1983 US Festival...

[Voxmaraya]

Hey all... just downloaded (after quite a while) the entire US Festival VH concert on Kazaa... anyway... as I watched the show it hit me... for all those who complain about the "today" version of Dave... you know, the one who talks through the songs, forgets lyrics, smiles maniacally, etc... as I watched this classic show, I saw Dave talk through the songs, forget lyrics and smile maniacally... now I am a HUGE Dave/VH fan and saw Dave/Sammy down here @ West Palm Beach, FL... I felt Dave was on that night and after watching the US Festival, realized that with the exception of a little weaker scream (although on Carson Daly his growl was killer)and more real hair back in the day... DAVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL BE - DAVE... there was not a real difference...at least not what I had expected after hearing all the die hards who saw VH "in the day" and longed for those times... I think Dave could definitely front VH if they reformed tomorrow... he was never Geoff Tate or Steve Perry... he was all attitude... yes his vocal style was perfect for VH, and I saw the same vibe on this last tour that I just finished watching from the US Festival... sorry if I am rambling... it's late, but the point I am trying to make is that people should get their memory out of whatever haze it's in and realize that Dave is pretty much the same Dave that he always was... and could definitely do the job if needed today... and as an aside, having never had the pleasure of seeing VH live, all I have to say is WHAT A F***IN SHOW... EVH Truly is the MASTER guitar player... unbelievable gig!!!

FALCO
FUNKETTE WEB SITE

[ March 11, 2003, 10:51 PM: Message edited by: Voxmaraya ]

[letsgetrockin']

First off, I never have seen Dave live, with VH or otherwise. I wish. Dave opened the show here in Denver last summer, and I couldn't get out of the office in time to make his set. (Fiddler's Green is clear on the other side of town.) I guess I have also been holding out to see him with the Mighty VH, where he belongs, since 1996.

But since I have a bootleg video of the US Festival, among other Roth-era VH performances, I have to respond to your argument than Dave is up to snuff today if he is as good vocally as he was at the US Festival.

Dave was drunk off his ass at the US Festival, and although the show is still a lot of fun to watch, it's kind of like the appeal of a train wreck! I wouldn't want to set this particular show up as the example of Dave at his peak as a singer-performer.

Dave did a much better job in Montreal during the 1984 show, and especially in the clips of the Oakland 1981 show that are available. Now THAT is DLR at his best! And even there, he is loose enough to miss his start cue on Unchained. Dave is Dave, but let's not let him get away with murder! I mean, the US Festival was Dave's biggest crowd ever, and he blew it.

Hell, even Mike's brother, in an interview with The Inside, said "the band had an off night" during the US Festival, since they'd been off the road since South America. I think the show would be even more legendary today if Dave hadn't been so obviously drunk by showtime. It made for good comedy ("The only ones who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is THE CLASH, baby!"), but substandard vocals, even for Dave. God, I hope he doesn't sound that bad these days, but given how much pot he's smoked, I wouldn't be surprised.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME OUT THEEEEEEEEEERE???"

[speedtruckermf]

Welcome to the dance baby! "letsgetrockin" grow up! Drunk was part of Dave's schtick. If you're actually gonna say the US Festival sucks than you are alone. Yes the Montreal gig was top notch, but so what. It is one in a handfull of shows we have on tape, and why we proclaim Dave as the only singer in Van Halen. If you are just now figuring that out, than welcome to the show!

[CV66]

OK here we go ... your post is a much needed one . It's about time someone see's all of this "Dave can't handle a Tour w/ VH" bullshit for what it is . Dave was never one of the 3 tenors . He is however the most unique frontmen since Mick Jagger . His vocals are indeed a perfect fit for VH as his voice seems to blend w/ Ed's guitar like 2 peas in a pod . The 2 songs he did on "Best Of Vol 1" were the best VH has sounded in a long time . Is Dave an egomaniac ?...Yes , is he difficult? ..yes, is he wacked out party animal? ...yes indeed . But he has never hid any of that . Dave has always been in your face w/ the over the top sales pitch. That's part of what made VH so appealing in the first place . His personality shines through in the MUSIC . What needs to happen is "Dave and Ed" need to realize that life is short . They should be living the dream !!! Not bickering over spilled milk " Come on guys , give your fans a break !!"

