Van Halen Show last night: Review

fl_799 · Post by **fl_799** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 7:01 pm

Well, it has been 9 years since I saw Van Halen live having been to every VH show since 1984 tour.

The show was very good. The band have their road chops. Edwards playing was spot on in the context of the songs for example he nailed the tricky solo for "Somebody get me a doctor". His playing was very good and the brothers were locked in like days of old.

Eddie must have read the posts on the Plexi palace forum saying he could not play parts of Eruption because he played the 2 passage of eruption backwards, forwards and sideways at lightning speed. The guys playing is as good as it has been since at least the 1991 FUCK tour. He took a near 30 minute solo spot and there were certainly spots of brilliance but most of the pieces followed Eddie's "stream of conscious" and was kinda disjointed. Other sections sounded like a "artist using jagged brush strokes". There was a few blusey finger picked dittys that were nice along with some heavy droning stuff which seems to be his thing lately. I also saw some wide interval legato passages where Eddie was using his thumb and pinky on his pick hand to allow string skipping on these runs....this was new. He blew catherdral but started it again and recovered.

I can't help but to think Eddie was fighting his tone all night long There is no sweet violin like tone, dynamics for sweet overtones at all. Just a super gainy, overly compressed, paper tearing shredding mess. He should dust off that old superlead....or better yet hook up with Marshall after his deal with Peavey expires. Personally, I have hardly touched my 5150 head in 10 years and only use it in a dire emergency!

Eddie also used 2 of those Charvel special e-bay guitars. One was a dead ringer for the white/black 1st album guitar and the second was the black with yellow striped second album guitar. You could clearly hear the difference when he switched back to the Wolfgang....the 2 Charvels sounded better IMO

Hagar was on vocally and seemed to hang with Mike most of the night. Things are not quite right between Hagar and Anthony...you could almost "feel" it.

Special note: The crowd gasped when EVH lit up a smoke in the middle of his solo section and played dead on the stage. He was laying down flat on his back, cigerette in his mouth and playing a somber, funerial like piece. The on stage camera shot this at an angle that captured his "EVH" cabinet logo right over his head like a tombstone. Very strange and disturbing! Considering his cancer issue and losing part of his tongue, this was interesting to say the least.

Feel free to compare notes

James

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 2:37 am

It's horrid to know that EVH has sold his soul to Peavey. I wonder when that contract with them expires? Either way, he might be tring to get more of a modern sound out of those Peavey amps just to make new VH tunes blend in on the radio compared to all the other artists. He could really treat us by bringing back his signature sound out of them Marshall's and giving us a flashback to his original days of tonal glory. Now that would be truly awesome!

gnugear · Post by **gnugear** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 11:06 am

I'm hoping to catch them in Seattle.

Let me know if you ever want to part with your 5150

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 11:46 am

I remember we had this 5150 212 combo at Guitar Center when i used to work there. That thing was insanely loud and had way too much gain. Ha ha. A lot of those damn metal heads loved it, but too bad it sounded like ass for any other style of music.

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:42 pm

at Guitar Center when i used to work there.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:43 pm

Ya ya cuss all you want, i did work there. I think the reason i didn't do as well as others because i thought any other guitar besides Gibson Les Paul's and American Strats were total shit! Ha ha! And all the amps..... well, at least i know where the best is and it is at MetroAMP. I referred a lot of people here instead of some idiot trying to get a vintage crunch out of a JCM 2000 TSL! You'd be surprised how many other sales guys sold these to people looking for that sound. Bunch of dumbasses!

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:35 pm

Just razzin ya.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 1:21 pm

Arr matee!

dirtydeeds22 · Post by **dirtydeeds22** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:01 am

What do you think Guitar Center would charge for one of those New Charvel frankenstrats MSRP= $3300. I priced the whole thing out at Warmoth and it came to about $600, Around $700 for a mahogony body. Crazy!

Jeff

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:43 pm

The sad thing is that they would charge that amount of money, and here is why. First off, they would say that every feature of the guitar is top of the line. Meaning all the hardware, pickups, and woods. Then they would say that there are only 10 in the world. Oh yea, don't let me forget that they would also try and make you emotionally like it by saying, "That guitar is for you man. It totally matches your machismo and style!"

dirtydeeds22 · Post by **dirtydeeds22** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:15 pm

Why don't they rename themselves Guitar Corporation. What I really like is the salesperson, ( I mean 16 year old kid) who can't even tell me what album 'Eruption' is on. But hey, GC owns "Blackie, and Lenny". As for the the Charvel EVH, I'll build one.

Later
Jeff

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:25 pm

I remember working there and having Ron (Roseville GC Manager) freak out when he got the news that Guitar Center owned Blackie. Frankly i didn't give a shit and think it would be better in the hands of a more caring owner.

moonshine · Post by **moonshine** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:01 pm

I saw Van Halen in the summer.. it was their show in Albany, NY, which I believe was very early on in the tour. They were playing great.. very tight, and really into it. There were some rough spots though.. for example-
1. Sammy was signing autographs instead of singing, and Eddie yelled at him onstage (lol.. awesome).
2. There was a part between songs when Eddie commented on the cigarrettes that he was CHAIN SMOKING FOR THE ENTIRE SHOW. He said "You know.. these are the reason I got cancer!". Everyone was like "YAAAYY... umm.. yay cancer?" No one really knew how to react to that one.
3. Wolfgang came out and played great.. and then Eddie cried and they all hugged for like 45 minutes.

4. Total selling out with Edward and the whole peavey amp thing, and now Charvel is releasing EVH strats, and MXR is hyper-pimping an EVH phase 90.. pff. He's like the fast food industry.. of guitar gear.

Anyway, I LOVE Van Halen to death, and they definately gave us one hell of a show. I hope they have another tour. I wish they were with DLR though. Later!

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Van Halen Show last night: Review

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