Review: DLR Live - August 4th

[Terry]

Little bit belated, but what the fuck, it's free.

DAVID LEE ROTH - Hard Rock Live - Orlando, Florida - Friday, 8/4/06

Balcony - seats just under 600 at max capacity, probably about 500 people up there on the night of the show. Downstairs in general admission...I dunno...maybe 1,000 - 1,500 at max capacity. Looked to be about half to 2/3rds full.

Setlist:

PA intro: Blaxploitation 1970s movie-soundtrack style intro

Hot For Teacher
Meanstreet
California Girls (some nice screams from Dave on this one, sounding just like on the EP - short but sweet)
Just Like Paradise
Running With The Devil
"Eruption"esque-style solo/You Really Got Me
Jeff Beck-style jam, including snatches of Sophie from Wired
Beautiful Girls
Somebody Get Me A Doctor (nice to hear that one live)
Jamie's Crying
And The Cradle...
Just A Gigilo
Unchained
Another Jeff Beck-style jam based on 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers from Blow By Blow
Panama
Dance The Night Away
Ice Cream Man
Everybody Wants Some
Ain't Talking 'Bout Love

Jump


Met up with Douglas T and DrMaddVibe before the show, so it was the three army veterans plus the wives eating and drinking in the Hard Rock Cafe next door for a bit, plus a quick drink after the show with Doug T and his wife. Very cool people, all, and funny as hell, too. Sat up in the balcony. Median age of the concertgoers looked to be about 38 or so. Everyone in the balconies stayed seated for most of the show. We were probably about 100-150 feet away from the stage, and the balcony was on a 45 degree slope, so a nice, unobstructed view. The balconies reminded me of the Muppet Show for some odd reason.

The Good: Dave seemed to be more 'up' as far as his performance went than when I saw him play at the St. Pete Ribfest last November. Doug T's lady, who also saw him at the Ribfest, said you could tell he was far more energetic this time around, and I totally agree. I think my review of last November went something along the lines of Dave being as subdued as he could get, although he still gave off the vibe of being happy to be there at the time.
This time around, he did maybe a half-dozen spinning roundhouse kicks where both feet left the ground, with only one of them (at the end of Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love) falling noticeably flat. Also, he did a nice scissor kick where both feet left the stage. His voice was in good form. Sometimes a bit buried in the mix when the band was going full throttle on the choruses. The screams were short, concise, and "on key" or "on scream" or whatever. The band sounded as tight as last time, with the setlist fairly similar to last time as well. I was kinda glad they didn't break into a Van Strumming thing during the show; really wasn't terribly interested in this latest musical twist by Dave to begin with. Sound of the venue was good. Light show was interesting without taking away from the band. No opening act nonsense, either. Dave hit the ground running at 8:30 PM and gave a solid, professional 90 minute + set. He delivered the goods.

The bad: Doug T had mentioned before the show (and I agreed) that he'd like to see Dave perform more of his original solo stuff live. Throwing in Just Like Paradise alone didn't really cut it in this aspect (with Cali Girls and Gigilo obviously being covers - Rothified covers, to be sure, but covers nonetheless). Doug also mentioned that he'd like to see Brian be able to stretch out more during the tunes and throw some of his own stuff into the solos there, which I also thought was dead-on correct. Brian does a great job of reproducing Eddie's licks, but the bottom line for me is that it's not impressive to see/hear someone copping Eddie's licks anymore. These days, with seemingly everyone and their brother able to play guitar, after a 1/4 century + since EVH came onto the scene, seeing Young do an Eruption-style intro to You Really Got Me is about as exciting as going into any guitar store on any given day and hearing a wanna-be nobody doing it. It WOULD be impressive to hear Young put his own spin on some of this stuff, assuming he has something of his own to offer.
The most interesting guitar work I heard was when Toshi [sic] cut loose for a few bars of some funkified blues licks during the band intros, if only because he wasn't doing the Eddie Van Halen Show.


Bottom Line:

Dave's got a capable touring band, pretty much all of whom have been with him for awhile now. Get 'em into a room, cook up some good, new stuff, throw it onto about 25-50,000 discs. Then, drop one or two of those CVH tunes and PLAY THE NEW STUFF LIVE!!

