The 2002 Sam and Dave Tour -- Who Saw It? And Is It Considered ...

[Von Halen]

August 22nd 2002 Ctnow.Com Meadows Music Center, Hartford, CT, USA

Hot for Teacher
Panama
And the Cradle Will Rock...
Mean Street
Dance the Night Away
Runnin' With the Devil
I'm the One
Guitar Solo
You Really Got Me
Beautiful Girls
So This Is Love?
Atomic Punk
Little Dreamer
Oh, Pretty Woman
D.O.A.
Yankee Rose
Ice Cream Man
Everybody Wants Some!!
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Jump

More "Definitive" than the last VH tour!

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Man, discoursing on Dave's progress feels a lot like reflections about life and how you slowly come to stating that the more you go ahead, the less you're going to get your kicks out of it.

[Seshmeister]

More "Definitive" than the last VH tour!

Not sure but I do think it's fair to say that Dave's backing band in 2002 were better than the one he had in 2007.

[Terry]

Not sure but I do think it's fair to say that Dave's backing band in 2002 were better than the one he had in 2007.

Wanna hear something fucked up?

I got to see Dave at the Hard Rock Orlando in the summer of 2006. Brian and Toshi were sharing guitar duties. Ray wasn't playing anymore with the band at that point (I can't even remember the drummers name there that night, but he was good), and I'm told Todd Jensen was playing with Roth live for those 2006 dates (my lady asked me when the band started playing who was who in the band, and I recognized Brian and Toshi right off the bat, but had no idea who the rhythm section were).

That band I saw in 2006 KICKED ASS. The fucked up part? The 2008 VH date I saw, Ed was playing poorly to the point where I honestly thought the 2006 solo gig sounded better. My old lady agreed, and she's not nearly as invested in Van Halen in terms of being a fan than I am. After the show, she said the same things I had been thinking throughout the 2008 show while the band were playing: Alex sounded good and played well, the bass was barely audible and Wolfgang looked weird and uncomfortable onstage, Dave sounded good and performed well, and Eddie played decent for the first 4 to 5 songs then got progressively worse. During Ed's solo toward the end of the show, my old lady turned to me and asked if Eddie was drunk. I looked over at her and sadly nodded my head. I mean, the entire arena was silent, and you could literally see everybody in there thinking the same thing: this guy is shitfaced and can't play properly.

I will say Ed redeemed himself in a big way when 2012 rolled around: Ed was quite excellent at the 2012 show I saw. Did everything he needed to do to service the material properly and do it justice. When the band were tearing into Girl Gone Bad, at one point I literally closed my eyes for a few moments and slowly nodded my head...like, Ed was just THAT fucking good that night. And I'd also add Wolfgang fit into the band much better on the ADKOT tour than he did the first tour in terms of performing. Point of fact, all three Van Halens knocked it out of the park in 2012.

[Southpaw]

I saw them at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City. Sammy opened put on a good show. A little too much crowd interaction and Cabo Wabo endorsing for me. It seemed like a Sammy crowd to me I remember thinking fuck this place is gonna empty out for Dave. But it was the opposite! It was GA so me and missus were able to get to front once some Sammy people cleared out. Dave kicked ass! Place was packed and Rockin maybe a little under 90 minutes. Left most in crowd wanting a bit more. Can't believe 15 years ago. Damn!

[Von Halen]

I saw them at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City. Sammy opened put on a good show. A little too much crowd interaction and Cabo Wabo endorsing for me. It seemed like a Sammy crowd to me I remember thinking fuck this place is gonna empty out for Dave. But it was the opposite! It was GA so me and missus were able to get to front once some Sammy people cleared out. Dave kicked ass! Place was packed and Rockin maybe a little under 90 minutes. Left most in crowd wanting a bit more. Can't believe 15 years ago. Damn!

I was at that show.

[Terry]

I was at that show.

Was Southpaw's description pretty accurate in terms of how you saw it?

[Von Halen]

Was Southpaw's description pretty accurate in terms of how you saw it?

Pretty much. I saw a whole bunch of shows on that tour. The best thing about that show, was FilthyLilMouth (what ever happened to her) refused to stand for Clichegar's set, and sat right down in the middle of the floor. Like Southpaw said, it was general admission. There were no seats. Mike B and I spent the whole set trying to keep her from getting trampled! It was awesome!

[Nickdfresh]

Wanna hear something fucked up?

I got to see Dave at the Hard Rock Orlando in the summer of 2006. Brian and Toshi were sharing guitar duties. Ray wasn't playing anymore with the band at that point (I can't even remember the drummers name there that night, but he was good), and I'm told Todd Jensen was playing with Roth live for those 2006 dates (my lady asked me when the band started playing who was who in the band, and I recognized Brian and Toshi right off the bat, but had no idea who the rhythm section were).

That band I saw in 2006 KICKED ASS. The fucked up part? The 2008 VH date I saw, Ed was playing poorly to the point where I honestly thought the 2006 solo gig sounded better. My old lady agreed, and she's not nearly as invested in Van Halen in terms of being a fan than I am. After the show, she said the same things I had been thinking throughout the 2008 show while the band were playing: Alex sounded good and played well, the bass was barely audible and Wolfgang looked weird and uncomfortable onstage, Dave sounded good and performed well, and Eddie played decent for the first 4 to 5 songs then got progressively worse. During Ed's solo toward the end of the show, my old lady turned to me and asked if Eddie was drunk. I looked over at her and sadly nodded my head. I mean, the entire arena was silent, and you could literally see everybody in there thinking the same thing: this guy is shitfaced and can't play properly.

I will say Ed redeemed himself in a big way when 2012 rolled around: Ed was quite excellent at the 2012 show I saw. Did everything he needed to do to service the material properly and do it justice. When the band were tearing into Girl Gone Bad, at one point I literally closed my eyes for a few moments and slowly nodded my head...like, Ed was just THAT fucking good that night. And I'd also add Wolfgang fit into the band much better on the ADKOT tour than he did the first tour in terms of performing. Point of fact, all three Van Halens knocked it out of the park in 2012.

I never saw them in 2007, but Ed did rip in 2012-2013...

[Terry]

I never saw them in 2007, but Ed did rip in 2012-2013...

From the boots I have seen, the first dozen or so dates of the first leg of the 2007 tour demonstrated Ed being in decent form. My assumption was that he would have gotten better as the tour went on: they were playing basically the same tunes every night. The longer the tour went on, the worse he got.

But...yeah, Ed DID fucking rip in 2012-2013. He was so good in Tampa in 2012. I wouldn't go as far as to say he was playing on a level of excellence and intensity matching the CVH days, but he was well-rehearsed, focused and clearly enjoying himself.