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Disturbing observations from the Hershey, PA Show
Here are some disturbing observations from posters at the links who saw the Hershey, PA show. While a few of these observations were not worrisome/offensive to the poster(s) they sure were to me.
(1) Alienate fans much?...
"One more thing. They were handing out free papers to everyone and on the front page it had a color picture of the new logo and band photo. Underneath this reads as follows, which i thought was really cool:
"From the moment Edward Van Halen kicked cancer in 2002, a reunion of the "real Van Halen seemed inevitable. Whether this is actually it depends on the flavor of Van Halen that best suits you. This isn't the vanilla of Gary Cherone, a fine singer in over his head in the late 90's, trying to lead a veteran band that had alrady sold nearly 50 million records. Neither is it the spumoni of Diamond David Lee Roth, who took himself out of the game by suing the band, then portraying himself as it's heart and soul, even though it's been 19 years since he left them(aside form the ill-fated reunion of 1995). Tonight's show, my friends, is from the rum-raisin' Van Halen, with the social director ofCabo San Lucas, Sammy Hagar, keeping things wild, fun and slightly more sane than Diamond Dave.""
(2) More fan alienation...
"Soundcheck was AWESOME... they played Jump, Humans Being, Learning to See, and It's About Time... Ed and Mikey were goofing the WHOLE time... makin' fun of dave... they were making indian noises and shit during Jump at the soundcheck..."
(3) Someone on Ed...
"I think Eddie was really energetic, jumping and running around. But the smoking thing is ridiculous. Also, I saw him drinking from a water bottle with something red in it. At first I thought, "Maybe it's Gatorade" or something. But Eddie came out really early at the start, Kevin Dugan was still on stage with Mike's bass and Al wasn't even at the drums yet. So I was giving Eddie the benefit of the doubt. Well, from our seat angle, I saw Ed go behind his amps several times and get a bottle of wine from a roadie and chug it down (I saw him pull the cork and everything). I can't tell you how disappointing this was for me. I thought he played sloppy at times, and seems less concerned with playing the songs well as he does with entertaining himself with noodling. I love Ed, he actually looks really good. But I can say I left last night feeling like he wasn't the King anymore. He really jammed for a while on his solo, kind of jazzy sounding, but then the rest was just sustainer screams, not his typical divebombs. He did royally screw up the intro to Dreams, but I think his guitar was out of tune or somethin (the intro is played on the high E and B strings). Throughout that song and Ain't Talkin 'Bout Love, he was trying to tune as he'd hit a chord. Maybe it was just an off night, I dunno..."
(4) Another on Ed...
"However, I will add that I am saddened by Eddie's life choices. He continues to be a chain smoker. But more disappointing, he is also drinking. He was drinking in his staging area, behind his speaker cabinets. On two occasions, I spotted him drinking from a wine bottle. During the soundcheck, he brought a wine bottle on stage and openly drank to a cheering audience. Granted, he is an adult and can make his own choices, but he is wasting his talent and not growing old gracefully. A hip replacement, cancer and a divorce were not able to gain his attention. I wonder if anything will.
I hope that the road won't do him in on this tour."
(5) Yet another on Ed...
"Ed threw us probably 100 picks before the show even started... showed us the marker reminders on the top of the neck of his guitar... (for you players, he had frets 5, 9, 12, and 15 marked off). One funny thing - Ed SERIOUSLY fucked up the intro to Dreams... he mouthed "OH FUCK" directly to the front couple of rows and him and Sammy were laughing about it for a while..."
(1) Alienate fans much?...
"One more thing. They were handing out free papers to everyone and on the front page it had a color picture of the new logo and band photo. Underneath this reads as follows, which i thought was really cool:
"From the moment Edward Van Halen kicked cancer in 2002, a reunion of the "real Van Halen seemed inevitable. Whether this is actually it depends on the flavor of Van Halen that best suits you. This isn't the vanilla of Gary Cherone, a fine singer in over his head in the late 90's, trying to lead a veteran band that had alrady sold nearly 50 million records. Neither is it the spumoni of Diamond David Lee Roth, who took himself out of the game by suing the band, then portraying himself as it's heart and soul, even though it's been 19 years since he left them(aside form the ill-fated reunion of 1995). Tonight's show, my friends, is from the rum-raisin' Van Halen, with the social director ofCabo San Lucas, Sammy Hagar, keeping things wild, fun and slightly more sane than Diamond Dave.""
(2) More fan alienation...
"Soundcheck was AWESOME... they played Jump, Humans Being, Learning to See, and It's About Time... Ed and Mikey were goofing the WHOLE time... makin' fun of dave... they were making indian noises and shit during Jump at the soundcheck..."
(3) Someone on Ed...
"I think Eddie was really energetic, jumping and running around. But the smoking thing is ridiculous. Also, I saw him drinking from a water bottle with something red in it. At first I thought, "Maybe it's Gatorade" or something. But Eddie came out really early at the start, Kevin Dugan was still on stage with Mike's bass and Al wasn't even at the drums yet. So I was giving Eddie the benefit of the doubt. Well, from our seat angle, I saw Ed go behind his amps several times and get a bottle of wine from a roadie and chug it down (I saw him pull the cork and everything). I can't tell you how disappointing this was for me. I thought he played sloppy at times, and seems less concerned with playing the songs well as he does with entertaining himself with noodling. I love Ed, he actually looks really good. But I can say I left last night feeling like he wasn't the King anymore. He really jammed for a while on his solo, kind of jazzy sounding, but then the rest was just sustainer screams, not his typical divebombs. He did royally screw up the intro to Dreams, but I think his guitar was out of tune or somethin (the intro is played on the high E and B strings). Throughout that song and Ain't Talkin 'Bout Love, he was trying to tune as he'd hit a chord. Maybe it was just an off night, I dunno..."
(4) Another on Ed...
"However, I will add that I am saddened by Eddie's life choices. He continues to be a chain smoker. But more disappointing, he is also drinking. He was drinking in his staging area, behind his speaker cabinets. On two occasions, I spotted him drinking from a wine bottle. During the soundcheck, he brought a wine bottle on stage and openly drank to a cheering audience. Granted, he is an adult and can make his own choices, but he is wasting his talent and not growing old gracefully. A hip replacement, cancer and a divorce were not able to gain his attention. I wonder if anything will.
I hope that the road won't do him in on this tour."
(5) Yet another on Ed...
"Ed threw us probably 100 picks before the show even started... showed us the marker reminders on the top of the neck of his guitar... (for you players, he had frets 5, 9, 12, and 15 marked off). One funny thing - Ed SERIOUSLY fucked up the intro to Dreams... he mouthed "OH FUCK" directly to the front couple of rows and him and Sammy were laughing about it for a while..."
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