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Shit. In Sam’s mind if he played Haiti its gross domestic product would be one of the highest in the world. Yup. Some shitty Van Halen covers, pounding shots of rock gut and doing the 5150 walk brings manna from heaven and turns the land to milk and honey.
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No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar! -
Taking my local 20,000 seat-capacity amphitheater as the example, when Van Halen played that venue in 2015 (which I didn't see but heard about from someone I knew who went) and Jimmy Buffett played there in 2017 (which I did go to) ...neither of those acts packed the place to capacity: maybe 3/4's full for each, which is respectable for a 20,000 seat venue but there was still room for a few thousand more at both gigs in terms of unsold lawn seating. Same was true for Motley Crue's 2015 'Farewell Tour'.
I find it very hard to believe that The Circle 2024 (with Loverboy opening) has even close to the drawing power that any of those acts I mentioned above had several years back, regardless of Satriani being the in the band and regardless of the setlist being packed with Van Halen tunes: if Van Halen 2015 couldn't quite fill the place with Eddie, Al and Dave in the group, the logic is that Hagar, Anthony and Satriani in 2024 can either fill it or even come close to doing so?
No wonder Hagar 'invited' Dave and Alex to participate in next year's tour: deep down, Hagar must be wondering if he has the star power these days to fill venues of a size he hasn't played in front of since either Van Halen's 2004 tour or the 2002 Sam and Dave tour. Certainly, crowd sizes he hasn't attracted in the last 20 years as either a solo act or a member of Chickenfoot/The Circle. I'm assuming whichever promoter setting up this tour must feel otherwise, and assumedly The Circle gets a per-show guaranteed rate so the band makes whatever they make regardless of how many attend, but playing shows to venues that are noticeably not filled is never a good look. It wasn't in 2004 for Van Halen after the word-of-mouth about the quality of the performances got out shortly after the initial dates took place and the later gigs on the tour had half-filled arenas in more than a few cases.
The thing about it is, it all boils down to class. The classiest thing Hagar could have done was go on Stern, announce Satriani was in the band, say that the band is going to include more Van Hagar tunes into the upcoming set than they normally had performed in previous shows, maybe say something along the lines of "yeah, it would have been great if Mike and I and Ed and Al had been able to play together live again for the fans who would have wanted to see it...unfortunately, that never came to be for a lot of reasons I think most people are aware of, there's no need to rehash all the offstage feuding and estrangement that went down in the past because in the end it was the music that mattered above all that, The Circle are going to do their best to play those Van Halen tunes I was involved with the best we can and hopefully in a way that pays homage and respect to what we did all those years ago and by doing that in a small way celebrate what we did all those years ago, I think the fans would like that, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah". Now, granted, on a personal level I still wouldn't bother to go see it because I'd have no interest in it, but at the very least one could say "well, at least Sammy Hagar is saying all the right things, even if it's just bullshit interview pr blather".
What you DON'T do if you want to approach the years you were in Van Halen with a degree of class and respect is exactly what Hagar IS doing. Which is calling it a Van Halen tribute tour - or a tour that is paying tribute to Van Halen - while obviously not having any visible public support from at the very least Alex...you don't go on Stern and publicly invite past members of the band to take part: that is something that should have been undertaken BEFORE any media announcements, solely out of respect for the past members of the band if nobody else (had Hagar already done that and received no response? without knowing one way or the other, I wouldn't necessarily bet against it). Hagar can't even SAY the right things about it. The whole biz feels more and more like a half-assed, lazy way for Hagar to inflate the ticket value of The Circle's upcoming tour a hundred or so bucks a pop above what it would have been - and increase the size of the venues beyond what he would have otherwise been playing - if he wasn't promoting it as some sort of tribute to Eddie Van Halen.Scramby eggs and bacon.Comment
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Oddly enough, Loverboy still has most of the original members. Their bass player died when his sailboat capsised back in 2000, but the rest of them are still going, apparently. Though I can't remember hearing anything new from them in decades. I'll admit I still have the first two records on vinyl, but can't remember the last time they were on the turntable.
I'm sure that "Remember The Heroes" will be the encore of the Chickenshit 2.0/Loverboy tour....
Eat Us And Smile
Cenk For America 2024!!
Justice Democrats
"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992Comment
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It's just a shame that no one in the Van Halen clan could do a damn thing to recognize/memorialize/etc the passing of Ed or celebrate the man's contributions to rock music. I guess Wolfgang's 2 song performance at the Hawkins Tribute was something... but it wasn't intended to be about Ed.
