IZOD Arena Ed Meltdown

[Shrek the Ogre]

from what i saw on you tube, it just seemed like a bad night. that happens to every one on tour. I think the term "meltdown" is going too far. ..did u notice the little cat and mouse routine dave and ed did with daves navy cap at the end of jump.

[Fizz]

I searched high and low and no go for vid of the monitor defying gravity. Anybody seen it?

[diamondD]

Originally posted by jhale667
I seen firsthand other "rock stars" physically yank a malfunctioning monitor off their side of the stage before,
if the stage crew isn't getting it, and getting shit fixed in time...
That part does not surprise me...

I saw Joe Perry get so frustrated in Memphis one time that he drug his monitor to the center of the stage and get some lighter fluid and lit it on fire at the end of the show. It was the last show of the tour and right before they went into rehab.

[Figs]

I didn't think it was that big of a deal. He dragged the monitor off to the side, flung it off the stage and started bitching at someone. We laughed at it for a minute and that was about it.

[scottydabodi]

Originally posted by Figs
I didn't think it was that big of a deal. He dragged the monitor off to the side, flung it off the stage and started bitching at someone. We laughed at it for a minute and that was about it.

Yup! That was about it...
It's not like the whole gear problem thing was an hour and a half long, it was like 10 minutes TOPS. Ed played a bit distracted because of it, but was pretty rockin during most of the show.

[KING OF THE HIL]

Van Halen
Meadowlands Izod Center
East Rutherford, New Jersey
United States of America
November 3, 2007

Notes: I was going to call this one "Meltdown at the Meadowlands," but after I heard the sound quality, not to mention the fact that it is incomplete, I decided to pass on the formalities such as titles, artwork, etc. The show is in the category of forgettable (or unforgettable..depends how you look at things). I guess the high point of the evening's drama was Eddie Van Halen stomping around like a 3-year old because his guitar cable kept getting tangled (as he yanked on it violently)...no wait...it would have to be him screaming..SCREAMING at the tech guys on the side of the stage for the better part of the show...no...the part where he flipped the monitor over, because it was either too loud, or he didn't like what was coming out of it..no...maybe it was when he picked said monitor up and threw it across the stage...NO..I got it..it was when he proceeded to pick up the monitor and throw it OFF the stage. That was it.

I'm not making any of this up.

There were some other noteworthy occurrences..like during one of Ed's fits, where he was switching guitars.."and the Cradle Will Rock" starts..only problem is..Ed is not holding a guitar..but it starts nonetheless, with the swoosing flanged guitar..that's he's not playing..it's pre-recorded..so is the rhythm part..I'm pretty sure it's a keyboard, but I never noticed it, because he was usually playing. This show seemed to measure up to the KC show everyone was talking about..except Dave was great. I gained a newfound respect for him tonight, as he was the consumate professional as his bandmate stomped, sneared and screamed through 90% of the show, during which he paid little attention to his playing, stopping at times, screwing up at others. After the monitor toss, he pretty much threw and swatted at anything and everything in his path.

I feel bad for Wolfie too. I can tell this is all getting to him fast. He looked like he wanted to be ANYWHERE else for pretty much the entire show. At times I caught him staring at Ed with this "what the f*ck??" look on his face. At one point, after one of his meltdowns, I guess Ed realized that yeh..there are like 10,000 people watching this, he tried to do his goofy dancing and jumping pikes, then he goes over to Wolfie's side and picks up a straw cowboy hat, puts it on, then tries to put it on Wolf, only Wolfs backs up, slaps the hat away, then proceeds to kick it off the stage into the crowd.

This thing is unravelling..fast. After the monitor throwing incident, Ed came back up and looked almost possessed. Very sad indeed. Sad for everyone involved. Sad for the fans that shelled out $500 to be in the VIP circle. Actually, it was sad for any fan who shelled out even $1 to see this charade tonight. Saddest of all for the multi-millionaire guitarist whose band is making 1.5 million per show that he can't put everything aside for 2 hours a day, play his music and act like a swell guy.

