The Last Van Halen Show : October 4, 2015

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:35 PM

What if it was? Are you okay with how it ended? Happy with your final tour, your final set lists? All good with VH wrapping up their distinguished career with a Tokyo Dome live tour? If it was the last show, did you get enough closure to bid them farewell for the remainder of your days? How would you prefer Van Halen going out, other than the obvious OG lineup reuniting one last time? * Caveat: I was asked to start this thread by someone who wasn't there, because I'm someone that was. She asked me if in fact it was their last gig ever, was I satisfied?

My reply was something like as follows: It was a solid show. It wasn't the most spectacular VH show I'd ever seen, nor was it the worst, it'd have had to work pretty hard to trump several other VH gigs I've seen in my lifetime. The HB crowd seemed pretty happy with it, and up in the pit, among WeHo bourgeoisie and Angeleno date night suburbanites and B list celebs, folks were pretty jazzed, and pretty drunk. I thought Eddie was as on point as he'd been the whole 2015 tour, and enjoyed his play immensely. Toward the end of the show, there was talk from Dave about wrapping and thanking the crews and fans and all that, I attributed it more to the end of the tour, not the end of the band, though he did toss out a few vague offhand comments that could've been construed that way, I suppose, though I didn't take it as such. It was fitting that I finally caught a guitar pick from Eddie, after nearly 40 years of fandom, after missing three different attempts by the man himself to fling me a pick at prior gigs, if in fact it was "The Last Van Halen Show."

I didn't feel like it was the end. And subsequently, given the two lapsed attempts at tours last year and this year, I'd say that it was never planned as the last Van Halen tour. It may end up being that...but it may not be. If Dave's headed off to Vegas residency, the retirement thing likelihood seems higher, because I don't see Ed and Al reuniting with Sammy and Mike at this late stage, but who the hell knows what lurks in the heart of Eddie Van Halen. Not me.

I told her that I thought the earlier leg in LA on the tour, at San Berdoo, was a more powerful gig for the band, but I qualified that by admitting that proximity and set may have skewed my perception in hindsight. At the HB, I was 4th row Eddie's side in the pit, and they dropped IASR. At SB, I was front row pit on Ed's side and they played IASR live for the first time ever, so...I was naturally pretty stoked.

Would I be happy if VH retired after that last gig? Ehh. As most people will no doubt entail, I'd rather one of the two legit versions of VH do a final tour...I honestly don't care if it's Dave or Sam singing, nor do I care if they finish up with a Dave set or a Sam set, but I do care if Mike's there wrapping it all up with 3 of the other 4 if that's how it's going to be. I was fine with the HB setlist, of course, still got to see DDL, DM, FYLT, and LUTS in the final set, nobody can complain about that (except for the Hollywood suburbanites who didn't know those songs lol). I would hope that if it'd been a Sammy led band, that they'd have included equal amounts of Sam Halen deep cuts for the diehards much as VH4 did.

So my answer would generally be...if that was it, I'm fine with it, though I think there'd have been a better way to go out on top, of course.

Anyway, hope she posts in this thread. You know who you are, cupcake.

Some pics from The Last Van Halen Show below. I'll post some pix from the San Berdoo '15 gig too.

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:37 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:41 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:42 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:43 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:43 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:44 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:49 PM

**Van Squalen** · 05.24.19, 01:50 PM

**vcooper3** · 05.24.19, 01:51 PM

I am happy with the 2015 tour, especially the set list. Fans of the first six albums and ADKOT would be hard pressed to have a better set list. I actually enjoy Tokyo Dome and listened to some tracks on the way back from Tampa this morning on the top plane.

I hope there is another Van Halen tour. There is nothing else like Van Halen concerts for me entertainment wise. I love just walking into the venue hearing fans tailgating while blasting VH tunes and seeing the various concert t-shirts.

Speaking of Tampa, I took this photo at a Hooters yesterday:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk