sooner5150

Like 5150Sooner, I too made the 5 hr trek up to KC with the wife in hopes of a kick ass time. After watching and listening to some of the boots from the previous shows, I was hoping for the best. However, some of the things I had hoped would not happen did. Let me just say that in my 30 years on this earth, I have always admired and loved Ed's sound, especially when he hits awesome power chords like on the intro to "Everybody wants some, Mean street, etc" The crunch at a loud level is what I enjoy the most and I was really looking forward to that at this show. Granted, I was in sec 108, so we may not have had the best view, but we had the sound, as we had some of the PA pointed right at us. Dave was way too loud most of the night, and my fear of the band fighting and not getting along was present. Early in the show, Ed came over to Dave, yelled something in his ear, and Dave's grin went away really fast. The rest of the song you could tell he was faking it and putting on a smile for the crowd only. No telling what Ed said. The rest of the show was no different. During songs, Ed would yell at the techs and gesture to lower the volume. Right after that, Dave would go to the same techs and gesture to turn it up. It was nothing but an on going battle of ego's and all the 2 did was piss each other off the entire night. At the end of the show, Ed just took off his guitar and threw it on the ground to the tech. Now, I love these guys, but if they would just get over themselves, shut up, and make music, everyone would be happy. Its ridiculous to the fans. We are the reason they have million dollar homes, contracts, etc and they cant even get along long enough on stage to give us a freakin show.

Back to Ed's sound. I have seen and read all the reviews about the new 5150 III. At NAMM, it sounded great. On the 5150 III site, it sounds great. Live, it sounds like crap. Why cant Ed, or his tech, figure out what is wrong and fix it before the show. It just wasn't there. Ed was overplaying way way too much, screwing up Al, and making Wolfie confused. All the intro riffs didnt even make sense. He cant even hit the tapped harmonics on Mean Street. ED - play it right! That's what we want to hear!

Overall, I thought Alex was great and Wolf was great. Ed and Dave were very disappointing and both sounded like crap. However, to be positive, it was nice to hear the old songs, even though they were not played right. The band was definitely in a rush for whatever reason. As a "customer" of Van Halen who paid for 2 tickets at $140 each, I was not happy.

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"It its now offically, 5150 time!!"

5150Sooner

You are right....my bad...it was Little Guitars when Dave was on Wolfie's side with his back to the band and got way off and turned around and was not too happy....

Here's a theory- Do you think they play better or get up for other certain cities? Seriously....could it have been they were pissed at the promoter or the venue for some reason and said fine let's strip it down and get the hell out of here?

I am trying to reach for any good reason other than "the band is falling apaprt and the world is coming to an end" kind of shit....

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Imagine a world without Eddie Van Halen.

"From the moment David Lee Roth appeared at the top of a giant runway that snaked through the Oklahoma City Ford Center audience Tuesday night, he wore the one thing that told every Van Halen fan that everything was right with the world. It was a maniacal Cheshire cat smile announcing happiness and enthusiasm that cannot be faked. Not only was the old band back together, it was thriving."

AteEmAndSmiled

For those of you who were at the Kansas City show Friday night, I was the guy in the Eat ‘Em and Smile hoodie. Several of you high-fived me or gave me a shout-out about the shirt. Yes, I made it myself, and, yes, I got a kick out of all the attention it drew. As for why I wore that shirt to this show…

http://khenzden.googlepages.com/vanhalen.htm.

For those who take the time to read the whole review: I don’t frequent this board and probably won’t read any replies you post, so don’t waste your time with lengthy rebuttals, especially if they’re flames :-) . I don’t care what anyone else thinks. This review was about what I thought.

cat man99

WOW....

REALLY enjoyed your post and your suggestions at the end were spot on....

if anyone flames you over this then they are just being an arse for no reason....

you gave some good points for intelligent discussion


cheers!