Dave's been doing this type of show with relative consistency since about 1999. Enjoyed the show. Will in all likelihood continue to keep catching his act whenever he hits the area. His band is capable of more than just the VAN HALEN EXPERIENCE, though, and it might not be a bad idea to let the horses off the reins a bit, in terms of the CVH-heavy setlist. That would enable the current DLR live show to transcend from fuckin' great to exceptional.

Anyway, Dave still knows how to bring it. Signed, sealed and delivered.

Peace.

[ThrillsNSpills]

Even during the EEAS days he had his band showcase their skills at some point during the show.
(The Vai and Sheehan back and forth duels were amazing), but I think Sophie is one of Jeff Beck's finest and properly done would be incredible.
But didn't Brian cut loose on those jams, or was that the Toshi show?

Dave controls every aspect of the show, so I guess doing the Ed solos note for note is a requirement. Not only did Ed shred on that stuff, but the playing had a ton of feeling as well, which is challenging . But I agree about changing up that setlist (to have more Fair Warning cuts, heh heh).
New stuff would be perfect, but the just the hits approach was never my thing for Dave since there is so much to draw from that doesn't suck.
Thanks for the review.

[DlocRoth]

Nice review, Terry....

And spot on, I'm sure.

[Terry]

Originally posted by ThrillsNSpills
Even during the EEAS days he had his band showcase their skills at some point during the show.
(The Vai and Sheehan back and forth duels were amazing), but I think Sophie is one of Jeff Beck's finest and properly done would be incredible.
But didn't Brian cut loose on those jams, or was that the Toshi show?

Dave controls every aspect of the show, so I guess doing the Ed solos note for note is a requirement. Not only did Ed shred on that stuff, but the playing had a ton of feeling as well, which is challenging . But I agree about changing up that setlist (to have more Fair Warning cuts, heh heh).
New stuff would be perfect, but the just the hits approach was never my thing for Dave since there is so much to draw from that doesn't suck.
Thanks for the review.

Brian was the dominant guitar player. Toshi seemed to be turned down a bit in the mix (either that or his playing blends with Brian's so well that I couldn't tell the two apart when they're playing rhythm - but Brian took all the solos in all the songs, and those were loud and up front - heard them as clear as a bell).

Don't get me wrong: Brian sounds as fine as he always has, and he did EVH's playing justice, but he ain't no Vai, Beck or Van Halen. He's always gonna be a talented Eddie-clone, and I'm sure you're right in that Dave probably WANTS the stuff played note-for-note...and he (Young) does have more stage presence than Bart Walsh ever did.

Plus, he really needs to loose the Sideshow Bob haircut and velvet pants. Either that, or become Lenny Kravitz's lead guitarists understudy. Outside of those things, Young gets the job done.

[ALMOSTsaved]

Originally posted by ThrillsNSpills
But I agree about changing up that setlist (to have more Fair Warning cuts, heh heh).

I SO agree with this statement!

[ELVIS]

Barely...

[ELVIS]

Nice review...

BTW, how did dave sing songs like Somebody get Me a Doctor and Everybody Want's Some ??

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Terry
Little bit belated, but what the fuck, it's free.

DAVID LEE ROTH - Hard Rock Live - Orlando, Florida - Friday, 8/4/06

Balcony - seats just under 600 at max capacity, probably about 500 people up there on the night of the show. Downstairs in general admission...I dunno...maybe 1,000 - 1,500 at max capacity. Looked to be about half to 2/3rds full.

Setlist:

PA intro: Blaxploitation 1970s movie-soundtrack style intro

Hot For Teacher
Meanstreet
California Girls (some nice screams from Dave on this one, sounding just like on the EP - short but sweet)
Just Like Paradise
Running With The Devil
"Eruption"esque-style solo/You Really Got Me
Jeff Beck-style jam, including snatches of Sophie from Wired
Beautiful Girls
Somebody Get Me A Doctor (nice to hear that one live)
Jamie's Crying
And The Cradle...
Just A Gigilo
Unchained
Another Jeff Beck-style jam based on 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers from Blow By Blow
Panama
Dance The Night Away
Ice Cream Man
Everybody Wants Some
Ain't Talking 'Bout Love

Jump


Met up with Douglas T and DrMaddVibe before the show, so it was the three army veterans plus the wives eating and drinking in the Hard Rock Cafe next door for a bit, plus a quick drink after the show with Doug T and his wife. Very cool people, all, and funny as hell, too. Sat up in the balcony. Median age of the concertgoers looked to be about 38 or so. Everyone in the balconies stayed seated for most of the show. We were probably about 100-150 feet away from the stage, and the balcony was on a 45 degree slope, so a nice, unobstructed view. The balconies reminded me of the Muppet Show for some odd reason.

