The Official Jacksonville 2/16 Meetup/Review Thread

[Jim Shetterlini]

That is truly what is all about...Wow what a great read! I got teary eyed reading it thinking about my boys and I going to the show and how much we listen to the same music. Sounds like this guy knows alot about guitar playing and he must have been pretty impressed last night. Thanks Firebrand for posting this! 5 stars my friend!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Now that's a review....

Well said my friend....

[Va Beach VH Fan]

More complaints on the sound...

Good to know that I'm not going crazy....

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021708/lif_248001733.shtml

Van Halen rocks the arena

By ROGER BULL, The Times-Union

The best thing about Saturday night's Van Halen concert at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena was seeing almost all of the original band back together. The reunion that started last year brought lead singer David Lee Roth back on stage with the band for the first time in more than 20 years.

The worst was that you just couldn't hear Roth well enough. It went past the usual not being able to understand all the lyrics. We could barely hear him at all over the guitar, bass and drums of the three Van Halens. (It's even more a family affair these days now that 16-year-old Wolfgang Van Halen has taken up the bass and joined his father Eddie Van Halen and uncle Alex Van Halen.)

Maybe Roth still has the voice, maybe not. He seemed to be working hard at the vocals. He not as active as he once was, who is? All three original members are in their 50s, but still look more than fit.

Roth still pulled off a few of his signature leg-kicking jumps. And he mugged and preened for the crowd and the cameras, one part rock star, one part circus ringmaster. (Though I confess that the image of a game show host on a cruise ship came to mind from time to time.)

The music, however, was classic Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen is still one of the guitar gods and the show featured lots of Eddie, from the minute he showed up on stage, shirtless and solo. And he knows lots of ways to get notes out of an electric guitar. Tapping the strings, twisting the knobs, working the pedals and filling the arena with walls of feedback.

With the vocal so lost, it was Van Halen's trademark riffs that signaled the songs.

"You're going to get a free history lesson from Van Halen tonight," Roth announced. And the crowd - mostly 30s-50s, with a few scattered teens here and there - did. If they didn't sell it out the place, it was close. Even those sections along the side almost behind the stage were full.

The band took them back in time, moving quickly through about two hours worth of their songs, pretty much all from 1978 to 1984: You Really Got Me, I'm the One, Romeo Delight, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Beautiful Girls, Dance the Night Away, Everybody Wants Some, So This Is Love, Pretty Woman, Unchained, And the Cradle Will Rock, Hot For Teacher, Little Guitars, Jamie's Cryin', Panama ...

Just for fun, bits of other songs like Magic Bus and Spoonful showed up here and there.

Alex Van Halen had his drum solo, Eddie Van Halen his guitar solo. Roth probably went out a little too long talking about teenage years in Pasadena before kicking of a fine acoustic-turned-electric version of Ice Cream Man.

It didn't take the band long to come back out for an encore. The synthesized sounds of 1984 came from somewhere while Roth waved a big red flag. Then they kicked into Jump and the big disco ball spun and confetti blew down from the ceiling.

Ky-Mani Marley, one of Bob's many singing sons, opened the show with a solid 30-minute set of reggae. It was a bit odd to have an opener play such completely different music, but it was fun and the crowd particularly responded to two of his father's best-known songs: No Woman No Cry and I Shot the Sheriff.

roger.bull@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4296

[Firebrand]

Actually, I am glad to read that too...

...sometimes you wonder if you're the only one who notices something is wrong.

But overall, the sound was secondary to what was happening on the stage. Priceless.

[damngoodtimes]

guys, I actually thought the sound was better than some of the other shows I've seen. I could actually hear Ed and Dave. Maybe where you're sitting has a lot to do with it.

firebrand, great piece. I'm about to post my own review, which I wrote while my wife's driving back up to Atlanta today.

[damngoodtimes]

Van Halen Hits Its Stride, Blows Away Jacksonville

by DGT 2-18-08

Saturday, I drove down with the family from Atlanta to my sister-in-law's in Jacksonville. I was there that night for my 5th show this tour (Charlotte, Greensboro, New Orleans, Atlanta) and third in eight nights. The primary purpose, though, was to take my 17 year old nephew to see the heroes of MY youth, the Mighty Van Halen.

