Being a site which is devoted to Van Halen...

[vandeleur]

What was this thread about? Oh yeah, VH.

The "band" is nothing more than an expensive nite out these days. You pay your couple hundred bucks, take your chick to the show, buy some overpriced beers and wait to hear OBC's electrified geetar make that screechy noise when they walk out on stage. Sure, it's fun and Dave tries to put on a show. But it ain't no Van Halen show. And then the tour ends and they return to the Fortress Of Irrelevance.

Meanwhile, Mike and Sam are out touring and putting out at least 7 records every year lol. Might not be the music I dig but they're giving their fans what they want, even if it's playing to much smaller crowds than VH draws, albeit with a lot of giveaway seats on the last VH tour.

I doubt I'll go to another VH show unless they come out with some new music and/or radically change the stage show. Oh, and they need to fire that fat kid and bring back Mike so he can do his coked up monkey bass solo. It's damn sure more entertaining than seeing OBC play eruption for the gazillionth time while a bunch of drunk idiots stand there slack jawed like the guy just discovered fire. I get it, it was awesome, ground breaking, cock jizzingly incredible. 40 fuckin years ago. Jesus, when the well goes dry it REALLY goes dry.

I'd rather see a Dave solo show. Or just watch my old bootlegs. Van Halen died almost 31 years ago. They pissed away every opportunity to resurrect the band and still haven't done it. Mainly because Ed is so goddamn codependent he can't walk on stage without his fuckin kid. Hey OBC - you can't recapture the years you missed spending with your kid cause you was stone drunk. Grow a set of Bawllz, get the old bass player back and quit ruinin my life!!

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

[DONNIEP]

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

Shouldn't you be sending Wolfie cock pics on Instagram or fagbook?

[ZahZoo]

Do you just copy and paste this ...... Two words for ya .. Ground fucking hog

No worries... that bug will be fixed in the DonnieP app in the next release.

[Terry]

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

THAT to me was when the realization that this reunion with Roth wasn't going to be creatively productive.

Like, as pissed off as I was at Ed for being drunk (oh...er...sorry, I meant 'having trouble with his hands' - and he may well HAVE been having troubles with his hands that did require some surgery post-tour, but if he wasn't drunk at that show he was doing an EXCELLENT impression of someone who was, and the net result sucked regardless of whatever the excuse was) and unable to play well at the Tampa show I saw in 2008, I cut the band slack on that first reunion tour. Mostly because:

1) I'd been wanting to see Roth reunite with Van Halen for slightly over ten years at that point (which is part of why I was willing to go along with Mike Anthony not being there anymore: "okay, if [having Ed's kid play bass] is what it takes to get Roth back into the fold...")

2) Only a year prior, Ed looked like he was ready to drop dead at any moment. The miracle of that tour wasn't so much that Roth had finally returned, but that Ed was even able to stand up and play semi-well.

3) Roth had tightened up his game, cut out the mc chatter, rehearsed the tunes, made sure to sing all the lyrics - Dave wasn't bringing his semi-passive displays he had exhibited in his solo appearances at smaller venues in 2005 and 2006. He was back in arenas fronting Van Halen, and he rose to the challenge accordingly (which is pretty much what one expects when paying $100 a pop to see the band in a 15,000 seater as opposed to $15 to $30 a ticket for a Roth solo show at a Ribfest or small theater).

Now, come 2012, I will Ed say was cleaned up and ready to play. And he has been playing well.

Roth has just been careening downhill ever since 2007-2008. Waning ability and an unwillingness to sing the tunes properly. Roth simply doesn't sound good onstage with the band anymore. And the ADKOT album was a decent effort, but when it relies so heavily on those old demos, that signals that Roth and the Van Halens, for whatever reasons, have difficulties coming up with anything new and compelling.

[Terry]

I think if VH was even remotely active on social media we would've only given a cursory mention of Bette's Tweet....

But since VH is absolutely dormant, we're forced to micro-analyze each and every little tidbit of information that comes out....