[Hoobastank6]

I understand that all of the inactivity over the past 3-4 years has prompted everyone to nitpick every miniscule little detail on every VH album and every bootleg available but some of this stuff posted on here is ridiculous. Rock music isn't supposed to be perfect. If Dave is drunk and forgets the words in a song does it honestly matter? Eddie rarely ever played the solos the way they appeared on the albums, there was all kinds of improvisation going on, and the band generally played pretty loosely live anyway. Which is cool - I dig hearing HFT boots with all kinds of tapping thrown in the middle of the riffs, with the extended guitar solo, extended drum solo finale etc. Metallica played everything verbatim on "Live Shit, Binge and Purge" and I found it to be boring as hell. I think the US Festival was a great performance. If you think it was bad or "an off night" then check out Motley Crue's performance that day. Now THAT was horrible.

[Panama Dog]

The problem is when Ed messes up it still sounds good. When Dave doesn't sing for 5 seconds at a time it's like "What the fuck is he doing". At least that is how it sounds to me. I can deal with missing a word or two, but at the US festival you could barely make out anything, that was relatable to the song he was singing. I would not be happy if that is the way that Dave would perform with VH today. A band is a team and when one part isn't pulling his weight it just doesn't work.

[Badabing]

Exactly. It's ROCK & ROLL people!

I recall hearing a story about Eric Clapton back in the day. He was so fuckin' wasted he just laid on his back onstage and did the gig laying down!
They just laid the mic stand next to his head and he laid there and played guitar and sang ON HIS BACK. The crowd didnt much mind either.

This is why I wanna kick Aerosmith in the teeth.
They talk about how shitty they where in the late 70's and blah blah blah. They where still one of THE top concert draws and on most nites a very formidable live act.

EVERYONE has an occasional off nite, especially when we are talkin vocalists.
I seen bootlegs of Queen that would make you shudder cuz the great Freddy just didnt have it that nite.

I think the US Festival tape proves one thing- Even though they were fuckin' wasted VH still sounded better and kicked more ass than just about anyone.

Dave missed some lyrics and so forth but did you hear that crowd? Those 400,000 people didnt exactly head for the exits after Dave shouted "I forgot the fucking words" during their opening number of Romeo Delight!!
That crowd was in a frenzy. See when you are that good you can get away with murder. Yes that was not a memorable Dave performance vocally. He did hit some spots like "So This is Love" perfect. But overall he led the party and he even dissed The Clash(and who has had the balls to do that?) since the Clash had gone onstage the nite before and talked shit about America.
Dave had that crowd eating out of his hand. Drunk or Sober, Dave was THE man of his time.
There are much better bootlegs, on cd & video, than the Us Festival. But that show is definitely a keeper. Shit man other than Live Aid the Us Festival was THE concert event of the 80's. That shit was ahead of its time and never gets any credit.

[Zahzoo]

Funny... I'm not even much of a fan of any of the Van Halen front men... but I'll chime in anyways...

I don't think those that clammer for the DLR era Van Halen are realy all that interested in the quality of Dave's vocal accuracy and such... I believe it's more of a desire to recapture the fire, the swaggering vibe and fun that DLR brought to the game.

On a serious note... all I've seen and heard from Dave's last 2 tours is his vocal quality is significantly better than even in his prime... he's nailing the vocals, words, etc.. in the 21st century far better than prior to 1985...

Does that qualify him to take the helm again... My personal opinion is no... or at least until I can evaluate the music he is capable of creating today... then I may reconsider. But if I were specualte on which direction VH was heading musically from the last 10 years to set a direction for the future... IMO Dave's not on that plain... Your milage may vary...

[philj]

I've never been able to see the US Fest video besides the ICM video on the classic VH site.In that Dave didnt sound or seem drunk to me.

