I just picked up my ticket to the Van Halen concert this Saturday at the Rose Garden, and I can't wait!! My buddy down in Phoenix saw them on Friday and said it was amazing. Here's the playlist they played in Phoenix:

01. You Really Got Me (from Van Halen, 1978)
02. I'm the One (from Van Halen, 1978)
03. Runnin' With the Devil (from Van Halen, 1978)
04. Romeo Delight (from Women and Children First, 1980)
05. Somebody Get Me a Doctor (from Van Halen II, 1979)
06. Beautiful Girls (from Van Halen II, 1979)
07. Dance the Night Away (from Van Halen II, 1979)
08. Atomic Punk (from Van Halen, 1978)
09. Everybody Wants Some (from Women and Children First, 1980)
10. So This Is Love? (from Fair Warning, 1981)
11. Mean Street (from Fair Warning, 1981)
12. Pretty Woman (from Diver Down, 1982)
13. Drum Solo
14. Unchained (from Fair Warning, 1981)
15. I'll Wait (from 1984, 1984)
16. And the Cradle Will Rock (from Women and Children First, 1980)
17. Hot for Teacher (from 1984, 1984)
18. Little Dreamer (from Van Halen, 1978)
19. Little Guitars (from Diver Down, 1982)
20. Jamie's Cryin' (from Van Halen, 1978)
21. Ice Cream Man (from Van Halen, 1978)
22. Panama (from 1984, 1984)
23. Guitar Solo (incl. "Women in Love" intro, "Cathedral", "Eruption")
24. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (from Van Halen, 1978)

Encore

25. 1984 (from 1984, 1984)
26. Jump (from 1984, 1984)

Wow, nothing from Van Hagar! Might actually be worth seeing.

Andrew

Hey Now, Sammy Halen was great as well! You can't really say one was better than the other as I consider them two completely different groups.

But we will just leave Gary Chereone out of the discussion though. OK.

I find anything from Van Hagar almost completely unlistenable. That's not a knock on Sammy himself - I like some of his solo stuff, just not the Van Hagar fusion. Plus the original Van Halen with Dave was just so electric.

Andrew

DLR and his DEPLETED voice and the fact that Edward melts down about 2 weeks means the show will be mediocre at best. I was able to see them in 1983 in Los Angele's. Seeing an old broken down version is not my idea of fun.
The way EV has pushed everyone but his brother out of the band at one time is a testement of what a GIANT Jackhole he really is.

Andrew2 said>>>Plus the original Van Halen with Dave was just so electric.

Key word being WAS just do electric.

Maybe that old hair band "Trixter" will go out on tour!
With special guests "Helix"!

This summer at the Washington Country fairgrounds!!!!!!

I have tickets to see Quiet Riot. 20 bucks.

Chickenjuggler, did you hear about Keith DuBrow?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/26/obit.dubrow/index.html

Sad news.

OK.

15 then.

The reviews from the show are solid.

I'll be at Van Halen. What can I say? I'm a DLR era fan and make no apologies for it. I pulled some strings and got killer seats for this one.

I'm in.

Ill be there as well. I have seen the Hagar Van Halen before but this is the concert I have always wanted.

So far the reviews of the show are great.

Here's the review my buddy gave it:

"Van Halen hit Phoenix last night and I went and checked them out. Although Dave can't quite hit the high notes like in the early days, his showmanship is still second to none. And Eddie can STILL shred on his guitar. His 10 minute guitar solo alone is well worth the price of admission. I have always been a huge fan of his and can play every single one of his guitar solo's perfectly to air guitar. And last night I was stunned when I learned that "Cathedral" off of the Diver Down album is NOT a keyboard solo, but Eddie making magic on his 6 string. It was unbelievable. And he can still play eruption as good as ever. And I thought it was going to be lame having Eddie's son play bass. Turns out musical genius runs in the family. That kid plays bass like his Dad plays guitar. He is sweet. And he'll bang more pussy before he is 21 than all of us combine. Here is the set-list from last night's show. It's perfect for the psuedo-fan and amazing for the true fan. (Little Guitars, Mean Streets, Atomic Punk & Romeo Delight)"

And he'll bang more pussy before he is 21 than all of us combine.

