08.19.24 - Inglewood, CA - Kia Forum

[Naked Wake]

I’ve got videos up for this entire show now. I didn’t video anything myself. I just really wanted to enjoy the show and there were like a zillion cameras out there anyway, and I knew a bunch would show up online.

ha. I was recording for a bit and then I was like "what am I doing? People a lot closer than me with better cameras than mine are going to record and post on Youtube. Let me just enjoy this thing."

[Pacfanweb]

ha. I was recording for a bit and then I was like "what am I doing? People a lot closer than me with better cameras than mine are going to record and post on Youtube. Let me just enjoy this thing."

In Charlotte I recorded the intro and Good Enough, then watched the rest of the show. I put mine on YT so I could share it here. I don't get recording the whole thing...you're never going to watch it, and it's not like you can monetize it on YT due to the copyrights.

They did skip a verse in Judgement Day when I saw them also, I guess that's normal for this tour.

[Pacfanweb]

Go, if you can. This is the last of Van Halen you'll ever see played proper. Was a blast.

Exactly why I paid Texa$ for my family to have good seats.

As Sam said in our show, "This is the best we can do now"

As close as you're going to get.

[Reckless Fable]

Good stuff. Thanks for the reviews.

I had to pass along my Concord, CA tix. We had a family emergency. Life sometimes gets in the way. I guess I'll have to experience Sammy and Mike's VH swan song vicariously through you all.

[Little Dreamer]

Good stuff. Thanks for the reviews.

I had to pass along my Concord, CA tix. We had a family emergency. Life sometimes gets in the way. I guess I'll have to experience Sammy and Mike's VH swan song vicariously through you all.

Wouldn't be surprised if they're back next year.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Greenpaw]

Good stuff. Thanks for the reviews.

I had to pass along my Concord, CA tix. We had a family emergency. Life sometimes gets in the way. I guess I'll have to experience Sammy and Mike's VH swan song vicariously through you all.

Hope everything worked out for you and your family.

So many great reviews and packed houses, it would be a shame if they didn't do a live Bluray/album for this tour

[5150 Mean St]

Hope everything worked out for you and your family.

So many great reviews and packed houses, it would be a shame if they didn't do a live Bluray/album for this tour

I'd be all over that blu-ray and album. The in house production value certainly seems to be of high enough quality to do that!

[Little Dreamer]

It was a memorable night, for many reasons. Loverboy sounded tight. Mike Reno’s voice was in fine form. His appearance is very distracting. It’s not just that he’s older and overweight. Why does he need to wear a sleeveless shirt and then on top of that this oversize vest? Really strange. Also it made me think “Sam will probably never bring Remember The Heroes into the set list. He’s got a keyboard player, he’s got Mike Reno, and he doesn’t do the song. Maybe he just thinks about it as a Jonathan Cain song.
During the break, we went (my 17 year old son was with me) to find the other SoCal linkers. After a bit of searching, we were able to locate them. I must say, it was a bit emotional for me to meet you, Brett, for the first time. It just put into perspective the last 25 years of being on this site. The 90s had The Inside, but the 21st century has VH Links. And VH Links is even better and more important, during a time with much less VH activity. So, much gratefulness to Brett and VH Links. We all had a good chat, with Coulda and Van Squalen, which I had almost met the day after Ed passed. VS gave Brett one of Ed’s picks from the last show, past moments on the Links were briefly talked about – the vibe was really cool. It’s kinda surreal for digital presences to suddenly materialize into full blown human beings. People who are just letters on a screen for 25 years… suddenly become real. Wait, that sounds like lyrics for a Sammy ballad ala Love Walks In! Anyhow, SoCal linkers, let’s do this again soon when we have more time.
Onto the show. The venue was packed. I hadn’t been to a rock concert in 7 years (Metallica in 2017) – well really 5, if you take out 2 years for COVID. It was a bit shocking seeing how everyone was older. I knew that included me as well, probably the worst part!
During the show, Sammy said there were 14,000 people. It’s a pretty epic number. It’s a Van Halen type of number… except with the higher ticket prices, it might even make gross even more $ than VH did. Why should we care? Well, with this type of success, I don’t think this lineup is stopping any time soon. When CF went gold, we got CFIII. That’s just the way Sammy rolls. He doesn’t get in the way of success, he rides it.