I know that I've heard from all kinds of people that the whole band was messed up that night,like they were all drunk or high or whatnot.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the video they showed on the big screens at the US Fest right before VH began,they showed the Backstage area party with midgets and super models and confetti and all kinds of booze with the Band milling around drinking and carrying on.

In his book Dave tells this story about how the band filmed all this carrying on weeks before the actual show and then played it right before there set to give the crowd the impression that the band was as high as the crowd was.

[Casemeister]

I've never been able to see the US Fest video besides the ICM video on the classic VH site.In that Dave didnt sound or seem drunk to me.

I know that I've heard from all kinds of people that the whole band was messed up that night,like they were all drunk or high or whatnot.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the video they showed on the big screens at the US Fest right before VH began,they showed the Backstage area party with midgets and super models and confetti and all kinds of booze with the Band milling around drinking and carrying on.

In his book Dave tells this story about how the band filmed all this carrying on weeks before the actual show and then played it right before there set to give the crowd the impression that the band was as high as the crowd was.

That song is pretty late in the show. Dave does sober up a bit. At the start he appears pretty hammered. If you see the whole show you'll know what I mean. By the end he's singing most of the words. Then again, at the time, missing words was just what Dave did. We're watching videos a hundred times and saying "Dave did this," and "Dave did that," but LIVE, at the show, Dave would have created an amazing vibe and atmosphere, believe.

[Number 47]

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[fudd]

bump

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You bored?


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[Number 47]

You bored?


Sent from my bunghole

Picking up sticks.

Wondering what mods do.

[Darrin Stephens]

Seeing some really well done AI restorations of old footage of late. Wonder if that tech will encourage more folks to restore some of the old footage from 70s and 80s of a lot of bands

[Van Hampshire]

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree about Dave's voice in the modern world, or at least from 2012 up to now. I have seen Dave live many times, starting around 1988. Sadly I was too young to see the OG VH but did manage to see the 5150 tour when I was 15. back in the 80's I would scour every record store I could looking for bootlegs and VHS videos. I knew that Dave was pretty drunk at the US festival but his voice was always decent. Even when he was off, I always knew that he was either just drunk or just being goofy and that he could still hit all of his screams and sing in tune when he put forth the effort. Even by the late 90's I knew Dave's voice wasn't the greatest anymore but it was still decent. It sounded like dave really tried to get it together for the 2007/08 tour and you could tell that he worked at it. It was around 2012 when I felt it started to really go bad.

I was at that manchester NH show where Dave called out some idiot for fighting and stopped the whole show during Pretty Woman to yell at this guy. I remember his voice was pretty decent until they got to DTNA. I just remember sitting with my friend from high school (who was at the 5150 concert with me in 1986) in total horror as Dave changed the melody to the verses and it was so bad. It just got worse from there and Dave kept bitching about the blowers messing with him. It was so weird because nothing sounded quite right after I heard DTNA. I just couldn't believe that Edward and Alex would let him get away with singing the song like that. Dave NEVER did stuff like that back in the 80's. I watched a lot of youTube clips after that and his voice just seemed to get worse to me. I thought it was so bad by 2015 that I skipped that whole tour. In retrospect I should have gone but his voice just ruined it for me. ironically though Dave will sing something that sounds 1978 great once in a while. If you listen to the way Dave sings guaranteed at the end of Ice Cream man on that last show at the Hollywood Bowl, it sounds like VH I Dave. He has his moments but I often feel like he just goes for notes that are way beyond his range now. I mean for his age now I don't expect him to sing like he did when he was 22. he can sing in a way though that doesn't sound like someone trying to strangle a cat. I actually just heard his Mustang Sally cover and I thought he sounded great. He just needs torealize where his limitations are. I also think his hearing is pretty much shot and I have a feeling that is why he has so much trouble with monitors and stuff.

Hey we all get old and after 41 years of drumming, my ears aren't that great anymore either. I can't imagine what it must be like for Alex.