The Official Tampa 2/18 Meetup/Review Thread

[Jim Shetterlini]

yeah...what he said.

[Douglas T.]

" ... a reason to take the rest of the week off!!"

[Dan]

Yeah,What The Other Roth Army Bros Said.

[Terry]

Well, the show has come and gone.

The St.Pete Times Forum, for me, has odd acoustics; some groups sound good, others not so hot.

Van Halen kinda fell in the middle for me.

The show looked pretty close to a sellout, from glancing around the arena several times, maybe a hundred or so emtpy seats total, if that.

For the first few tunes, the band played great. Alex was playing very well. Wolfie sounded good. Dave was sounding better than I've heard him sound in years. There were some problems with the mix that resulted in a bit of a muddy sound for the first several numbers, which got rectified somewhat as the show went on, but were never really resolved 100%. The drums and bass sounded good, as did the backing vocals, but the lead vocals and guitar kinda bled over into each other at times.

Have to preface what I'm about to say with a bit of personal history. Ed was the initial reason I got turned onto the band all those years ago. Haven't seen Ed play live in an arena since 1984 (although I've seen and heard plenty off boots/clips since then)...

Ed really wasn't making it up there last night.

The guitar is obviously a huge part of the Van Halen sound, but there were more than a few times during the show where I was wishing the soundboard would turn the guitar down and everything else up a bit. Out of all the tunes, on the whole the only two I'd say Ed came close to nailing were Unchained and Pretty Woman, although he did a passable job on Hot For Teacher as well.

I'm not saying he was abysmal, but there were many points where it was clear he was having problems with his picking and fretting coordination. In addition, he came off like he either hadn't rehearsed enough of his own material (we're not talking just getting solos note-for-note here, either, but rhythm parts as well) or just wasn't interested in playing it the way it should have been. In more than several instances his sense of timing in terms of where he needed to be within a song was off, he was doing a lot of noodling around, throwing odd riffs/licks/fills into the tunes (more than once I'm thinking "what the FUCK is he playing there?"). As for his tone, it really didn't have any definition; no high-end, no low-end.

Since the guitar is such a huge part of the Van Halen sound, it needs to be up front in the mix for things to sound the way they should, but with the slipshod, erratic nature of what Ed was doing, it'd have been better if it wasn't (particularly during the keyboard-driven tunes), because Ed's noodling around was, frankly, distracting from the rest of the band. Because of the nature of the acoustics of the hall and Ed's tone (he really should ditch the wah-wah pedal), everyone needed to be at the top of their game, performance-wise, to make it sound great. And Ed just wasn't up to par with what the rest of the band were doing. In the later parts of the show, my old lady leaned over to me and said "Why's he stumbling around like that? Is he drunk?" One would be forgiven for saying he certainly appeared to be as the show went on.

One of those cases where when Ed actually DID connect 100% with what he was supposed to be playing, it was pretty fucking sweet how amazing it all sounded. Unchained comes to mind, where he pulled off the solo well in terms of timing, tone and notes played, and the band was just cooking!

Can't really say if it's just age, alcoholism, a deterioration of technical skills and/or physical skills (arthritis?) or a lack of will, but EVH wasn't having a great night up there...at times not even a good one...possibly vacillating between actually trying to play well at times but no longer having the ability to do so and just not giving a toss...

I'm glad I went, and had a good night out, but in terms of what a reunion tour is supposed to do, only Dave, Al and Wolfie were really making it happen up there. Ed, at best, was able to conjure up some memories of greatness in days which seem behind him now.

The most telling moment was at the end of Little Guitars, when Ed is playing the outro, flubbing it up a bit. Dave walks over to him. Ed (with what for all the world looked like a drunken grin) sheepishly rests his head on Dave's chest and Dave gives him a pat on the head. For a moment there, it looked like Roth's trademark Cheshire Cat grin slipped a couple of notches, and the body language read as if Dave was saying "Don't worry, Ed, it's gonna be alright."

[VAiN]

I'm listening to the show as i'm typing this... Your review is very accurate - Eddie isn't very steady on this one... not bad, but kind of out there. It does seem like he just forgets parts. The Jacksonville show the night before was definitely a better showing for Ed... I haven't heard Tampa yet, but I was at the 1st Lauderdale show and had mixed feelings about it. Here's to Ed getting it together tomorrow night for the 2nd Lauderdale show.

[ODShowtime]

I wasn't impressed with Ed at all on Monday night. Of course the mix sucked too and my seats were BEAT.

Ed's solo was poor in my opinion. This is Eddie Van Halen, not a fucking Van Halen tribute band. He's supposed to blow our minds. Intead he looked like he was noodling. Sad. Sad for me wasting my time and money on it.

Ok, sorry for the negativity. Dave was great and Alex was good too. Hell, even wolfie was ok walking around the stage and throwing picks at people.

