Uuugh. My band opened for those jugheads sometime in the late 1990s, and you'll never meet a group of more drugged out, overly ego-ed twits in the music business. For one thing, the drummer's kit was comprised of bits and pieces from three separate and mismatching sets, all held together with twine, duct tape and hope. The bastards refused to allow us a sound check, yet spent an additional 45 minutes or so getting further loaded in their caravan, which consisted of a Ford F150 pick up with a camper shell stapled to it and a beat up station wagon. These dorks wouldn't even allow us to put up our stage banner, yet spent the evening playing Black Sabbath and Zeppelin covers.
Reading the writing on the wall, I would soon quit the music business completely a short time later.
Billy Sheehan Interview: Talks DLR
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Mr. Big
Extreme
Saigon Kick
3 bands that effectively tore my face off with their live performance (guitar-wise for the most part) that attained commercial success with sap! I still remember going to those shows and picking out of the crowd who was there to sing along with To Be With You, More Than Words and Love Is On The Way, then leave.Leave a comment:
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The problem I have with Sheehan is that he stated more than once that the album's final print was essentially over produced and wasn't raw and hard enough. That's fine, but Jesus, he was in Mr. Big and had no problem on slickly produced powerballad radio-whore songs later on...Leave a comment:
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My issue with Billy is that on one hand is talking about how he struggled all those years and then all of a sudden he is playing packed arenas with Dave and how great it was. Then on the very next album he doesn't agree with the direction, still plays on the record, and then splits? How about some loyalty Billy? So because he didn't agree with the direction he goes and forms Mr. Big to do what? Play sub par hard rock music in the style of the late 80's hair band craze. Wow. You really showed everyone Bill. Mr. Big opened for Rush for a while in 1990. I can't imagine any Rush fans giving 2 shits about them. Then they opened for the Scorpions for a while on triple bills beside the likes of White Lion, Aldo Nova and Great White. Thus, i ask did Billy win or lose?Leave a comment:
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Agreed. Ed seems buried on that one in particular (and Big River and Beats Workin', and Blood And Fire..) turn up the goddamn guitar!Leave a comment:
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Well, YFLM has a lot of good stuff and some stuff I can take or leave ... but I'd say 'Big Train' kicks more ass than what I think is pretty cliched stuff like 'It's Showtime'. I not that interested in how technically good Becker was as a player, he just never did anything for me. By the time ALAE came out I thought "another gunslinger", cos after a while there's only so much post-Eddie Van Halen guitar playing that you can listen to if the songs aren't there.
There's plenty DLR solo stuff that I'd take over a coupla tracks on ADKOT - namely, 'As Is', 'Chinatown', and 'Honeybabysweetydoll' all of which might be great instrumentals workouts, and Ed kicks ass on them, but they fall short as songs, and for me CVH's big strength (and where they stand the test of time) is that they wrote better songs than all those other bands who followed them.
Wouldn't mind seeing VH play a few DLR tunes onstage, but of course it will never happen.Leave a comment:
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I always thought that tune sounded like something Dave had been carrying around, lyrically at least, since his first VH stint. Just something about it.
I'd love to hear this version of VH do Flex. Don't know that I'd ever want to hear Ed playing a Vai tune. That would just get all weird.Leave a comment:
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Well, YFLM has a lot of good stuff and some stuff I can take or leave ... but I'd say 'Big Train' kicks more ass than what I think is pretty cliched stuff like 'It's Showtime'. I not that interested in how technically good Becker was as a player, he just never did anything for me. By the time ALAE came out I thought "another gunslinger", cos after a while there's only so much post-Eddie Van Halen guitar playing that you can listen to if the songs aren't there.
There's plenty DLR solo stuff that I'd take over a coupla tracks on ADKOT - namely, 'As Is', 'Chinatown', and 'Honeybabysweetydoll' all of which might be great instrumentals workouts, and Ed kicks ass on them, but they fall short as songs, and for me CVH's big strength (and where they stand the test of time) is that they wrote better songs than all those other bands who followed them.
Wouldn't mind seeing VH play a few DLR tunes onstage, but of course it will never happen.
And I'd like to hear a Van Halenized Big Train live...
Too bad MA is MIA...
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... 'As Is', 'Chinatown', and 'Honeybabysweetydoll' all of which might be great instrumentals workouts, and Ed kicks ass on them, but they fall short as songs, and for me CVH's big strength (and where they stand the test of time) is that they wrote better songs than all those other bands who followed.Leave a comment:
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Best solo album Dave did after EEAS was DLR Band in my book. I'd take that over ALAE any day of the week.Leave a comment:
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Well, YFLM has a lot of good stuff and some stuff I can take or leave ... but I'd say 'Big Train' kicks more ass than what I think is pretty cliched stuff like 'It's Showtime'. I not that interested in how technically good Becker was as a player, he just never did anything for me. By the time ALAE came out I thought "another gunslinger", cos after a while there's only so much post-Eddie Van Halen guitar playing that you can listen to if the songs aren't there.
There's plenty DLR solo stuff that I'd take over a coupla tracks on ADKOT - namely, 'As Is', 'Chinatown', and 'Honeybabysweetydoll' all of which might be great instrumentals workouts, and Ed kicks ass on them, but they fall short as songs, and for me CVH's big strength (and where they stand the test of time) is that they wrote better songs than all those other bands who followed them.
Wouldn't mind seeing VH play a few DLR tunes onstage, but of course it will never happen.Leave a comment:
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I hear ya. As much as I loved Cinderella, listening to that stuff today reveals how much they sounded like AC/DC with Zeppelin-like production values. So essentially, I liked what I thought they sounded like, as opposed to the band's own inerrant qualities. And when they ran out of ideas about halfway through their second album, I pretty much gave up and moved on, sending me back to The Replacements and Husker Du.Leave a comment:
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very true. sometimes i hear those 80's bands today and it's pretty disgusting how watered down and bad they got after 1986 or so.Leave a comment:
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