LaDonna Lee Roth

I refuse to be negative about this concert! I absolutely loved it and had the best time! I sang at the top of my lungs, jumped and fist pumped for two hours - ahhhh it was great!!
I just happened to be watching some heavy metal documentary on VH1 when they broke in with the press conference. When I realized this was not a joke I nearly peed my pants from the excitement. See, I knew all along it would happen - I've been telling people for 20+ it would happen. I shoulda taken bets...
I skipped yoga class to get tickets online and even though I was surprised there would not be a show in Dallas I was willing to drive anywhere for this show. There's been a VH cd in my players all these years and my daughter's first word was Halen (not really but I tried). I could not get any of my lame friends to go with so I went by my damn self. The drive through the Kansas prairie sucked real bad but once I got to the La Quinta in Lenexa my party started. I wore the '82 concert t with VAN HALEN KICKS ASS on the back and once I arrived at the ever so cool lookin' Sprint Center I was among friends. How fun to chat with everyone and share concert stories and meet and greet experiences. Ticketmaster screwed up the seating a bit so I was upgraded to an even better seat right next to a rockin' chick who was also there by herself. We sang and hugged and pointed and rocked - it was fabulous! I noticed some lyric issues with Dave but we've always had to help him sing. Eddie has earned the right to "overplay" - he's Eddie Van Halen for cryin' out loud! Alex is a GOD and I enjoyed his solo! I didn't pay much attention to lil Wolfie really. My eyes were on Dave .... my future ex-husband. I would have liked to have seen more audience interaction but ya know, it happened the way it happened and I didn't have any expectations except that MY band was finally gonna rock me again. The coolest thing that I just don't witness anymore was the VH music coming from every damn car within a 5 mile radius of the venue. Just like old times at the Lloyd Noble and the Myriad.
I'm seriously thinking about attending the St. Louis show in March and if they add a show in Dallas I'm there for sure.

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LaDonna Lee Roth

myspace.com/ladunkadunk

mikeinkc

just stumbled onto these boards and just had to register right away. i only decided to go to the VH show about 5:20pm K.C time and called my son (11) to let him knew we were going to the Van Halen show!!!!! we were both pumped to say the least. anyway, i allowed myself to get built up not knowing what i was about to see. everything started out great in my opinion. they came out did a giant intro jam noisemaker to greet the folks, and then erupted into, "you really got me" and things seemed to be going fine and a few songs in, to be exact; "somebody get me a doctor" eddie DID walk over to DLR and sing a few lines into DLRs mic, and as ED walked away dave turned away from eddie and mouthed, "ASSHOLE"! and my night suddenly changed. i believe i saw the beginning of the "undoing" of VH! dave never seemed to be the same the rest of the night. and later during a moment between eddie and wlfy, on wlfys side, dave met a stage hand between the speaker cabs, and alexs' platform and took a giant swig from what looked like a jack daniels pint or quart bottle and gave it back to him while looking at the crowd as if to say, "you didn't see a thing"!


since i had only seen VH once way back in the 1984 tour, i had little to compare eddies performance to except the studio albums since, so i thought ed was pretty good overall. the low points; it has been mentioned many times before me, but the show was one song right after another sometimes with little or no stopping in between at all! one song seemed to melt into another at times. also, eddies solo? not great but o.k. the sticking the jack into his mouth? seen that at the NAMM thing when ed had the wirey hair and seemed boozed up! but when he did it there, he seemed to be doing for some type of intentional effect, but whatever he did friday when he ate it, it did look l;ike he was trying to fix something and was a little frazzled about it. also during the cathedral portion of the solo, the echo effect was way off and intended effect was lost. i've seen a better cathedral solo on youtube by guitarwannabe. maybe ed is hitting the sauce, after all he's smokin' cigs again even after the cancer! daves mic was in and out and so was his voice! not horrible, but kinda lazy. dissapointed in the doper behind me and my boy too, blowin' his blunt haze our way made my boy kinda sick for a few minutes! the show was loud and at times inaudable for a few bars into some songs. the pre-recorded keyboard stuff was of course dead-on and sounded awesome during i'll wait and jump. no 44kb-48kb or vice-versa mis-start that night! i did enjoy the show very much as did my son, and we took our $35 and $40 t-shirts home with us. i bought the runnin' with the devil since 78 t-shirt with the blonde pin-up holding a generic frankinstein and i got him the VH classic. i spent about $260.00 for the whole night and worth every penny, after all it was Van Halen with DLR!