Wolf is playing Right Now on piano, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

EVH is getting his TransTrem rebuilt, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

But at this stage in their (and our) lives, as Terry said, it's to the point where not much of a shit is given either way....

The thing of it is, I never harbored any resentment for Hagar joining the band in 1985.

Dave quit in 1985. I think it was dishonest for the band to carry on with the name Van Halen after Roth left, and I had issues with Hagar joining in with the Van Halens on dumping on Roth in press interviews: the Van Halens were there at the beginning, and they (along with Roth) had built the band into a multi-platinum selling group that sold out multiple nights at arenas prior to Hagar stepping in there. So while the Van Halens had the right to respond or initiate negative comments to/at Roth, Hagar should have just kept his goddamed mouth shut. At the MOST, Hagar should have said he was honored to join such a successful band, recognized the success they had prior to his arrival and said he hoped his contributions to the band would be met with the same level of success. Apparently, Hagar actually believed he was a solo artist with a level of success on par with that of Van Halen prior to 1985, because he was right in there with the Van Halens dumping on Roth (who, to be fair, was certainly not kind in his comments toward Hagar).

Strictly on the fact of Hagar joining the band in 1985, though, I was never pissed at Hagar. It was a golden opportunity for him. And I never gave Hagar sole credit for the commercial synth rock the band made when he was singing for them: Ed was writing the music, and Hagar was writing what he wanted to lyrically. Hagar was who he was.

I was never pissed at Hagar for rejoining the band in 2003-2004, either. Ed wasn't in any condition to play well on that tour, and it was just as well Roth wasn't around for that. I thought it was a bit naïve for Hagar to have admittedly seen Ed's condition in the half year prior to the tour and basically relied on hope that Ed would pull himself together for it, and when THAT didn't happen instead of pulling out Hagar went ahead and did the dates because he was afraid of being sued by promoters for cancelled dates - Hagar hung in there, took the money (I never heard anything about Hagar offering to refund the fans who saw those shitty shows) THEN wrote a tell-all saying it was all Eddie's fault. The basics of Hagar's story may all well be true, but even so it said a lot about Hagar that rather than put the kibosh on going out and presiding over a concert he knew had a good chance of being shitty because of Ed's condition he kept his eye on the most important thing - not the fans, but his wallet - and then made a double-dipping after the tour was over with that book of his. Sensible business decision, but let's stop all the blather about how Hagar loves his fans so much.

[Terry]

I think if VH was even remotely active on social media we would've only given a cursory mention of Bette's Tweet....

But since VH is absolutely dormant, we're forced to micro-analyze each and every little tidbit of information that comes out....

Wolf is playing Right Now on piano, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

EVH is getting his TransTrem rebuilt, HOLY SHIT they're getting back together with Bette!

But at this stage in their (and our) lives, as Terry said, it's to the point where not much of a shit is given either way....

And even if Anthony rejoins the band and CVH tours, what is it gonna be?

"Hey, great, CVH is onstage again...and Dave STILL isn't up to the task!"

Sorry, but the authenticity of seeing the CVH lineup onstage will only be meaningful if they can play well. I'd have little doubt the Van Halens and Anthony would be up for it, but Dave just can't cut it in an acceptable way to my ears anymore. It wouldn't even be a case of 'better late than never' if such a thing came to pass now.

[So this is love]

I think it's always worth pointing out that from the supposed 10 albums of material Ed had, so at least 100 songs, 'Up For Breakfast' made the top three.

97 of his songs were worse than 'Up For Breakfast'...

...so by curiosity I just listened to Up for breakfast and aside from the lyrics it is good filler, the guitar riffs is good, It even reminds me of the ace of spades.... or maybe I should play it again or have another drink

[DONNIEP]

Odd that nobody ever mentions that Al didn't pull out of the Van Hagar reunion tour either.

[Terry]

Al is gonna do whatever his brother wants to do.

[DONNIEP]

Al is gonna do whatever his brother wants to do.