In any event..here it is. The recording matches the performance. BTW - I'm not on the whole VH-bashing bandwagon either. I'm just really disgusted at the show Ed turned in last night. I considered not going to MSG next week, but figured I might as well, and hopefully go out on a high note.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by CVH Rulz
As far as Ed goes...there seems to be a lot of 'equipment' problems. Where did they get this crew? I can understand him getting pissed off. What would you have him do in this situation?

There are ALWAYS "equipment" problems with a tour of that scale.

However, many "equipment" problems turn out to actually be "crew" problems...

The difference comes in how the "artist" handles it.

If he's fed up with a crew member, deal with it.

Throwing a diva tantrum onstage is usually just for the benefit of his own ego.

[ I'm not making a judgement on this incident, because I havent seen it, and I'm not privy to the crew's side either, Im speaking in general terms]

[blahblahblah]

Izod show

I sat in section 3 on the floor. Behind the mixing board ( Valerie was sitting at the board which may explain something...)

Dave sounded great. Didnt force things like he used to. His sound was clearer than everyone else. He actually sang the songs rather than talking them.

The song selection was great and I liked the way they blasted through song after song. No filler.

I was also impressed by Wolfie and Ed's backing vocals. Alex was on the money all night. Wolfie held his own and then some. I like Mike but he was not missed in my eyes.

Ed's solo was a bit much and all over the place. And the sound in the arena sucked. Too loud, too much echo and at some points in the show, you had to listen carefully just to figure out what they were playing.

I also was disappointed by the crowd. As I looked around, I lot of hands in pockets staring quietly. I realize the average age there was 40 but come on guys, bring the noise for one night. Maybe everyone was just amazed to see them with Dave again.

Overall a 9+ out of 10. Well worth the $170 for the tix. See you at MSG. It was a once in a lifetime show.

[ULTRAMAN VH]

Saw them in Philly and they were great, but the sound crew had them up way to loud. Went recently to the DC show and again they were way to loud. Both shows were dominated by Dave. Ed was all over the place during the DC show and sorry folks his solo left alot to be desired. For the money I paid, Ed should have played a hell of alot better then he did. If they decide to do a second leg, they should go out with a new sound crew because the current crew sucks. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the shows but the sound could have been so much better. On another note in Philly seeing Ed play with his son was pretty cool, but going back and seeing them in DC, the novelty has worn off fast. The kid has zero stage presence and it really has become the Dave and Ed show. Then again when I saw them in 84, I didn't really pay that much attention to Anthony either. I am not going to lie about this, but Ed seemed really out of sorts during the DC show and I hope he is not back on the sauce. His energy level was high but his playing was sloppy from jumping around so much. I am real curious why his mike was placed at the center of the stage? It didn't seem to make any sense, but oh well. I am glad I caught them in Philly, that was a magical night I will never forget. I understand that things go wrong and everyone has an off night, but Ed is about as unstable as dynamite, so I hope he makes it to December without falling off the wagon. That would just suck.

[Jim Shetterlini]

Originally posted by ULTRAMAN VH
Saw them in Philly and they were great, but the sound crew had them up way to loud. Went recently to the DC show and again they were way to loud. Both shows were dominated by Dave. Ed was all over the place during the DC show and sorry folks his solo left alot to be desired. For the money I paid, Ed should have played a hell of alot better then he did. If they decide to do a second leg, they should go out with a new sound crew because the current crew sucks. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the shows but the sound could have been so much better. On another note in Philly seeing Ed play with his son was pretty cool, but going back and seeing them in DC, the novelty has worn off fast. The kid has zero stage presence and it really has become the Dave and Ed show. Then again when I saw them in 84, I didn't really pay that much attention to Anthony either. I am not going to lie about this, but Ed seemed really out of sorts during the DC show and I hope he is not back on the sauce. His energy level was high but his playing was sloppy from jumping around so much. I am real curious why his mike was placed at the center of the stage? It didn't seem to make any sense, but oh well. I am glad I caught them in Philly, that was a magical night I will never forget. I understand that things go wrong and everyone has an off night, but Ed is about as unstable as dynamite, so I hope he makes it to December without falling off the wagon. That would just suck.