Let's paint the picture for a minute. About five years ago, my nephew was still listening to Britney Spears and had just picked up a guitar. Although his dad had one or two VH records, I felt it was my duty to introduce the young man all six of the Classic Van Halen records. Early on in the experiment, my efforts had not taken full effect, as he went to the Van Shamgar tour in 2004 with his folks. That was no way to view EVH live for the first time. In the years to follow, his playing improves and he is familiar with the entire VH catalog (the part that counts). When this tour finally went down, and a date was announced down here in Jacksonville, I knew what I had to do. We scored a pair of tickets three rows up from the floor on Eddie's side, a little closer than center court.

Flash forward to showtime, we settle down and endure the Ki-Mani Marley set. My eldest brother-in-law (the one with no kids) and his wife got the five star seats. We see them come in and settle in on the second row, dead fuckin’ center. Like I told him, I was going for quantity over quality.

Back to my nephew, I know the kid's doing OK when he cheers the end of kid Marley with, "Thank God that's over." The lights drop and VH takes the stage 10 minutes early at 8:50pm. We all know the set list by now, but I want to give you all a sense of the feeling on this show. First of all, the sound. I don't buy anyone who tries to tell me the sound was a problem. Every show I'd been to so far shared a common problem with the drums and bass drowning out Ed and Dave in the mix. For the first time last night, I was truly happy with the mix. I was able to hear Ed and Dave clearly all night.

Interaction: the guys were upbeat and happy all night. Dave seemed to talk a bit more, ribbing the other guys in the band throughout the evening. Dave told a story about how the band has a lot of friends in the Jacksonville area. He gets on Alex, saying that his lady friend is from here. The woman who he dreams about and who drives him wild. Oh yeah, and his wife's from here, too. He introduces Eddie as "the Burger King" leading into his solo. I don't get it, but Ed seemed to find it funny. He gives a hearty intro to Wolf on So This is Love, to which the crowd responds VERY enthusiastically.

Speaking of the crowd, this was a much better crowd than NO or ATL in recent nights, and was as good an atmosphere as I've seen since opening night.

Wolf, although not a demonstrative showman, seems very comfortable in his role. He accepts the spotlight for his few moments (RWTD intro, solo bit during Romeo, JC intro with his uncle). His playing seems to add a depth to the sound that Mike never really tried to do.

Dave was on all night. Entertaining the crowd, singing his ass off. He absolutely nailed Little Dreamer, holding the final note longer than I can ever remember Dave doing. A couple of strained notes here and there, but the dude’s still going for those notes in his 50’s. No complaints here.

Eddie sounded crisper and more energetic than he does most nights. My nephew was impressed, and the kid’s been trying to learn all these songs for a few years now. I got a kick out of watching him working the air fingers all night long. All the while singing along to every word (even the album cuts!).

What can I say about Alex? He’s been flawless every night. I never thought I would ever say this in 2008, but his drum solo is a nightly highlight. Not that many folks took advantage of the standard piss break. More than not, they were up on their feet.

Although the whole setlist is a stellar collection (evidence of this was plentiful last Sunday in Atlanta when my 7-yr-old, who was yawning before the show even started, spent almost the whole night on his feet), I really want to call out the first five numbers. Rarely can I recall a live experience thundering to such a phenomenal start.

After kicking the crowd’s ass with YRGM, I’m the One went over even better. When they stopped cold at the break section, the ovation was the loudest and longest since early in the tour. Then RWTD kicks all of our asses and more enthusiastic sing-a-longs ensue. It’s then that my favorite part kicks in.

Dave introduces Romeo on Saturday night with a quick rap of “the roof is on fire.” On this night, RD was complete with a longer snippet of Magic Bus than I’d seen. And Dave gets the words right this time, with “I want it” instead of “I like it”. Then he adds some flourish at the end.

“I want it, I want it, I want it….Tonight, Jacksonville, you CAN have it!”

Then the kick-ass harp solo, where he again manages to work in rhymes for Jacksonville and Florida, and off we go with SGMAD. The band surprises Dave with Mississippi Queen (Dave vox are stellar on this), which Dave follows up with a lead into “Spoonful”

The crowd is still going wild by the time EWS rolls around. Dave gets the car revved up with Eddie, although he admits his car sounds more like a Harley.

