Official July 5 Seattle, WA, White River Amphitheatre Meetup/Review Thread

[So this is love]

of course +

This is the closest to a perfect setlist that I have seen from these guys...Now, I could do without She`s the woman, Chinatown, I`ll wait and drum solo. I would replace them with Fools or Secrets, Little Dreamer or Top Jimmy, STIL and HAIL.

[Seshmeister]

It's notable that Tattoo has gone.

WVH has Chinatown in there for the bass and I think he has earned that.

[WARF]

I'm still waiting for Sammy Hagar to take off his wig and clothes during a circle jerk concert like Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie" revealing that he is Bette Midler...

[BumBahDeeDah]

Those videos look like Ed hates Dave, like an angry wife at a party who's just trying to keep up appearances. Dave looks like he wants to put his arm around Ed, then remembers the tension and decides to act like he's having a great fucking time. Except in reality, with these guys, they're making great loads of CASH.

[Seshmeister]

Things have definitely soured even since Kimmel.

[Jetstream]

Let's act like Van Halen fans and overANALyze.

Anything to the Halens coming onstage from our right and Dave coming from the left?

He really could use listening to the classics and rehearsing with them boys more.

I've only seent three songs, but it looks like Ed goes from fear of what Dave is doing, to "Oh shit, what's he going to do?" to tolerance of what he's doing.

However I do think that if they ever record new music as Van Halen, the only vocalist to write with is David Lee Roth. There you go! Dave can write and record, and someone else can sing on tour.

Sammy Hagar has been working on a Van Halen smear campaign for the last ten years, because Sam obviously watches American Idol religiously and most have gotten sucked into the routine. I can tell actual Van Halen fans by their nature to not overanalyze Van Halen, or rather not critique on a serious level at all. Van Halen is not a wine tasting contest, it is a couple of kegs of beer and Van Halen is like beer... anyone who bitches about beer at a party should not go to parties lol

[twobad]

Things have definitely soured even since Kimmel.

I haven't had the opportunity to view the vids while at work. Please expound on your statement above,
Thanks...
-=T=-

[BumBahDeeDah]

Sammy Hagar has been working on a Van Halen smear campaign for the last ten years, because Sam obviously watches American Idol religiously and most have gotten sucked into the routine. I can tell actual Van Halen fans by their nature to not overanalyze Van Halen, or rather not critique on a serious level at all. Van Halen is not a wine tasting contest, it is a couple of kegs of beer and Van Halen is like beer... anyone who bitches about beer at a party should not go to parties lol

Puts it in perspective for me. Thanks. At the same time, I'm in the beer business so I've complained about beer at a party before, so I'm all messed up.

[Von Halen]

I'm still waiting for Sammy Hagar to take off his wig and clothes during a circle jerk concert like Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie" revealing that he is Bette Midler...

Sammy Hagar has been working on a Van Halen smear campaign for the last ten years, because Sam obviously watches American Idol religiously and most have gotten sucked into the routine. I can tell actual Van Halen fans by their nature to not overanalyze Van Halen, or rather not critique on a serious level at all. Van Halen is not a wine tasting contest, it is a couple of kegs of beer and Van Halen is like beer... anyone who bitches about beer at a party should not go to parties lol

Van Halen is touring, and you motherfuckers are still talking about Sammy Clichegar. Unfuckingbelievable. You guys keep him more relevant than the fucking redheads do.

[Jetstream]

Puts it in perspective for me. Thanks. At the same time, I'm in the beer business so I've complained about beer at a party before, so I'm all messed up.

LOL, it is just the popular music genre of the 5 minute song to me and it makes it hard for me to dissect it in a serious manner. I laugh when I hear people call Edward Van Halen 'Mozart' or a modern day 'Beethoven', my ass. The complexities and refinement of a classical composition is way beyond the capabilities of Edward and he is not Franz Liszt as a virtuoso. Popular culture songs are nursery rhymes for adults put to music... and the cradle will rock, be if Roth wants to throw a tantrum with his voice or not because he is a interesting hyper 60 year old kid

[Fairwrning]

That would've been a HELL-UVA setlist back in '84!

Would have been awesome in 07 when Dave was still carrying a tune..now the band is peaking and Dave,well.....

[ZahZoo]

My buddy Chris from the Classic Metal Show posted the YRGM video on his FB page with this comment:

"For all those that say "Dave is just being Dave" about Van Halen, you are wrong. What Dave is doing is being lazy and lame in spite of the rest of his band doing their damndest to perform brilliantly."

Can't agree more.

Watching the videos... seems the core issue is lack of practicing with his band mates. His timing is hit-n-miss... when he clowns around he tries to cram too much in and then misses his vocal marks. It just seems too obvious that Dave hasn't spent enough time with the Van Halens practicing... maybe it will improve over time.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Van Halen is touring, and you motherfuckers are still talking about Sammy Clichegar. Unfuckingbelievable. You guys keep him more relevant than the fucking redheads do.

you should see dale chirp about him on the rest of the interwebs...

[WARF]

Van Halen is touring, and you motherfuckers are still talking about Sammy Clichegar. Unfuckingbelievable. You guys keep him more relevant than the fucking redheads do.

That's an ERROR.

The last VAN HALEN tour was in 1984.

[Terry]

Would have been awesome in 07 when Dave was still carrying a tune..now the band is peaking and Dave,well.....

Yeah, that really sums it up.

Instrumentally, the band is playing well. The backing vocals sound good. LUTS, DDL and DM sounded great far as the 3 Van Halens went

Roth sounds decent when he sings the tunes. Problem is, he sings a verse properly, then yells out a verse in a strained yelp. And he's back to forgetting lyrics, or forgetting the sequence they go in. I mean, DM has, what, 8 verse lines? And Roth can't get them right? Not enough rehearsal? Does he need a teleprompter?

DDL sounded pretty good all-around, I must say. Even Dave stayed on point for that one.

Nothing I heard makes me want to go out and get tickets for the Tampa show. It's still a case of the Van Halens getting the job done and "Dave just being Dave"...which I think these days means he sings the tunes in a passable manner only 50% of the time. Avoiding yelling out the lyrics in that goddamed awful strained yelp is something easily correctable on Roth's part and is actually something that would not only put far less strain on his voice but would make the whole presentation sound much better.

Apparently, Roth has no interest in doing that, and I have no interest in seeing Dave sing badly between slip-n' slide antics and ascot-waving. So, there you go. A shame, because the Van Halens sound quite good.