Horrible Review

[Zing!]

Meh... one bad review amidst a plethora of mostly positive praise. Fuck 'em.

[Nigel]

Most rock singers just stand in front of a microphone, don't dance, don't have anything to say (except for hello and goodnight), don't slide on linoleum, don't wear multicolored costumes, don't posture to the band and the audience with that "look at these guys, can you believe it" shit-eating grin, or flirt with pretend women in the front row.

Aside from "cringing" during Dance The Night Away, I thought the Toronto show was fucking great. The wall of sound and Van Halen LIVE right there in your 15,000 seat living room
was a dream come true. Let's hope Howard's writing hand cramps up when he's 57!

[fourthcoming]

This reviewer obviously doesn't get it. Dave came on with a forced grin like a used car salesman selling lemons? Hello? The dude has had that shit eating grin since day one! I will agree with the blower rant......fake or not....I tend to believe it's fake. How can the venues not know by now not to turn the blowers on during the performance. That shit is just stupid and unprofessional.......I need Dave to be Dave, not Axl Rose. I think for the most part Dave's voice has been good enough for me. If he didn't constantly strain it with the upper register, I'm sure he would sound even better....ala the 2007-2008 tour. It is what it is.....and it is glorious as far as I'm concerned. This dweeb who reviewed the show was probably never a Van Halen fan to begin with so fuck 'em.

[Zing!]

This dweeb who reviewed the show was probably never a Van Halen fan to begin with so fuck 'em.

I'm sure he thought the 86-96 years WAS Van Halen...

[fourthcoming]

I'm sure he thought the 86-96 years WAS Van Halen...

I doubt he even thinks that. Once I saw his attempt at being cute by throwing in the "Moves Like Jagger" line.....I started thinking this guy is either some cluless 22 yr old, or he grew up listening to Depeche Mode.

[DONNIEP]

This does raise a very relevant point... the "blower rant" crap, real or not, definitely should have been fixed by now. Too many repeats and at this phase of the tour virtually all of the production wrinkles should have been ironed out.

For $150 per seat or way more... the fans do deserve a full professional show with little to no fuck ups beginning to end.

These aren't $15 tickets in the 80's anymore where the party eclipsed the performance... Dave's working for his dinner now and needs to focus on that.

I agree 100% with Zah's point. Although I'm not sure what could realistically be done about the A/C in these arenas. I mean, you got 15,000 people packed into the joint, screaming and jumping up and down. And then there's the heat from stage. It's not like you can just turn off the A/C when the guys hit the stage. Something definitely needs to be done, I'm just not sure there's a whole hell of a lot they can do.

[SilvioDante]

It's just unrealistic to expect a 57 year old guy to perform the way he did 25 years ago.

How true. I would just LOVE one of these performers, whether its Dave, or Crue, or Aerosmith or whoever, to come out on stage and say," wait a minute... you guys out there are all old and fat. Where are the 20 year old chicks flashing their boobs? Where are the drunk guys fighting? Why is no one throwing panties on the stage? You guys suck, we're outta here!" and walk off the stage.

None of us are the same guy (or gal) we were in 1984. Why should anyone expect the band to be? They are giving 100%, and that includes Dave. The blower rants are played, I'll give you that. Other than that, I'll guaran-damn-tee they are bringing it every night. And that's all I can ask for.

[So this is love]

Quote from this review: ``The band didn’t even employ a keyboardist to perform the synthesizer parts in Jump, relying on canned music instead.``

ooooh! my head hurts...

[So this is love]

How true. I would just LOVE one of these performers, whether its Dave, or Crue, or Aerosmith or whoever, to come out on stage and say," wait a minute... you guys out there are all old and fat. Where are the 20 year old chicks flashing their boobs? Where are the drunk guys fighting? Why is no one throwing panties on the stage? You guys suck, we're outta here!" and walk off the stage.

None of us are the same guy (or gal) we were in 1984. Why should anyone expect the band to be? They are giving 100%, and that includes Dave. The blower rants are played, I'll give you that. Other than that, I'll guaran-damn-tee they are bringing it every night. And that's all I can ask for.

Actually there were drunk guys fighting at the New Hampshire show... I agree with you

[DONNIEP]

All I know is that Van Halen's coming to town next Wednesday, I got some killer seats, the next day off of work and it's going to be one hell of a night!!!

[jhale667]

OK, you KNOW the reviewer is a clueless asshat when he suggests the band should pay a keyboardist (yeah, salary, hotel and travel expenses, per diem, etc) for ONE song...he's an idiot.

[bantonelli]

A true die-hard fan will take this review and put it where it belongs.... DELETE BUTTON.

[vh rides again]

Hell
I'm wondering what shows anyone has been to that sounded phenomenal.

There is a misconception in the belief that at some point in vanhalens career, that David lee Roth could sing like Freddie mercury.
Sure he could belt out some wicked sounding screams and shit like that but I never walked away from a van halen concert saying to myself , damn that Dave sounded just like the records I listen too.
He didn't do it in 1979 and sure as hell not in 2012.

Hell, Freddie mercury had a hard time living up to his albums live.

Dave never has been a great singer live, but he is vanhalen.

I'm damn glad he's up front and have no complaints.

Bring it on Dave




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

Roth And Roll

[Terry]

Far as Roth's physicality onstage goes, I accepted it when seeing Halen last week. The guy is pushing 60. I'm not expecting flying roundhouses, splits off the drum riser and scissor kicks with his foot above his head anymore. That aspect of his performance has been slowly waning over the years. It may seem abrupt to a reviewer who hasn't seen Roth perform live since the 1980s, or has only seen old 1980s videos, but for longtime fans where he's at in terms of how he moves onstage these days ain't a big shock.
Where I do agree with the above review is regarding Roth's vocals this tour, which have found him struggling, oftentimes unneccessarily so. For whatever reason, he's made a choice to yell quite a bit in a higher register than many of the songs were written in, and this strained key just doesn't sound all that hot. Even less so when contrasted against Wolf and Ed's backing vocals, which were spot-on throughout the show.
I'd have to agree with the reviewer, having seen the show, that all of the Van Halens are on their game and Roth isn't quite up there with them. Singing the tunes (as opposed to shouting them) would go a long way toward making the whole thing sound that much better.

[Seshmeister]

It's been a bit of a turnaround. I haven't seen this tour yet but when I saw them on the last one Roth was totally carrying them and that was the second half when by all accounts Ed had sobered up.