Mean Street thrills, Al’s solo stuns, and then Unchained throws a little more gas on the fire.

I’m always surprised with how much the crowd always loves “I’ll Wait.” But they really go nuts when HFT comes around on the guitar. I already gushed over Little Dreamer, but I’ll do it again. Dave sounded great!

Lights go down after Jamie’s Cryin’ and everyone’s pretty well fired up. When I saw my 5-star bro-in-law on Sunday, he told me he though the show was over at this point. He told his wife at the time, “ ‘not the best show I’ve seen, but pretty damn good.’ Little did I know, there was another third of the show left!”

Dave comes out for ICM and it’s story time again, after I missed it in Atlanta. The usual variation on Kenny and Stan and Arlene. But Dave enjoys telling it and the crowd enjoys hearing him tell it.

When they kick into Panama, the roof is officially off the place. Shit, it was a warm weekend in J’ville anyhow; we enjoyed the fresh air. The crowd loves singing along to Panama, but it was a real trip leaning in to belt it out with my nephew. This kid’s friends probably only know the song from “Superbad,” but on this night, the generations are truly bridged.

The kid is really juiced up for Eddie’s solo, and it didn’t disappoint. He dug the part where Eddie uses the drumsticks, if only for the showmanship. Showmanship, see, the kid gets it. Reminds me, I was wearing “It Ain’t VH..” shirt, and some smartass comes up to me and says something about Hagar. It was cool; dude knew who was better. Just in case he didn’t I quoted him the 07 vs 04 Pollstar numbers. Anyhow, later on the dude was going on about fuckin’ Malmsteen to my nephew, talking about seeing him yawning while playing Eruption. I told him that ungrateful fuck wouldn’t have a chance to mock anyone up on stage in front of a big crowd if it wasn’t for EVH.

There’s more to the story about that fuck, but he’s already boring me again. Back to the show. Eddie wraps up his solo to chants of “Eddie, Eddie!” Shit, it’s 1983 again. Tear it up through ATBL. “Hey! Hey! Hey!”

Take your bows, gentlemen! 1984. Jump. Twirling baton. Eddie scissor kicks. Big fuckin’ blow-up microphone. Confetti. More bows! Good night, Jacksonville!

Kid loved it. 5-star bro-in-law loved it. 5-star sister-in-law loved it. I FUCKIN’ LOVED IT!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we may never pass this way again. We never thought we’d be back here again in this time and place, anyway. Cancer. Divorce. Sammy Hagar. MTV awards. Gary Cherone. Howdy Doody Mountain. Running Roth jokes from no-talent snarky critics. Roth Radio (hey, I loved it). Roth solo shows in clubs. Van Hagar shows in half-empty arenas. Pot busts in Central Park. Sammy’s shitty tequila. Getting snubbed by the HOF. Finally getting in and only the two fired guys show up. Rehab. Roth better be wearing a cup. Eddie Van Heineken.

After all that shit, who thought it could be this good? Ok, maybe Dave did. Van Halen 2008 has hit its stride and it is a most glorious thing. Don’t know how long it will keep going. But it could end tomorrow and it would be OK. I won’t complain anymore, promise! It’s all gravy from here on out.

Like the dude’s shirt said in Charlotte….

WE CAN ALL DIE NOW!

[VAiN]

Wow! Now that's a review and a half!! You got me pumped for the show on the 20! Mississippi Queen must have been a helluva surprise! I'm downloading the Jax show as I'm typing this.. I can't wait to hear it!

[unregistered]

Dont forget wolf played around with the drill too. Dave even said that was a suprise.

I concur ---a stallar show!!

[unregistered]

Originally posted by VAiN
Wow! Now that's a review and a half!! You got me pumped for the show on the 20! Mississippi Queen must have been a helluva surprise! I'm downloading the Jax show as I'm typing this.. I can't wait to hear it!

Hey,
where can I find this?? I would love to have this show.:D

[VAiN]

Originally posted by unregistered
Hey,
where can I find this?? I would love to have this show.:D

It's on dimeadozen.org, and holy shit it's a great fucking show! I have to say that so far it's the best recordings of the tour - they are on fire...