The Good: Dave seemed to be more 'up' as far as his performance went than when I saw him play at the St. Pete Ribfest last November. Doug T's lady, who also saw him at the Ribfest, said you could tell he was far more energetic this time around, and I totally agree. I think my review of last November went something along the lines of Dave being as subdued as he could get, although he still gave off the vibe of being happy to be there at the time.
This time around, he did maybe a half-dozen spinning roundhouse kicks where both feet left the ground, with only one of them (at the end of Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love) falling noticeably flat. Also, he did a nice scissor kick where both feet left the stage. His voice was in good form. Sometimes a bit buried in the mix when the band was going full throttle on the choruses. The screams were short, concise, and "on key" or "on scream" or whatever. The band sounded as tight as last time, with the setlist fairly similar to last time as well. I was kinda glad they didn't break into a Van Strumming thing during the show; really wasn't terribly interested in this latest musical twist by Dave to begin with. Sound of the venue was good. Light show was interesting without taking away from the band. No opening act nonsense, either. Dave hit the ground running at 8:30 PM and gave a solid, professional 90 minute + set. He delivered the goods.

The bad: Doug T had mentioned before the show (and I agreed) that he'd like to see Dave perform more of his original solo stuff live. Throwing in Just Like Paradise alone didn't really cut it in this aspect (with Cali Girls and Gigilo obviously being covers - Rothified covers, to be sure, but covers nonetheless). Doug also mentioned that he'd like to see Brian be able to stretch out more during the tunes and throw some of his own stuff into the solos there, which I also thought was dead-on correct. Brian does a great job of reproducing Eddie's licks, but the bottom line for me is that it's not impressive to see/hear someone copping Eddie's licks anymore. These days, with seemingly everyone and their brother able to play guitar, after a 1/4 century + since EVH came onto the scene, seeing Young do an Eruption-style intro to You Really Got Me is about as exciting as going into any guitar store on any given day and hearing a wanna-be nobody doing it. It WOULD be impressive to hear Young put his own spin on some of this stuff, assuming he has something of his own to offer.
The most interesting guitar work I heard was when Toshi [sic] cut loose for a few bars of some funkified blues licks during the band intros, if only because he wasn't doing the Eddie Van Halen Show.


Bottom Line:

Dave's got a capable touring band, pretty much all of whom have been with him for awhile now. Get 'em into a room, cook up some good, new stuff, throw it onto about 25-50,000 discs. Then, drop one or two of those CVH tunes and PLAY THE NEW STUFF LIVE!!

Dave's been doing this type of show with relative consistency since about 1999. Enjoyed the show. Will in all likelihood continue to keep catching his act whenever he hits the area. His band is capable of more than just the VAN HALEN EXPERIENCE, though, and it might not be a bad idea to let the horses off the reins a bit, in terms of the CVH-heavy setlist. That would enable the current DLR live show to transcend from fuckin' great to exceptional.

Anyway, Dave still knows how to bring it. Signed, sealed and delivered.

Peace.

Always interested to read your thoughts Terry as we tend to share the same music taste.

It's not too good that the place was half empty. Looking at the setlist which has been a bone of contention amongst fans on the web for a while I think he's right to have dropped Yankee Rose because it never seems to work very well live but jeez he can't keep selling the same show year after year.

If he wants to concentrate on the CVH back catalogue then he needs to do some deeper cuts to keep his hardcore fanbase. There are plenty to choose from.

All of this is entirely Dave's decision. While Ray was in the band they repeatedly rehearsed and played to him all sorts of stuff from Hot Dog and a Shake to Light Up the Sky and he wasn't interested.

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

If I had 2 minutes in a room with Dave the first thing I would say to him is that he is being dumb about the instrumentals. I was at a gig a couple of years ago and there were a bunch of G3 types there who were saying that the guitarists were 'No Vai or Eddie' especially during the bluesy type instrumentals. This is just plain dumb. The guitar shredder types could add another 20% to the size of the audience and I would like to see it too. I straight up asked the band 'Why not do a Hideous Sun Demons?' thing and was told Dave wouldn't allow it.