Saw them in both msp and kc and while I thought Ed was the best I had seen in MSP(23 shows now) KC he was not as good and I believe the reason why is when he is distracted and upset with the sound "crew" (they were having problems all night in the Sprint Center as well) being such a perfectionist, he totally focuses on that and loses focus on playing well. You read the reviews in each thread and when the sound is shitty he is shitty and especially during his solo. Again a loss of focus. Just my 2 cents having seen 2 shows live and one having having pretty close to perfect sound mix(MSP) all night and the other(KC) problems all night you get 2 different EDs.

[Mama's Fool]

Well I happened to be there. Anyway, I said to my girlfriend at the time "People will be talking about this soon enough." However, here's what really happened:

Eddie's tech wasn't with it the whole night. Before And the Cradle will Rock, Ed switched guitars. The tech didn't have the new one ready. So (in case you didn't know the beginning of And the Cradle will Rock is a keyboard) the keyboard started and the riff underneath the keyboard riff was Ed's cue to start. Ed's guitar wasn't ready.

Time comes for Jamie's Cryin' and Ed's monitor goes out. Ed started struggling right away. He was playing without his ear monitor. He managed to finish the song (background vocals and all). Ed was visibly pissed during the whole song. He eventually got it off stage. The whole time Ed was signalling to the tech on the side to do something about it, he didn't. Ed took care of the situation and he was understandably pissed. They fixed it during Dave's talk at the beginning of Ice Cream Man, or fixed it best they could. They never brought the monitor back out, but I believe they patched him into Wolfie's or Alex's.

Anyway, they come back for the encore and start playing Ain't Talking 'Bout Love. Ed's guitar was way out of tune. He was trying to miss the strings that were out of tune and play parts on other strings that were in tune. It was a fucked up situation, but Ed did the best he could.

[Panamark]

So this was a bad night out for EVH ?

Sorry for all those that attended. Sometimes if your
equipment is fucking up it can throw you off or totally
piss you off.. Either way that can effect your attitude
and playing (conciously or subconciously)
I've seen enough You-tubes to be kinda proud
of Eddie if you use the 2004 tour as a measuring stick.

Not the time to kick him in the guts....
He hit bottom, now theres only one way to go, and he is
going there.. Onya Eddie !!

[jhale667]

Originally posted by Panamark
So this was a bad night out for EVH ?

Sorry for all those that attended. Sometimes if your
equipment is fucking up it can throw you off or totally
piss you off.. Either way that can effect your attitude
and playing (conciously or subconciously)...

Not to mention it could have been a case where there was some high-frequency feedback/squealing shit
going on in the monitor that wasn't audible to the audience that was like a fucking icepick in the forehead the whole time...
An incompetent monitor guy can ruin your night...
I'd have thrown the shit offstage too, if it wasn't getting fixed. Beats being in pain for two hours...

[LOS35]

IZOD Arena Ed Meltdown

Some people trip me out!
The guy is only human & a perfectionist! What would you do if your gear F-uped in front of thousands & the problem wasn't taken care of?! What would your attitude be, how would you handle the situation?!
And of course it would throw you off for the rest of the night.

Some people sit on these boards and dissect every little thing about this tour like they're perfect!!

Another point that alot of people keep forgetting is that with the exception of Wolf these guys are in their 50's give em an F-ing break!

And before someone says it I know....one break coming up...

[Diamondjimi]

Originally posted by jhale667
Not to mention it could have been a case where there was some high-frequency feedback/squealing shit
going on in the monitor that wasn't audible to the audience that was like a fucking icepick in the forehead the whole time...
An incompetent monitor guy can ruin your night...
I'd have thrown the shit offstage too, if it wasn't getting fixed. Beats being in pain for two hours...

Damn straight. The pressure is on on this tour ,especially for him.

Why the fuck isn't this shit properly dialed in during soundcheck?