samhalen

I can confirm that Dave was drinking Jack on stage same as what you saw mikeinkc, it was in a shot they showed on the big screen.

VAVH

After seeing VH 16 times since 84 tour. I am starting to see the demise of Eddie. This concert reminded me of 2004. Ed was blaming his problems on his tek. I was 5th row in the pit and once he started his solo he just fell apart. Ive seen many you tube clips of this tour and this show sucked. You could tell there was some friction within the band..I gave Wolf the cut him off sign and wolf replied back ( hand going across the neck) I dont know what the hell Ed does when Al does his solo thing , but whatever it is is fucking this guy up.. He was not sober whatsoever.. I think this is the beginning of the end for these guys........

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Andrew -"People within the industry often have colorful descriptions when talking about Dave".
Sammy- "He's wacky man…he's as wacky as a motherfucker…but at least you know what you get". Melodicrock interview with Sammy 08/2006

VanRoth07

Im hoping for Dallas show early next year, Im from Dallas also, and it was worth the trip!!

samhalen

I AM FIRST AND FOREMOST A VAN HALEN FAN, HOW BOUT YOU!
THANKS FOR TRYING TO DEGRADE MY REVIEW WERE YOU THERE??? AND WHERE IS YOUR UNBIASED REVIEW??

voivod

speechless

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Remember when Ronald Reagan was President!? We also had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash still with us. Now we have Obama and no hope and no cash...

waterdog5

I thought the show was great! I can see what people mean about it seeming rushed, but I thought it was kind of cool how they just went from one song to the next. No BS just playing a lot of songs. There were a few screw ups, but it looked liked they were having fun otherwise. There was a little banter between Dave and Wolfie. Wolfie smiled and said something about Dave, in good humor. It looked like Ed made Al play the HFT intro longer just to mess with him, but that's my take. I loved HFT BTW! The main problems I saw was that Dave's vocals were a little quiet in the mix sometimes. Ed had tech problems with Cathedral.

Al looked a little old, Dave looked phenomenal. Ed looked really good. Wolfie was great, very lovable.

I loved the ending. Jump - the stuff falling - the giant mic. I loved the show. I would go again.

I've used the word love a lot, I guess I've been listening to too many Hagar songs.

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Better use it up before it gets old!

Rebel Yell5

Fuckin A! Dead on! He was right!

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Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.

ED'S A 20THCENTURY MOZART:
Idiot. You are 46 and have a Simpson's character as your avatar. Watch who you call bubblehead.

5150Sooner

I wonder if the venue had anything to do with all the technical problems? Any brains out there that could expand on that?

__________________
Imagine a world without Eddie Van Halen.

"From the moment David Lee Roth appeared at the top of a giant runway that snaked through the Oklahoma City Ford Center audience Tuesday night, he wore the one thing that told every Van Halen fan that everything was right with the world. It was a maniacal Cheshire cat smile announcing happiness and enthusiasm that cannot be faked. Not only was the old band back together, it was thriving."

VAVH

Its the venues fault for not selling smoking loon..Its the tecks fault for not playing eddies guitar for him onstage, cause ed was fucked upllll theres you answers pal

__________________
Andrew -"People within the industry often have colorful descriptions when talking about Dave".
Sammy- "He's wacky man…he's as wacky as a motherfucker…but at least you know what you get". Melodicrock interview with Sammy 08/2006