Including watch OBC do his best to kill himself? Come on, Al was signing the checks just as fast as Slappy. Besides, Ed is a grown man. If that sumbitch wants to drink himself into a stupor every nite then he's the only one responsible for it.

[Terry]

Oh, without a doubt Ed is ultimately the one responsible for his drinking problem. I mean, a person can allocate exterior reasons for why they feel they have to abuse alcohol, booze, food (being sexually abused/beaten as a child, etc.)...but I honestly feel there reaches a point where a person is grown up enough in terms of age to be held totally accountable for the way they choose to respond to whatever happened to them as a kid. I think in Ed's case he simply liked to drink and get drunk because he enjoyed the way it made him feel.

I think Al was just in denial about it for a long time. And I wouldn't discount that perhaps Ed has been a bit screwy in the head for a long time, but signs of that didn't start to physically manifest themselves until after his cancer scare and the failure of Van Halen 3. I mean, you look at the choices the Van Halens made from 1996 onward, and it's like they were a bit cocooned from reality. It wasn't until Van Halen 3 bombed, then Warner Brothers dropped them, then they filled their coffers with the Hagar tour in 2004 and after that I think Ed just went off the deep end after Valerie finally left him a year after the 2004 Hagar tour was over.

I think (I don't know for sure) what it came down to was that Azoff was either told by promoters they wouldn't be giving Van Halen any guarantees in 2007 or that Ed couldn't get insurance in 2007 for a tour unless Ed could demonstrably show he was clean and sober. I think it came to that point and only when that point of Ed's behavior possibly affecting Van Halen's ability to tour and earn was reached (along with some other Ed health problems)...the realization finally hit home. Because you look at those pics of Ed in late 2006/early 2007 with Roth and Ed's appearance at the late 2006 NAMM show, and Ed is still clearly fucked up. And when you live with an addict as long as Al has lived with Ed, you only stick around if you learn how to accept/rationalize/make excuses for that behavior. Otherwise, if that person makes a choice of engaging in a harmful addiction over your friendship and you find that intolerable, you eventually walk away if you have any self-respect.

[DONNIEP]

Al likes money. Al can't hold onto a dollar. The Van Hagar tour was instigated by Al. Al didn't pull out of the tour. Al's Ed's brother. If anybody should have said "Woah, this is a bad idea!" it should have been Al. If I was the former singer of a financially successful band and the drummer said "let's tour!" I would do it in a heartbeat even if the geetar player was literally shooting heroin in his eyeballs right before show time. Nobody owes Ed anything. Nobody should have to look after him or wonder if he's gonna finally take the last drink. And IF his brother thinks it's a great idea and says "he'll be fine" then fuck the geetar player.

Now, I'm not talking to Terry here but too many people here run around and say Sammy shouldn't have toured with Ed in the shape he was in. And that may be true. But Slappy didn't need the money and neither did Mike. Al definitely needed the money. And OBC? So long as the booze was flowing he was good to go.

Bottom line - who really cares? It was a shitty tour and Sam dressed like a goddamn moron and the shows I've seen sucked. But Al got paid for pimping his old drunk ass no talent left brother.

[ZahZoo]

I viewed the 2004 tour as the last opportunity to see VH and more specifically EVH perform live ever... the path and condition of EVH was clearly heading to a tragic end. Had EVH not cleaned up... I honestly believe he wouldn't be here today.

[DLR Bridge]

Al can't hold onto a dollar.

How do we actually know this? Not being smug. I'm just curious. I feel as though I've heard talk of Al losing his every cent to ex-wives a million times through fan speak only. And just like Dave's supposed current contract with Van Halen, I have never seen any actual proof of Al's perpetual state of destituteness.

[vandeleur]

How do we actually know this? Not being smug. I'm just curious. I feel as though I've heard talk of Al losing his every cent to ex-wives a million times through fan speak only. And just like Dave's supposed current contract with Van Halen, I have never seen any actual proof of Al's perpetual state of destituteness.

He had to take a part time job as a vicar to pay the bills