’s history — $93 million — Van Halen is the latest in a long line of 1970s rockers with a solid repertoire of classic radio hits who’ve learned the hard lesson: just give the fans what they want, night after night after night.

And that’s pretty well what we got at the ACC Saturday night. Most of Van Halen’s signature songs — “You Really Got Me,” “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “Somebody Get Me a Doctor,” “Pretty Woman,” “Hot For Teacher,” “Jump” — came roaring off the stage with nuclear force and got the St. Patricks’ Day-beer-primed crowd up and pumping from the get-go.

The new stuff — much like the old stuff, deceptively simple riffs overlaid with bellowed rhymes building to a titular chant or catch phrase — blended right in, all but unnoticed.

Not that songs of quality have ever been Van Halen’s stock-in-trade. The double threat — Eddie’s stunning virtuosity and Dave’s lurid yawp — is what keeps the myth alive. And it’s also the band’s biggest problem 30 years on.

Eddie still cuts it, big time. No guitarist out there plays with such a radically extended palette of tonal colours and sonic textures, or with such liquid speed and volatility. His solo, near the end of the set, was a master class for all aspiring guitarists, his flying fingers beamed onto an upstage screen of drive-in dimensions.

Time hasn’t been so kind to Dave, who comes across more than ever as the ragged vaudevillian huckster I saw him mock so effectively when I first encountered Van Halen at the 1983 US Festival in Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s back 40, in San Bernardino, Calif.

Almost 30 years on, Diamond Dave isn’t sexy any more. His swagger these days is more of a mince, his voice hoarse and shrill, his indelicate banter … well, tacky.

Roth once dominated the stage with his lusty shriek and cocky tales of conquest — he was, let’s face it, the most lecherous bandit in rock ‘n’ roll for a good decade — but he’s now a bit of a hokey carney, a trouper who knows the routines, but can’t make a credible effort to live up to his past.

It was only during his own solo spot, playing an acoustic guitar and filling us in on his current “other life” as a professional trainer of sheep- and cattle-herding dogs, while images of his favourite animals flickered in black and white behind him, that Roth seemed free of the constraints of the Van Halen myth and the shape-shifting forces of fandom.

For a few minutes, without the forced grin and the crotch-grabbing and the phony bluster, he was interesting and charming, a real dude.

[guwapo_rocker]

Moose chose to take in Kool and the Gang instead of enjoying C'Est What's famous 'Testicles on a Plate'. Makes you wonder about his....

Bahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

[ELVIS]

Van Halen review: The Dave and Eddie show rocks again 30 years on


Almost 30 years on, Diamond Dave isn’t sexy any more. His swagger these days is more of a mince, his voice hoarse and shrill, his indelicate banter … well, tacky.

Roth once dominated the stage with his lusty shriek and cocky tales of conquest — he was, let’s face it, the most lecherous bandit in rock ‘n’ roll for a good decade — but he’s now a bit of a hokey carney, a trouper who knows the routines, but can’t make a credible effort to live up to his past.

It was only during his own solo spot, playing an acoustic guitar and filling us in on his current “other life” as a professional trainer of sheep- and cattle-herding dogs, while images of his favourite animals flickered in black and white behind him, that Roth seemed free of the constraints of the Van Halen myth and the shape-shifting forces of fandom.

For a few minutes, without the forced grin and the crotch-grabbing and the phony bluster, he was interesting and charming, a real dude.

Fuck that cocksucker...

[Nitro Express]

"I don't know where that critic is today but I'm right here up on this stage baybee." --David Lee Roth--

[sadaist]

Fuck that cocksucker...

No comments section at the link

If you didn't like Dave before the show, you probably aren't going to like him after. I hate unbiased reviews and people who go in expecting him to be Dave of 1982. Review him as a 56 year old guy up there and compare him to other 56 year olds trying to do the same thing. Compare the band as a whole to other bands that have spent so much time apart. Compare the overall crowd reaction to that of other shows.

VH & Dave knock it out of the park night after night.

[sadaist]

"I don't know where that critic is today but I'm right here up on this stage baybee." --David Lee Roth--

Fuck the critic. Dave is there for the other 11,999 people smiling ear to ear to see him.

[moose]

http://www.toronto.com/article/71801...in-30-years-on

Van Halen review: The Dave and Eddie show rocks again 30 years on
By GREG QUILL
Mar 18, 2012

It’s still a work in progress, but four years after guitar god and brand-owner Eddie Van Halen made up with singer David Lee Roth, the flashy showman who fronted the California hard-rock outfit’s classic line-up during their halcyon days in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there’s no doubt Van Halen, the band, is well on the road to recovery.

