Classic Rock Bottom

I turned 46 years old in Feburary and I finally made it to see Van Halen.  Whooda thunk it?  But enough about me and Van Halen, let's get right to the review.

 

The show was in Atlanta, Georgia at Phillips Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks.  This place is huge.  I'm not sure about seating, but I'm guessing 18-20K.  The place was definitely not capacity, maybe 60-70% full.  Directions from I-20 were good and got us in the parking garage directly accross from the arena quite easily.  Leaving was a different story, as all traffic was directed into downtown Atlanta, not back towards I-20.  Anyway, we were at the front door by 6pm, showtime was 8pm.  The doors opened about 10 minutes late at 6:40, but the nice thing was that all cameras were allowed.  I called ahead of time to verify this. 

 

Kool And The Gang opened the show at 8pm, and I must say they were entertaining.  I've heard a good bit of their music of course, back in my youth, so many of the songs were familiar.  The show started pretty good, my favorite song being a rockin' version of Misled with some pretty good guitar playing by the lead vocalist.  I'd say it flatlined with about 3 or 4 songs left, which left me and my son really wanting some Van Halen.   Some of the songs played by Kool & The Gang were Fresh, Tonight, Emergency, Misled, Too Hot, Jungle Boogie, Ladies Night, Get Down On It, and of course the closer, Celebration.  I was kinda surprised they didn't play Joanna.

 

Now for the headliner.  First things first, the setlist:

 

1. Unchained

2. Runnin' With The Devil

3. She's The Woman

4. Romeo Delight

5. Tattoo

6. Everybody Wants Some

7. Somebody Get Me A Doctor

8. Chinatown

9. Hear About It Later

10. Oh! Pretty Woman 

11. Drum Solo

12. You Really Got Me

13. The Trouble With Never

14. Dance The Night Away

15. I'll Wait

16. Hot For Teacher

17. Women In Love

18. Outta Love

19. Beautiful Girls

20. Ice Cream Man

21. Panama

22. Guitar Solo (Eruption offshoot)

23. Ain't Talkin Bout Love

Encore

24. Jump

 

I don't think I missed anything.  That's  a very good set list.  I tried to shoot a video of the opener, but I was a few seconds behind.  I'll post it later after I get it uploaded to youtube.  It's nothing special as I don't hold the camera particularly still.  I also got kicked (not hard) in the back of the head by the goof behind me.  It didn't hurt, but you can tell where I lower the camera.  Our seats were center stage, but way, way, way in the back.  Like I said, this place is huge. 

 

As far as individual performances, David Lee Roth was by far the worst.  Now, that's vocally of course.  Between the missed words, missed lines, off-key singing and stuff like that, his actual physical act on stage was very typical.  So I'll have to give him a B Minus overall, could be lower because of the vocals.   

I'd love for Michael Anthony to still be in the band, not because I don't like Wolfgang, but because I like MA.  However, with the fact that he's not in the band, the Van Halen crew could not be any better off with any other bass player other than Wolfgang.  His playing is tight and his backing vocals are excellent.  As a matter of fact, the team of he and his father on backing vocals were spot on all night and made the songs sound like Van Halen, which is more than I can say for a lot of Roth's vocals.  Let's face it, the kid can play and he seems to be having a ball with his dad and uncle, yet he doesn't seem overwhelmed or in awe of being in a legendary band.   His performance receives an A easily.

 

Alex Van Halen is the man on the drums.  His playing is right on the mark and very forceful.  His solo wasn't anything to write home about, but it gave the others a couple of minutes to catch their breath.  He definitely gets an A.

Let's face it, Van Halen, no matter how much Eddie and Dave have fought for control over the years, is all about Edward Van Halen these days.  First, he looks fit and happy.  His face never lost it's smile, not the whole night.  And for that I'm really happy for him.  And he's playing on stage, all over the U.S. with his son.  That's gotta be a killer feeling.  His playing was very good all night, with a small hiccup during Panama I think.  Dave walked over to him and said, "that's alright Ed, I forget the words every night.  I was here when we built this song, let me lead you back to the chorus", or at least some variation of that.  I recorded some of his solo, but my memory card completely filled up before it was over, so the video I will include is only for part of it.  I'll post it after I get it uploaded to Youtube as well.  Eddie gets an A Plus for his performance.  

At the end of Ain't Talkin' Bout Love, Eddie made his way over to each band member, starting with Alex, and gave 'em all a hug.  Like I said, I sense that he is really happy these days.  And just like that, the show was over.  Overall, I'll say it was a very good show.  My only disappointment, as stated above, would be Dave's vocals.  I will say I was pleasantly surprised with his vocals on the album, but we all know it's not the same in the studio as it is live.   

Well, that's it.  I'll post a couple more random pics I took below in a reply.  Long live Van Halen!

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Kool And The Gang? Weird choice for an opening-band!!

Nice review, RJhog. I hope, they come to Denmark soon. I would love to see my alltime favorite guitar-hero on stage!!

We saw VH a few years ago on their whatever-tour-it-was, and they had  a Marley open up for them, so I'm not too surprised at Kool & The Gang. I mean, why not?

When VH hit the stage though, EVERYONE in the arena stood up and nobody sat down for the rest of the show.

They're coming around again in June, it would be nice to see them again but I'm not going to be sad if I miss the show. Maybe it's my age now, but I'm not really into the concert thing anymore (parking, jerkwads in the crowd, leaving the show, etc.). 

Enough about me. Nice review Rjhog. Glad you got out of the house and had yourself some fun!

Ahh yeah, you're 48, right? 

68

I suppose some things never change! I saw Van Halen on the Diver Down & 1984 tours, & I distinctly remember David Lee Roth's vocals being a mess & being the biggest disappointment! I particularily remember one point, where DLR stopped in mid song & said "Oh my God, I forgot the f__ing words"! Yeah my review from back then, would be the exact same as RJ's today. Eddie was Amazing & stole the show! Eddie & Michael Anthony's backing vocals were excellent! Alex was rock steady behind the drums & DLR had all the moves, acrobatics & showmanship of a dynamic frontman! All these years later, yeah, the DLR vocals left a lasting impression, but they couldn't spoil my Awesome memories of seeing one of the greatest rock bands of all time!!!  Van Halen Rules!!!

I'll put it this way, as much emphasis as I put on vocals, and as bad as DLR's vocals were, I'd still go see 'em again.

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