I do give credit to Sam and Mike for doing something for Eddie that the whole damn music industry lacks the balls to do... including David Lee Roth. It's becoming apparent Dave doesn't have the ability to contribute to any of this. Please don't counter that Dave's above it all... that's bullshit. His best productive output is craft time finger painting and directing his media person to post to social media..."If you want to be a monk... you gotta cook a lot of rice...”Comment
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I couldn't disagree with you more. WTF would the Van Halen clan do to honor EVH? A concert with a bunch of guitarists that have no business butchering Ed's music? I think they've done the perfect tribute by allowing that music to be immortalized as it was. I don't want to hear a bunch of full of themselves guitar players get up on a stage and butcher that music. Hell, I no longer want to hear Dave or Clichegar butcher it live.
Release some old live shows. That's the best tribute anyone can do to pay homage to the king of the six string.
Sam and Mike are not doing this for Ed. They are doing it for themselves. They are making asses of themselves. They are not only tarnishing Ed's legacy, they are tarnishing their own legacies.
Frankly Zah, I am surprised and disgusted by your support of this travesty. You're getting soft in your old age.Comment
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At one point, I had thought a fitting tribute - if the Van Halens felt one HAD to be done - would be something along the lines of the thing the remaining members of Queen did in 1992 a year or so after Freddie passed. Get Roth, Alex, Wolfgang, Mike Anthony, Hagar and do a 2-hour set featuring different guitarists for each tune, or each guitarist played a couple of tunes, or whatever. I felt something should have been done a year or so after Eddie passed, were that to be the case. And a one-time, one-off show, NOT some sort of Van Halen Mach 5 with Dave and Alex and a new singer and a new bass player going on tour. That thing Wolfgang did with Dave Grohl was meaningless to me as a tribute to Ed, although as Zah said that show was supposed to be about Hawkins, not Ed (which of course begs the question as to why Wolfgang showed up to play a couple Van Halen tunes anyway, but whatever).
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But I'd have to agree with Zah that while Dave might have been up for a single Van Halen tribute show in 2021 just from a vocal standpoint...not so much anymore. Plus, it's, like, 4 years later; personally, I thought something should have been done right around a year after Ed passed.
At this point, I would agree with Von that the best tribute would be releasing some old live shows. Eventually, that DID happen. Sadly, it was whoever leaked the recent Donnington set that ended up paying tribute to when Ed WAS the fucking king, and not anybody that had been in Van Halen.
But, whatever. 'Van Halen' on balance hasn't been able to get anything really 100% right since the summer of 1996 when the CVH lineup went into the studio and banged out a couple tunes with Dave: THAT was really the last time the band got it 100% right. Thus, it's no surprise the tribute to Eddie that is happening next year is just a clusterfuck, clusterfucks being par for the course far as Van Halen is concerned since the autumn of 1996.Scramby eggs and bacon.Comment
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Sorry Zah, I'm with Von on this one.
There is no tribute that would do Ed any justice in this world. Clearly Dave and Al realized this and didn't go forward with Satriani. As evidenced by his trainwreck attempt at Mean Street I can't say I blame them.
I agree that the only tribute is to open the vaults, release old shows on Blu Ray and remastered audio/box sets etc.
And yeah, Spammy and his wife are doing this for themselves. Its all about the money - at least for Sambo.=V V=
ole No.1 The finest
EAT US AND SMILEComment
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I think you missed a key point Von... rather than allowing the music to be immortalized as it was. What did Al do..? Polished up 5 turds from the Hagar era that are still best served from the forgotten bargain bin!
I know... I get sentimental for traditions, although I hate funerals!! Something in me says a musician as influential and inspiring as EVH deserved more than nothing to recognize his passing. And NO I don't want to hear a bunch of hacks trying to play Ed's material... no fucking way!
I won't be supporting Sam and Mike's self-serving tour thing... I was only recognizing they had the audacity to do something rather siting on their lazy asses and letting shit fade away like the Van Halen's and Dave. Getting soft eh..? Punk! LOL"If you want to be a monk... you gotta cook a lot of rice...”Comment
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Roth's statement to VHND, intended for Hagar, is this:
"I'm ready to go.
Let's do this."
Writing In All Proper Case Takes Extra Time, Is Confusing To Read, And Is Completely Pointless.Comment
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This is also about taking ownership of the Van Halen brand for Hagar.
As things stand Hagar's time in Van Halen is a blip in the middle of their history. An unfortunate blip.
It's worth pointing out that technically you can make a decent argument (and I will) that Hagar was in Van Halen for about the same amount of time as Wolfgang. This tour is about reclaiming his (and Anthony's) legacy - it's absolutely nothing to do with a tribute to Ed it's about Hagar ending his career in arenas singing for a version of Van Halen.Comment
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I never liked this whole idea of doing a “tribute” to a dead band member. It’s a very Hagar businessman thing to do but it’s not an art-centric, Classic VH thing to do. They’re profiting off the death of their band mate. It’s not classy and humble at all despite how many times Sam talks about how cool he is. And of course it’s never as good as it once was. Sam doesn’t seem to get that he’s beating the VH image into the ground by doing this shit, not elevating it.Comment
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My thoughts exactly. People who understand music are going. Sammy? What the fuck?No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
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No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
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