How many of you actually have seen Van Halen live?

[kwame k]

You were at the same show as me. 20+ years ago and we may have stood in the concession line next to each other. Weird.

I was the kid with the kinda long hair wearing a Metallica shirt. I'm sure you remember.

That was you, dude!!!!!!!!

Small world.

[vh rides again]

first time i seen vanhalen was at a local outdoor concert called the credit island jam, it was 1978-79 i think.

i was 12 years old and it was my second concert, my first being BTO at the old orpheum theatre in davenport iowa.

i went with a few friends who im still friends with today. we couldnt get permission or money to go to the concert so we all lied to our parents and said we were staying at each others houses, which was a regular occurance.

we rode innertubes across the mississippi river during the night and hid in the woods till 10 am when they were letting people in the gates.

people who brang coolers were not allowed to bring them in and were tossing beer over the fence i musta grabbed at least a 12 pack off the ground that day. mmmm warm beer and sun.

i didnt even know who vanhalen was but i did after they played, they were loud and kicked ass, eddie vanhalen really stood out and so did dave of course. i got the worst sunburn in the history of the world that day, i have the freckles to prove it.

the doobie brothers were there and sammy hagar.

in those days you could smoke a joint right in front of a cop and he would do nothing, oz of redbud was 25 bucks and filled the bag.

i seen vanhalen every tour after that usually in cedar rapids iowa, desmoines iowa or peoria illinois.

those were the days.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

first time i seen vanhalen was at a local outdoor concert called the credit island jam, it was 1978-79 i think.

i was 12 years old and it was my second concert, my first being BTO at the old orpheum theatre in davenport iowa.

i went with a few friends who im still friends with today. we couldnt get permission or money to go to the concert so we all lied to our parents and said we were staying at each others houses, which was a regular occurance.

we rode innertubes across the mississippi river during the night and hid in the woods till 10 am when they were letting people in the gates.

people who brang coolers were not allowed to bring them in and were tossing beer over the fence i musta grabbed at least a 12 pack off the ground that day. mmmm warm beer and sun.

i didnt even know who vanhalen was but i did after they played, they were loud and kicked ass, eddie vanhalen really stood out and so did dave of course. i got the worst sunburn in the history of the world that day, i have the freckles to prove it.

the doobie brothers were there and sammy hagar.

in those days you could smoke a joint right in front of a cop and he would do nothing, oz of redbud was 25 bucks and filled the bag.

i seen vanhalen every tour after that usually in cedar rapids iowa, desmoines iowa or peoria illinois.

those were the days.

Here ya go.... [ And yes, it's in the calendar ]

7/16/78 Credit Island, Davenport, IA

Note: Known as the Mississippi River Jam 1978 and sometimes the Iowa Jam, the bill included: Journey, Atlanta Rhythm Section, and the Doobie Brothers. This outdoor festival took place in a sweltering Iowa July heat and was plagued with delays. David Lee Roth told the nearly 35,000 fans in attendance to "Get your minds off the heat and put it in the beat." Almost 50 people were treated for heat exhaustion throughout the festival. The intense temperature also created havoc for the bands. It took over an hour for
the sound crew to set up Journey's equipment, which was longer than their 45-minute set. In addition, at the end of the Atlanta Rhythm Section's 50-minute set a piece of their stage equipment caught fire, sending up flames from a nearby electronic panel.
After waiting for nearly two hours close to 4,000 over-zealous fans crashed a fence before the venue opened (authorities had attempted to keep the concert-goers away from the performance area until the stage was completely erected) and almost as many
left the performance early due to all of the delays.