It's getting very close to the point now where Vai doing Shyboy with Billy Sheehan singing is going to get a bigger crowd than Dave.

I know that James and Ray have left now and maybe that was a factor. Dave is just plain wrong in not showcasing Toshi. It's stupid and is hurting his ticket sales. Why have him there at all?

I see posts all the time from people under 25 that are fans of Dave solo stuff based a lot of the time on the guitar playing. Toshi is excellent at the Vai stuff. Look on YouTube and you'll find a whole subculture of kids trying to play that stuff who would come to the shows. I'm not saying do a EEAS band set but he should throw some of that stuff out there and give them free reign on the instrumentals.

Might lower the average age too. I was at a Prince gig a couple of years back and the average age was nearer 28 than 38.

What's his plan to have you reviewing the same show next year with 500 people less?

It's no coincidence that a lot of people that like old Ozzy solo stuff are also dave fans, it's because they always had the best guitarists going even though the approach was very different.

He's making his band play with one hand behind their back. It would be like Ozzy touring with me on guitar. Play the hits for the casual concert goer, ok we'll sit through Jump in the same way we suffer Paranoid but throw us some crumbs for fuck sake Mr Roth.

Cheers!

[Big Troubles]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
I was at a Prince gig a couple of years back and the average age was nearer 28 than 38.

So you're the guy that called in to Daves show talking about the Prince gig.

I do agree with you about the direction Dave should be in. In that setlist he could've replaced a half dozen of those songs and threw in Scarecrow and Flex. La Grange for old times sake. Maybe a popular harder cover song from todays radio and a brand new one from an upcoming CD. Adding a shredder to Daves band could be quite interesting.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Big Troubles
So you're the guy that called in to Daves show talking about the Prince gig.

No I'm a casual Prince fan but went to a show with a pal who is a Prince fanatic. I was struck by how much younger and hotter Prince's fanbase was demographically speaking when you can argue that they are contempories who peaked mid 80s.

Originally posted by Big Troubles
Adding a shredder to Daves band could be quite interesting.

My point is that he has one already. Toshi can do all that stuff.

Cheers!

[Douglas T.]

Originally posted by ThrillsNSpills
, but I think Sophie is one of Jeff Beck's finest and properly done would be incredible.
But didn't Brian cut loose on those jams, or was that the Toshi show?

They played it like they've played it for a few too many shows already!

[Douglas T.]

Sophie hit it's peak at the RIBFEST with the OUTDOOR MONSTER WALL of SOUND!

[Seshmeister]

I haven't heard it yet...

[Douglas T.]

I'll send you a Ribfest DVD!

[Terry]

Originally posted by ELVIS
Nice review...

BTW, how did dave sing songs like Somebody get Me a Doctor and Everybody Want's Some ??

Everybody Wants Some came off well.

Somebody Get Me A Doctor was solid, vocally -

The only really odd thing he did, far as singing went, was during Just Like Paradise, where he sang the verses in a lower, more conversational tone/octave than on the album...it just sounded weird to me, and I couldn't remember if he had done that last November or not.

The rest of the tunes were done pretty much the same as they were originally recorded, far as Dave went. He seemed to be having a good night, because I've seen shows of his (and this seemed to start around 2002 or so) where he's kinda overworking the bass registers of his voice at times (much like he did with Just Like Paradise) on tunes where it just sounds odd, almost like he needs to relax the pipes or pace himself or something - kinda hangs in his comfort zone far as his voice goes at times -

But he sounded good last Friday. Looked fit. Looks much better with his hair short. Everyone who was there got off. I wasn't thinking "this guy is past it" or feeling embarrassed for him because he only pulled in a thousand or so people, and he didn't treat it as a blow-off, play-by-the-numbers deal, either. I mean, if his attitude towards roadwork these days is one of punching the clock, grabbing the money and beating it out of town, than he's a pretty good actor, because I don't sense that at all.

Put it to you this way: he's capable of doing a CVH reunion, singing those tunes and giving bang for the buck. Not that I think he's gonna get the chance to, but maybe that's for the best, anyway.