Maybe I was just hung over from the weekend, but I wasn't impressed. I'm kind of depressed now.

[DrMaddVibe]

The sound guys needed to be shot!

Dave kept putting his hand to his ear and raising his hand to tell them to give him a boost to no avail. I can't remember the song, but in one of the choruses he sang "I want to hear my voice louder".

It was apparent that he's on a leash. The old Dave or solo Dave would've stopped the guys playing and ripped the soundguy a new asshole. He's done it before.

The mids were making everything sound like mud. 3/4's of the way through the show someone flicked a switch, because when they hit the night's best performance "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love" they sounded GREAT! Those sound monkey jackoffs really ruined what could've been an awesome night.

Eddie is done. I don't want to see him again live. I don't care if they do another 6 albums and let Dave be Diamond Dave. I just don't want to see him again. I was embarrassed for him on his solo.

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I never missed Brian and Toshi more. Brian at least knows how to get a clean sound out of his guitar and doesn't have to perform like some spastic retarded primate with a guitar.

Alex played his ass off. His solo was really awesome. Wolfie covered the background lyrics and did a really good job for being a kid with no bar circuit to hone his chops in. He still performs stiff and almost looks scared up there. There were several times that Eddie had to play a rhythm guitar instead of his normal licks to cover Wolfgang's ass. Either that or he can't play the lead licks anymore. Dave doing his "Ice Cream Man" story NEVER gets old and it was nice to see him pull a harmonica out of his pocket.

I'm glad I went and heard what I heard. I'm glad I saw them and from a visual standpoint, it was amazing. I wouldn't have believed anyone else if they were writing this about THE Van Halen. I trust Terry's ears as much as my own as we've been in the same shows and heard the same thing and described it; however, I don't want to ever see Eddie again. He really played like a former shell of himself and it was disgusting to see a Rock God that was on the same par as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page fall so far that bar band guitarists have played better. If he has anything left in the tank let him get it out in the studio.

Fuck off Eddie. He's no longer in the Top 5 for me and has slid out of the Top 10. There's better with more longevity and depth to their work than him!

Dave...get your band back together in the studio after this bullshit. Write a book about this trainwreck too. See ya at the next show where I can HEAR you!

[Terry]

And there's really no joy or an anti-Eddie bias in calling it like we heard and saw it, either.

Yes, I do think the Van Halens have acted like a couple of dickheads over the last 12 years, but at what amounted to about $300 for me and the old lady to go see the show (tix, t-shirts, couple of beers and parking), I WANTED these guys to knock it right out of the park.

There WERE several points during the show where it DID all lock together and the result was (as I said) pretty fucking sweet!

Overall, however, it was a case of the rhythm section doing what was needed to get the job done (think Wolfie did just fine), Dave really putting in a great performance all-around and Ed just bringing the whole thing down a notch with a sub-par performance.

I mean, I'd have to agree with MaddVibe totally that Brian and Toshi simply did Eddie's parts better than Ed can now, based on what I heard Monday night. The odd part about it was I've seen some full-length boots from earlier in the tour, scrutinized what Ed was doing, and it sounded so much better than what happened in Tampa; odd in that wouldn't one think, if anything, Ed would only get better as the tour progressed?

Out of kindness, I'd say that the acoustics of the hall weren't helping, but I again agree with MaddVibe that the mix wasn't too hot, and that simply turning down Ed a bit and turning up the lead vocals a bit was something that WASN'T a factor that couldn't have been corrected.

A decent show, but overall a letdown. I went into the show telling myself I wasn't going to prejudice the performance by putting what Ed was doing under a microscope, but with Ed so far out front of what was a bad mix and him playing underpar to boot, I had no choice BUT to notice the mistakes he was making, and would be lying if I said that didn't impact the pleasure of seeing them.

[DrMaddVibe]

If I ever see Eddie with that fucking Poundcake drill again, remind me to kick it up his ass! With all the finger fucking going on with Eddie and Wolfie over that Spammy hang-on one would've thought it was Jenna Jameson's dildo!

[Terry]

Yeah, that Pudcake drill was definitely an eye-rolling moment. Kinda like, "Hey, Wolfie, wrong fucking era of the band, there!"

Still sounded better than when Eddie was doing his unaccompanied solo and trying to reach around the back of his guitar and tweak his springs while depressing his tremolo bar, then trying to pluck the strings behind the tremolo nut (like he did during the solo segment on the LWAN vid before he played Cathedral, for anyone who needs reference to what I'm talking about); he's doing this stuff and nothing is happening, and the crowd is just silent..you could hear a collective "Huh?" whooshing through the audience.

Seeing him fumbling around with Cathedral was pretty cringeworthy. He'd start to play the parts like they were on record, and the crowd would cheer a bit out of recognition. Then he'd veer away from it and start improvising, badly, and the crowd would go silent.