That's important! When your HANDED and NOT earned a spotlight job like this.....

Michael Anthony was an integral part of that group and Eddie is a jerk for outing him!

I saw VH in March of '78 at the Tower Theater in Philly....Running with the Devil hadn't quite hit the airwaves yet...and then I saw them in May of '80 at the Spectrum in Philly.

I have no desire to go see the current lineup, but I'm glad for all the VH fans who have waited so patiently through all the fights and rumours and whatnot.

I'm gonna be pissed if it snows on Saturday! I've been a flounder and have failed to get my studless snow tires mounted yet.

I'm thinking wheelchairs, oxygen masks and defib machines are manditory items in the band member support vehicle in the tour fleet.

Wheelchairs? Oxygen masks? Defib machines??

Somebody get me a doctor! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbDIx1mPmX0

Looks to me like they are rockin' pretty hard! I can't wait!!

Didn't Eddie have HIP REPLACEMENT surgery some years back? Most certainly it was not hip! While I like DLR, he was lookin older than my now long deceased grandpa.

And he'll bang more pussy before he is 21 than all of us combine.


You got that one right! Thats really cool that his son his so good on the bass. How old is his son???

WOW after watching the video on Youtube, Diamond Dave REALLY is lookin old, and doesn't move around a lot on stage. I guess I was waiting for his to do the splits like in the "jump" video". Regardless, this concert is going to kick so much ass!

You suppose Sammy and Mikey knew back then what was going to happen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-HyGTa8Zns

I'll be there, but my seats suck!

It was hilarious.

More later.

So it's later already ! Let's hear it man!

Simply put, this show exceeded my expectations and was a remarkable cure for the hangover of the Oregon loss earlier in the day. The band sounded great, and my buzz was as good as it could be. David Lee Roth's voice sounded better than I thought it would, the band had more energy than I expected, and I have much more respect for Eddie Van Halen as a guitar player. Ego aside, Eddie should be considered one of the best of all time. He shredded his guitar for two straight hours. The playlist was as advertised: 2 straight hours of old school Van Halen. For me, this was a historical concert, and was my first time seeing Van Halen live. I never, never thought they'd ever get back together and tour, but I'm glad they did. It was a thrill to see these guys! I would say there was somewhere between 16,000 to 18,000 people there, mostly 35+ years of age. Lots of chicks! For those of you that are Van Halen fans of the old days, you missed it!

I agree. Great show! And the KGON remote before the concert was cool too. I rarely hear KGON doing remotes that actually have personality and sound fun. I liked it.

OK - first of all, I loved the show. They sounded good. The setlist was really good and they looked like they were having fun and relatively heatlthy. I am glad I went and will remember it for a long time. Overall, I give it a strong B+.

I understand that Van Halen is a rock band. They rocked. I think there were some big opportunities missed however. It's just my opinion - but here it goes;

I cannot stand shows that are obviously very choreographed but made to look loose. There was a lot of that. The opening was great - and the break in the middle of " You really got me " to give the crowd a moment to show their appreciation for finally seeing the show they have demaded for years now was actually appreciated by me. It was a time to savor the moment and go " Fuck yeah! Thanks for doing this, guys."...then they continued to rock it.

I could have done without Romeo's Delight.

The screen behind the stage was solely used to show images of the band on stage that night. You know, so people in the back to see the detail. But there were times when I wanted that screen to be used to show some graphics. Some logos or footage or still pics from the past would have been really good. The lack of that was probably partly due to many of those band photos would have included Michael Anthony. And while Wolfgang could hold his own as a player, I found myself really missing the enthusiasm Anthony showed at Van Halen concerts. Wolfgang, to me, was out of place on that stage with those guys and while it wasn't distracting - I noticed that it was " I'm playing in my dad's band tonight. Someday I'll maybe have my own band and probably be happier."

Eddie did shread. There is no denying that. I can't really find anything wrong with him as a player, band member or entertainer.

Alex looked like he was 70. Played like he was 30 again.