[vh rides again]

Here ya go.... [ And yes, it's in the calendar ]

7/16/78 Credit Island, Davenport, IA

Note: Known as the Mississippi River Jam 1978 and sometimes the Iowa Jam, the bill included: Journey, Atlanta Rhythm Section, and the Doobie Brothers. This outdoor festival took place in a sweltering Iowa July heat and was plagued with delays. David Lee Roth told the nearly 35,000 fans in attendance to "Get your minds off the heat and put it in the beat." Almost 50 people were treated for heat exhaustion throughout the festival. The intense temperature also created havoc for the bands. It took over an hour for
the sound crew to set up Journey's equipment, which was longer than their 45-minute set. In addition, at the end of the Atlanta Rhythm Section's 50-minute set a piece of their stage equipment caught fire, sending up flames from a nearby electronic panel.
After waiting for nearly two hours close to 4,000 over-zealous fans crashed a fence before the venue opened (authorities had attempted to keep the concert-goers away from the performance area until the stage was completely erected) and almost as many
left the performance early due to all of the delays.

wow thats pretty cool, where the hell did you find that at? .

yep that is the concert i was at, thanks for finding that tidbit of info.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

It's burned into my memory...

J/K, it's in the VH Encyclopedia, you can download it for free here....

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/the-van-halen-encyclopedia/4467885

It's not as accurate as the authors portray it to be, but it's still a very good compilation of VH information....

[Hardrock69]

I remember when I saw the Eddie and the Hagaritas up at Merriwether Post Pavilion outside of DC in '93....

I spent the night up on the lawn drinking beer and arguing with those idiots all night long....

That is grate! Hope you ruined their concert experience!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Yeah, pretty much...

Not as good as Pojo when he flipped Sambo the double bird in '02, but right up there....

[CROWBAR]

Saw them in '84, great show. Second night of a two night stand and both were sold out. Ticket was about $13.50. Good times.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

May 20, 1984... San Diego Sports Arena....

Night BEFORE the "Sundown in San Diego" bootleg.....

Nice time for a bump, since we have a lot of new members....

It was 27 years ago today.....

Some blurry thoughts of that time....

I was going to Navy schools in San Diego for most of '84 until I transferred to Japan late in the year.....

Van Halen was in San Diego for three nights in '84, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.... I went to the Sunday show (hence my avatar).....

The entire city was all Van Halen.... Everywhere you went, whether it was downtown, in the bars or on the beach, the city was abuzz because Van Halen was in town....

And that's the biggest thing that the youngin's just don't understand about how huge Van Halen was then.... They totally engrossed the city that they came to, in the newspapers and TV and radio.....

My friends and I had upper deck tickets, but we never got close to those.... We walked around the inner concourse until the houselights went down then snuck by the usher to one of the lower bowl seats on Eddie's side....

And, of course, because the 1984 stage was so HUGE, once the spotlight hit on Eddie, and he started wailing on "Unchained", Ed was right fucking there....

There's not too many moments in the show that I remember now that many brain cells have been fried.... I do remember that "I'll Wait" was my piss break song.....

Probably the best memory is just the sense of how frenzied the crowd was.... Van Halen was basically playing in it's backyard, they were on top of the music world, and it just made for an incredible show....

[chefcraig]

It was April of 1978. My friends and I had gone to Sid's Records in the Lakes Mall to get tickets for Ronnie Montrose, who was touring on his amazing Open Fire instrumental solo album. We were perplexed that Montrose was not at the top of the bill, instead sandwiched between two bands we'd never heard of, Journey at the top and Van Halen at the bottom. Having unknowns open the show was nothing new at the Hollywood Sportatorium, which was little more than a concrete bunker with a leaky roof a million miles from no where in the middle of the Everglades, used to promote live stock sales, car shows and the occasional concert. Usually, these groups would be made up of has-beens and never-will-be types like Ginger Baker's Air Force, delivering unwanted drum solos on unsuspecting ticket buyers.

So it was with this sense of chagrin the news that VH and Journey were on the bill was greeted by me and my friends. That was until one of the record shop workers spun the first VH album for us, as a preview. The album had only been out for a couple of months by then, and since there was no radio play (let alone no internet), nobody had ever heard of it. Needless to say, it sounded pretty good, this despite the fact that the singer apparently stole everything he had from Black Oak Arkansas' Jim Dandy Mangrum. The guitar player was pretty astounding, too. Right then and there, it was agreed that we'd get to the show and rather than kill time in the parking lot getting loaded in order to miss the opening act, we'd get there early in order to get loaded in the parking lot and not miss the opener.