What appears evident at this show is that it’s not a bunch of musician just playing shows, like Sammy (or Dave) used to do. It’s a production, crafted to celebrate the music of Van Halen, for the most part. Sammy invested 1.5M into the production aspect of the show, and you can see a specific effort was made. I didn’t attend any VH Mark IV shows (boycotting the 07 tour because no Mike, and then when I decided to go in ’15, being really too broke that summer to afford it), so maybe Linkers who went can comment on this, but I don’t remember Van Halen ever having this type of production, with a video created for each song. It almost had a Rush vibe to it. Some of it was simple, some of it was elaborate. Maybe it’s just me, but I still can’t get over Sam playing the Ingmar Bergman movie The Seventh Seal, during the song “Seventh Seal.” Yes it’s an obvious thing, but you’d never associate Sammy with something this intellectual. Dude is more sophisticated than he lets on!
Where we were sitting, section 133, the sound was good and heavy, but there were two issues: 1) couldn’t hear Mike’s bass well, 2) Satch sound, while thicker and with more “ body” than when I saw him in Chickenfoot, had highs that were a bit grating to the ears.
Onto the guys’ performance.
Satch was great, as already noted. I think it’s because he’s one of Ed’s peers. If you had a “baby Eddie” like Nuno, it would be some note for note stuff, a “student paying tribute to his master” type of vibe. But here it’s different. Joe’s the same generation, and philosophically is a kindred spirit to Ed’s, having pushed the art of guitar playing further, with many technical innovations. Different innovations, but innovations still. He’s put in a lot of work to learn the songs, but also THINK about the songs. It’s not like Steve Vai in 86 playing VH – Steve was in his twenties then, the songs were fairly new. Satch is 68, he’s been aware of Van Halen his whole life. There’s a reflection you could feel on what that music means and how to approach it. I think that’s also true for the whole show – you can feel some thinking went into this. In some ways it was a bit like LWAN, with a few changes on each song compared to the studio version, but changes made very tastefuly.
What I like the most is when Joe would improvise some stuff in parts where Ed didn’t solo. He did something at the end of Right Now that was really cool. He created a new intro for Space Station n#5.
From where I was sitting, Satch sounded heavier than he did in CF. He had a thicker sound. I thought the highs were a bit grating and unpleasant – I don’t know if it was the Forum, or his own amps.
Jason Bonham, I wasn’t a fan of originally, I thought he was too much of an 80s drummer. But he has evolved and for this tour, he plays on a different kit – an expanded kit. He’s almost more progressive – he did a really cool drum solo intro to Seventh Seal. His sound is super heavy. I think seeing the effort Joe put into this, he thought “damn, I better study my AVH before the tour starts.” Usually when people cover VH songs, the drums are lacking, but this time I was pleasantly surprised.
Rai I doubt will ever leave Sam’s touring lineup. His personal chemistry with the guys is great, he seems very easy going. He’s a fantastic singer in his own right. Great on keyboards and plays guitar, and is younger, great stage presence, which is an asset. I mean come on, Sammy just NEEDS the guy from now on.
Mike has always been Sam’s secret weapon. And just continually show how wrong Ed was to sideline him. Mike was already essential during peak VH in the 80s. But as both VH singers have aged, he’s even MORE important now, covering for high notes the lead singer can’t reached. He’s also the OG guy bringing the VH spirit. It’s the reason why Sam can do a majority VH show with so much credibility.
A few songs suffered from a tempo a bit too slow (7th seal). Mas Tequila I could do without.
It’s hard to say which song I like best. Heavy Metal was super heavy. Summer Nights – my fingers were hurting just looking at Joe playing it without a Transtrem (this is a guitar, not a new gender, calm down). Judgement Day was super heavy and well done. ATBL, always solid. The show has a heavy 5150/FUCK focus, but I dig both records. I think Top of The World was poignant. They were on top of the world… for a little while. Spot on lyrics.
Maybe the highlight of the show was When It's Love - when they froze Ed's face from the official video for about 30 seconds. Misty eyes on that one. It did feel at times like a Van Halen show, even though we knew it wasn't one. The mind knew it wasn't VH, but at times, the heart felt like it was.

What’s next – well Sam has said he’s going to record some new songs with this lineup, which is great. Satch chord changes bring out something different in Sam. I’m sure they’ll tour next summer – hopefully spacing out the dates more. They’ll have to bring in some different songs into the setlist. I think they could have a bit more CVH. Like have Mike sing RWTD. Sam’s clearly the last man standing. He shouldn’t feel threatened by that. He’s finally found a way to do Van Halen right. I don’t think he’s going to stop now.

[Little Intruder]

Brett, thanks so much for sharing the pic of you guys at the Forum. You all look like buddies of mine! I would have loved partying with you all that night. I also wanted to ask you how many times has your daughter seen the band? She's still a teen, right? So she would be a lot younger than even Wolfgang!

[Brett]

Brett, thanks so much for sharing the pic of you guys at the Forum. You all look like buddies of mine! I would have loved partying with you all that night. I also wanted to ask you how many times has your daughter seen the band? She's still a teen, right? So she would be a lot younger than even Wolfgang!

My daughter has never seen Van Halen before. She is 19. There was an opportunity to go to that last show in 2015, and my wife and I asked her, but she was only 10 at the time, and we didn’t force it on her. She just didn’t really want to go. Of course, had we known it was going to be the last time any of us would ever see Ed play live, I probably would’ve tried harder to make her go.

But she had a great time at the show and was standing and singing every single song. And the next night when she went to work, she showed me the playlist that she put on in the store, and it was all Van Halen stuff. And she’s never done that in her life, and that just made me smile. I finally won. Lol.

She told me she didn’t realize how significant Eddie Van Halen was as a musician until she saw those songs being played live, and heard all that great music he created in that environment. I guess I shouldn’t say significant. She completely understood how hugely important Ed was, but I don’t think she grasped the scope until she heard it like that, and the audience reaction.

She’s been to several concerts already in her life. But she said this was the most fun concert she’s ever been to.

[Little Intruder]

That's awesome, Boss! I'm glad your little girl expresses an interest in VH. Most young people these days are driven by social media, which has a tendency to be less than ideal. If I had shown up at the Forum, I would have been the shortest one in your photo since I'm only 5'8. But my long grey beard would have made up for it! Billy Gibbons has nothing on me...hehe

[Brett]

Nah Squalen is a short mofo too.

[Little Intruder]

Imagine if Chris and Darren had shown up! How would they rank height wise?

[Brett]

I know Chris is a short fucker. I’m not so sure about Darrin.

[Van Squalen]

That's awesome, Boss! I'm glad your little girl expresses an interest in VH. Most young people these days are driven by social media, which has a tendency to be less than ideal. If I had shown up at the Forum, I would have been the shortest one in your photo since I'm only 5'8. But my long grey beard would have made up for it! Billy Gibbons has nothing on me...hehe

Yup, I’m 5’8” too. Brett and Coulda are tall string beans.