He also botched the Meanstreet intro pretty badly as well. You could see the hands were on the guitar where they needed to be, making the motions they needed to make, but his coordination wasn't there. Same for the tapped harmonics during the break on Dance The Night Away. There were more times than I like to recall where his playing had all the charm of watching an amateur in a music store trying to show off skills they really don't have down pat at a volume which is way too loud.

[ODShowtime]

well, I guess my hang over and shitty seats didn't affect my opinion too much since I'm in total agreement with Terry and Dr MV about the show.

I thought the Forum only sounded like shit when I had high seats. I saw Velvet Revolver on the floor and they sounded great. So did you guys get floor seats or high ups?

How about during Ed's solo where he kinda yelled at the crowd for whistling? That was shady.

[Terry]

My seats were facing the stage, dead center, and I was in the first section up from the floor (towards the top of the section).

When I saw Buffett there about 5 years ago, the old lady and I were practically in the rafters, and the sound was so atrocious that we left 40 minutes into the show. In fact, most of our section had cleared out before we did, and everyone was complaining how terrible it sounded.

However, when I saw the Heaven and Hell show there last fall, the sound was excellent.

The acoustics played a part with VH, but the mix was shit.

See, what I thought Eddie said about the whistling was something along the lines of "Whoever's whistling, thank you." Couldn't really make out what he was saying, because he wasn't speaking very audibly or clearly. But he said it at a point where the audience had been silent for a few minutes...I dunno. He kinda redeemed himself at the end of the solo by doing a bit of Eruption and did pretty well with the two-handed tapping at the end of it, but after 30 years of doing that solo is the fact that he did pretty well something to applaud?

I dunno. Don't wanna keep bitching about it. The upside was it was pretty cool to see Dave so enthusiastic and in top form. I'd have serious reservations about paying serious money to see him playing with Van Halen again, though.

[DrMaddVibe]

I was on the floor.

The only salvation was once in awhile getting to hear the monitors blaring instead of the house speakers.

I'm ready for Dave solo. This isn't going to go well long term. Dave is on a leash. You see glimmers of hope of the old Eddie through the fog but not enough to remind you that his skills rotted on the vine with the ravages of alcoholism and Father Time and Spammy McGaygar. The rest of the band IS NOT the problem.

Like I said before, I'm done ever seeing these guys live again. Dave, I'm there. With Eddie? I'm taking a pass. If he has anything else left to prove let him do it in the studio of Howdy Doody Mountain.

[ODShowtime]

Well, Dave kicked ass, which was nice.

Maybe the tape will be more kind:

VAN HALEN
2008.02.18
ST. Pete Times Forum
Tampa, Florida

Taper: Bluntforcetrauma
Lineage: DPA 4022>sonosax sx-m2(Oade mod 6DB)Edirol r-09
Conversion: PB>Peak>24bit/48.0khz dithered>16bit/44.1khz>SBE>xact
Thanks doug

This is version 2. During post production on the first version I passed the the WAV files through 2 maximizers to attempt to get the most dynamic volume. In doing so, some might experience some music loss creating distortion due to compression. Meaning that I tried to put all levels to their max.

This second version is an attempt to reach optimal clarity while maximizing sound dynamics.

I could not give it a rest if I did not try this second version just to see what would happen. Since I felt that I had to attempt this second version, I am compelled to share the sound.

I pulled back on this second version to just using the L3 ultramaximzer. This version will enable you to adjust your volume on your stereo with more flexibility. Some might find this a more enjoyable listening experience.

Tampa show seat location: Section F1 row 12 seat 12 Ed's side. 12 rows from stage, Ed's side

24 bit recordings available

Capturing an event from beginning to end is a huge undertaking. Many things to consider when attempting a pull. Even though you might get passed security, then its on to set up ( mics, cables, pre's, recorder) then to your seats, then you hope others around you are not too loud, and you scan the crowd during the show for possible security spotters, then you hit record and you still dont know if you got anything until you get home to check the recorder. Then if that goes, onto post production.


01 You Really Got Me
02 I'm The One
03 Running With The Devil
04 Romeo's Delight
05 Somebody Get Me A Doctor
06 Beautiful Girl
07 Dance The Night Away
08 Atomic Punk
09 Everybody Wants Some
10 So This Is Love
11 Mean Streets
12 Pretty Woman
13 Alex Van Halen Drum Solo

Disc 2
01 Unchained
02 I'll Wait
03 And The Cradle Will Rock
04 Hot For Teacher
05 Little Dreamer
06 Little Guitars
07 Jamie's Crying
08 Ice Cream Man
09 Panama
10 Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solo
11 Ain't Talking 'Bout Love
12 Audience
13 1984
14 Jump

enjoy

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=184745

[DrMaddVibe]

I'll pass.

I know what I heard. I don't want any remnants of it where I can hear it again.

I wasn't far from where this was recorded.