Not necessarily from drugs or alcohol or other kinds of abuse. The reunited quartet’s previous tour, in 2007-2008, was reported to have been cut short to allow Van Halen to re-enter rehab, to have surgery performed on one of his hands, and to mend fences with his son Wolfgang, who replaced the vintage VH-era’s Michael Anthony on bass.

Saturday night’s jammed-to-the-rafters show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the local stop on a North American tour built around the recently released album, A Different Kind of Truth, the first collection of new material featuring Roth since he was ousted in 1984, provided no evidence of excess — except for the mind-splitting volume of the 2-hour assault, and the otherworldly noises Van Halen, the guitarist, wrenched with jaw-dropping efficiency from his customized Fender EVH Wolfgang.

We’re talking recovery of the market-share variety here. Though Van Halen has never stopped working or touring — most successfully in the post-Roth era with Sammy Hagar — it seems there’s no real substitute for Diamond Dave and Eddie front and centre, grinning like a couple of warrior bros.

So, four years after the tentative reunion ramble that gave them their biggest tour gross in the band’s history — $93 million — Van Halen is the latest in a long line of 1970s rockers with a solid repertoire of classic radio hits who’ve learned the hard lesson: just give the fans what they want, night after night after night.

And that’s pretty well what we got at the ACC Saturday night. Most of Van Halen’s signature songs — “You Really Got Me,” “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “Somebody Get Me a Doctor,” “Pretty Woman,” “Hot For Teacher,” “Jump” — came roaring off the stage with nuclear force and got the St. Patricks’ Day-beer-primed crowd up and pumping from the get-go.

The new stuff — much like the old stuff, deceptively simple riffs overlaid with bellowed rhymes building to a titular chant or catch phrase — blended right in, all but unnoticed.

Not that songs of quality have ever been Van Halen’s stock-in-trade. The double threat — Eddie’s stunning virtuosity and Dave’s lurid yawp — is what keeps the myth alive. And it’s also the band’s biggest problem 30 years on.

Eddie still cuts it, big time. No guitarist out there plays with such a radically extended palette of tonal colours and sonic textures, or with such liquid speed and volatility. His solo, near the end of the set, was a master class for all aspiring guitarists, his flying fingers beamed onto an upstage screen of drive-in dimensions.

Time hasn’t been so kind to Dave, who comes across more than ever as the ragged vaudevillian huckster I saw him mock so effectively when I first encountered Van Halen at the 1983 US Festival in Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s back 40, in San Bernardino, Calif.

Almost 30 years on, Diamond Dave isn’t sexy any more. His swagger these days is more of a mince, his voice hoarse and shrill, his indelicate banter … well, tacky.

Roth once dominated the stage with his lusty shriek and cocky tales of conquest — he was, let’s face it, the most lecherous bandit in rock ‘n’ roll for a good decade — but he’s now a bit of a hokey carney, a trouper who knows the routines, but can’t make a credible effort to live up to his past.

It was only during his own solo spot, playing an acoustic guitar and filling us in on his current “other life” as a professional trainer of sheep- and cattle-herding dogs, while images of his favourite animals flickered in black and white behind him, that Roth seemed free of the constraints of the Van Halen myth and the shape-shifting forces of fandom.

For a few minutes, without the forced grin and the crotch-grabbing and the phony bluster, he was interesting and charming, a real dude.

I'm gonna hunt this fucker down and hang him
From his "testicles"

[moose]

Bahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

So we doin the Up the Irons show or what!?

[guwapo_rocker]

So we doin the Up the Irons show or what!?

We're just waiting to see if the band on the second night is any good. Should know soon.

[Jagermeister]

Am I allowed to post here today?


I assume Lou taped this show?

[Diamondjimi]

Had a great fuckin time last night. Hit a pub downtown. threw back a few brews and some pub grub.
Walk a couple of blocks to the venue, roasted a couple of doobs and in we go. Caught the last couple of songs from Kool and the Gang.
Loaded up on more beers and waited for VH.... The boys kicked in Unchained and the place went fuckin apeshit when Dave took the stage!

Here's a few shots I took...

[Diamondjimi]

Bumped into "Dave" from local VH tribute "Yankee Rose"