The whole show was a nod to the history of this band and the crowd was given what they wanted from a music perspective. Even the remote controlled blimp with the classic Van Halen logo flying around the Rose Garden got me pumped. It was just one of those things that you'd see in the 70's and set a GREAT tone for the night. But there were a few things missing.

What Van Halen used to be was bad-ass. What David Lee Roth lacked in ability to sex the crowd up on Saturday, he tried to make up for in grinning showmanship. I've seen a LOT of bands in which the front man was working the crowd ( Freddie Mercury did it well, for example ). But DLR went the route that was more preacher than front man a few times. That story behind Ice Cream Man, while nice to hear a bit a chatter, was yet another scrpted and choreographed portion of the show. DLR had to be in certain parts of the stage at very specific times. The couple times he did a little " improvised " vocals ( re: Scat ) with Eddie, I thought it fell flat. He also went with openly mugging for applause ( which I had no problem giving him ) instead of earning it by making the crowd go crazy with wherever the night took him. Maybe he has just made a turn in his performace abilities that don't really allow for him to even fake being " I'm going to take your girlfriend home with me tonight " with a straight face. Drop Dead Legs would have been nice. Maybe he did try it and knew that it wasn't working - so by the time they got to Portland, he was playing it all very safe. Not boring. Just nothing threatening from him all night.

Van Halen used to be very threatening. They still could have been. They obviously are very comfortable being who they are and are sticking with it.

Highlights for me were - You Really Got Me, Unchained and Everybody Wants Some...Little Guitars was a nice album cut too.

Going out with Jump!, while an evil necessity to play, could have been topped. I don't know how - but I feel it could have been. It's a song they have to play because it was such a big hit. I get that. But it was a song that made people grab their coats and didn't really keep as much attention as they deserved.

So a strong B+. DLR being drunk and Michael Anthony being there would have made it an A+.

3 to 5 years from now, they'll do it again with Michael Anthony...and I will go AGAIN and AGAIN.

Michael Anthony's backup vocal's were some of the best and he was indeed a showman. I heard Wolfgang just sort of stayed in his corner and was kind of rigid. For it to have been a true re-union tour Michael Anthony should have been included and for Eddie to not have done so speaks volumes as to how much his Ego gets in his way! I don't expect any new material from these guy's, at least anything with that old spark. I'd just as soon keep my memory from the 1984 tour, now there was a show!

Agreed on Romeo's Delight. I would have liked to hear "Take your whiskey home" instead.

Eddie as a human is a prick. As a musician and Shreader there is no better!

Here's the write up in today's O.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/119664 3345131840.xml&coll=7

http://www.cherone.com/

Watch out! The above link is a trap! It'll take some serious rock at window shakin' levels to erase it from the brain. Thank Heaven "what might have been" ain't!

LMAO @ you, Little, and recognize the aural pain you went through to get there!

It is great to get some insight on the show from you all. Chickenjuggler, you ought to be writing for a music magazine, but I grateful you scattered the first draft pearls among the likes of us swine.

Thanks for the empathy EN, but I do feel guilty. It is a bit like leading trusting people across a pasture full of patties in the dark.

Why so many barnyard references?

I am disappointed to hear that DLR didn't ride his inflatable microphone like a horse. Mebbe he can get a custom one built by Hoveround before they kick off the next tour.

Maybe you need a roll in the hay...

I hear he has a lifetime membership to the "Hair Club For Men"!

Hah DT would be proud ... I was talking to one of my employees yesterday (he went to the concert) and a woman rolls through the line with a Van Halen t-shirt on ... with Sammy. My employee goes, "Great show, eh?" to her and she scowls at him ... "I wear this t-shirt in PROTEST. No Sammy, No Michael, I'm NOT GOING!" She was pouting like some bully took her ball and ran home with it.

Good for a snicker.

You know, I would have paid the dough for one ticket in the front row and put on my "Better Half" t-shirt just to piss off Eddie! I wish I would have won that KGON thing were the person got a camera in the pit, that would have surely sent Eddie's ego into an "Eruption" for sure! World's finest guitar player as far as shredding but one damn lousy human being!