Van Halen did not disappoint, even though they only played for what seemed like 25 minutes. The singer pointed to the back in order to acknowledge his grandmother, who lived locally and never missed Dave when he pulled through town. (True story, this delightful little old lady became quite the fixture at VH and Roth solo shows over the years. I met her a few times, and she was always charming as hell. She really seemed to enjoy the attention she was receiving from all of the concert goers, and seemed to become everyone's favorite grandma.) The band played about seven or eight songs from that first album, the guitarist did a jaw-dropping solo, and then they were gone, despite pleas from the audience for more (so much for being a band low on the totem pole).

Ronnie Montrose came on, standing center stage and surrounded by two keyboards, a massive drum set and bassist, who were all above him on these tower-like structures. It was an astounding performance, as he worked his way through his solo record and one or two Montrose tunes done as instrumentals. To say these songs were vastly improved without Sammy Hagar's caterwauling would be an understatement. Anyway, these losers Journey (touring the ghastly Infinity album) finally came on, and roughly 3/4 of the audience headed for the exits, us included. Nobody had ever heard of them, and the reason for this was made abundantly clear by their first song, which consisted of some la-de-dahs, some fruity chord changes and a lead singer who seemed to believe he was the white Sam Cooke.

That was my very first exposure to live VH. Even playing for less than a half hour, they managed to make an impact on me during that first tour, and it would appear that I was not alone in that reaction. It also probably explains my life-long, sheer and utter contempt for Journey.

[VAiN]

It was April of 1978. My friends and I had gone to Sid's Records in the Lakes Mall...

Holy shit! I remember Sid's! They hosted record shows in that mall all the time. That's actually where I bought my first VH boot on CD - Dressed to Kill. Ahhh, the memories...

[PETE'S BROTHER]

never got to see the o.e. lineup

[chefcraig]

Holy shit! I remember Sid's! They hosted record shows in that mall all the time. That's actually where I bought my first VH boot on CD - Dressed to Kill. Ahhh, the memories...

Yep. Technically, it was Sid's West, as there was another location down on Sunrise Blvd about a block before the ocean. That was where you'd have to go to get all of those cool imports and bootlegs back then. Peaches opened up sometime in the mid-seventies, but if you were a dedicated rock music fan, you simply cruised right past it and went to Sid's East.

There was another great music store located near Sears'town called Open Books And Records. It was in that weird little plaza by the railroad tracks on Andrews called (I think) Viscaya Center.

[bb64]

July 25th 1981 at the old Boston Garden. I stood in line at the old Ticketron Outlet with a hundred other kids when they went on sale. It was located in the Sears dept. store at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree and we were all snaked around the store. I think I paid $10.50 per ticket, hehe. Me and 3 friends went in on the train, people were passing joints up and down the seats on the train,lol. We had lower loge seats which were great!! Awesome view!! I actually have a boot of that show and can remember when Dave was talking about seeing the circus there when he lived in Brookline, cause I used to see it there when I was a kid!! Lol...It was a great show and now it's one of my sons favorite bands!! We saw them together 3 times when they came around here in 07-08...can't wait to go again...Maybe we'll take my grandson...Jeez I'm gettin old LOL!!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

July 25th 1981 at the old Boston Garden. I stood in line at the old Ticketron Outlet with a hundred other kids when they went on sale. It was located in the Sears dept. store at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree and we were all snaked around the store. I think I paid $10.50 per ticket, hehe. Me and 3 friends went in on the train, people were passing joints up and down the seats on the train,lol. We had lower loge seats which were great!! Awesome view!! I actually have a boot of that show and can remember when Dave was talking about seeing the circus there when he lived in Brookline, cause I used to see it there when I was a kid!! Lol...It was a great show and now it's one of my sons favorite bands!! We saw them together 3 times when they came around here in 07-08...can't wait to go again...Maybe we'll take my grandson...Jeez I'm gettin old LOL!!

3 generation show is what gettin' old is about !!!