Another Van Halen on-stage triumph

[David Mason]

From October 1, 2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjx_GjyXCs4

The synthesizer backing track is playing back at 48K instead of the 44.1K it was recorded in. Eddie manfully tries to transpose up approximately 1 1/2 semitones, with predictable results - the licks during the "chorus" starting at 1:48 are instructive, and the guitar solo starting at 3:00 is... well... I don't think I've ever heard anything like it!

This is the new sober Van Halen, David Lee Roth is working on his Ozzy "shuffle 'n' wobble" stage moves & ex-bass player Michael Anthony must be lying on a beach somewhere blessing his lucky little stars and laughing his tootsie off.

The really terrifying thing to me is the Pavlovian crowd, obediently cheering & "jump"-ing at the end - a standing ovation for that, no less. It really does matter who you are, not what you do...

[P Gleespen]

Oooo. That's horrible. I'm still listening to this as I type. I'm at the solo now, are we SURE this isn't another StSanders masterpiece?

Brutal. They keep troopin' through it though, so I guess either...geez, I don't know. I know it's supposed to be unprofessional to stop mid tune, but maybe we could've made an exception for this sort of thing.

The audience really IS cheering as though they'd been served up something other than the polished turd they were just force-fed.

Too bad David Lee isn't running around shirtless shouting "We Love You ALLL!" like Ozzy, it'd be funnier.

However, I think the most apalling thing about this whole thing is the idea of VanHalen (the band) without Michael Anthony. I mean his backing vocals were such a huge part of their sound. He's the reason they still sounded like VanHalen when they turned to Van Hagar. So now, even with David Lee back in the armchair(easy-chair? wheelchair?), they just don't sound right. (I'm listening to some of the other stuff without the out of tune keyboard track, not nearly as much of a train wreck, but still pretty bad.)

[ajm]

Oh good. More posts from VH lovers.

This is old news. I heard about this about three weeks ago right after it happened. Doing a search on the net this morning turned up a Youtube video where the guy attempts to show that it is in fact the keyboards that are out of tune, and the possible cause is a switch setting on one of the processors. He supposedly removes the keyboards from the performance and everybody is in tune. Believe what you want. (I personally believe everything that I read on the internet.)

Let's see. A switch setting on the keyboards. That's the guitar player's fault? Wanna bet that the keyboard tech is looking for a job now?

I heard a concert from the Hagar days when VH took along a live keyboard player with them. IMHO they should do the same now. There most certainly was a difference in the sound and feel. Why don't they? Probably the same reason(s) that country bands don't take steel players out with them.

By the way, I also agree about the Michael Anthony comments. From everything I have ever read or heard about the band, MA is the one who always comes across as the guy next door. The one you would want playing bass in your country band. It's OK to want to play in a band with your son, but MA is/was always a part of VH. Period. I have always enjoyed their music, but this soap opera and all of the drama is starting to get to me. It seems like (and I hate to single out one person) Ed has done everything he can think of to trash the spirit of this band.

[Lee Baucum]

I couldn't listen to the whole song. What little I heard is still stuck in my head....

[Brint Hannay]

My head hurts!

[Dave Mudgett]

IMHO - for the kind of money people pay for a show like this these days, this kind of thing just shouldn't happen. I don't know who's fault it was, and it really doesn't matter. They need to get it together or stay home.

Look - I realize technical issues come up. But when a band like this has such an obvious musical problem, they need to stop, fix it, start over, and then find out what happened and make sure it never happens again. But to play through that - I'm sorry, but it's bloody embarassing to listen to it.

Lemme say that I am very far from a VH-hater. I think Eddie was important for rock and roll. I always liked his playing - it's fun and in the true spirit of rock and roll, to my tastes. I think they all need to get back to basics.

I also agree on the Michael Anthony comments. I do surely hope he gets a good chance to laugh his a$$ off - good for a few "I told ya' so's", at least. I absolutely hate it when bands gut critical components because of $$$ or personal/ego issues. Maybe he isn't the chopsiest bass player on the planet, but he sure knew how to make them sound good by playing just the meat and potatoes that worked with their stuff. Why mess with a formula that works?

[David L. Donald]

IMHO -
this kind of thing just shouldn't happen.

they need to stop, fix it, start over, and then find out what happened and make sure it never happens again. But to play through that - I'm sorry, but it's bloody embarassing to listen to it.

Why mess with a formula that works?

Ditto.
Stop, talk a bit, flick the switch, start again,
and blame the techs. It WAS their fault some where down the line.
It REALLY should have been on a CD so there is
no possibility of sync change.
But Protools or some such would be sexier, and what happend between sound check and the gig. DUH!!!.

But if MA doesn't want to tour,
well there is always somebody who does.
Why they didn't find one who also can cover
his voice I don't know.

[David Mason]

Michael Anthony did want to tour, the first he heard of the "reunion" was in the press. The band dynamic was always Eddie vs. Dave, drummer Alex sided with his brother and Michael Anthony was the balance. With him replaced by another Van Halen, Diamond Dave is clearly only in it for the paycheck. Why even bother to rehearse? The scalpers are charging - and getting - $1500 a ticket for Madison Square Gardens and $2500 for the D.C. show.

40-year-old people are going to wave their arms around and cheer for how Van Halen made them feel in 1980, not for whatever noise comes out of the speakers. Was pride in musicianship and a need to communicate ever their prime motivations, or money and hot young nookie? You decide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUEXAnOTfcg

The harmonies! At 2:45 Eddie and Dave do the bit where the guitarist goes "wee-wee-WEE-wee" and the singer goes "uhn-uhn-UHN-uhn" - at 2:57 they even dance together! Check out those moves - I might not worry about leaving Diamond Dave alone with a teenage daughter anymore, but I'd keep him away from weird Uncle Harry.... At 5:30 (if you last that long), Eddie plays another "solo" - can't blame that one on the tape deck.

My problem is I used to like this band. They were never "serious", but they were several notches above AC/DC, Aerosmith and others in their talent level. At least Yes, the Eagles, even Metallica still seem to put some effort into their sound, whether it's pride, responsibility, a desire to cash in again, who knows? God help 'em if they decide to drag that mess onto Saturday Night Live.

[Jon Light]

Seems to me that when they signed on to this tour they signed away their souls to the Forces Of Britneyitneyitneyitneyitney. Given all the clout that I would think that a band like this has---and therefor all the juice they would need to tell a promoter what they will do and how they will do it, not the other way around, they instead listened to someone who told them that if they prance around and spend a few hours with a choreographer and make sure that they do it the same every night then they can attract a huge throng of brain-dead zombies who will pay even more than just plain fans and everyone will make bundles of money. Do not even think of applying quaint standards like 'musical taste' or 'musical excellence'. Professionalism? Professionalism, in my world, is stopping and getting it right. Because it matters. A lot. Professionlism in the Britney world is keep on dancing and prancing and keep the gloss high. I'm surprised they don't just lipsync the whole thing. Lord knows, the human element is incompatible with this sort of plastic presentation.
This is not EVH bashing at all.
I hate phonies. And I hate the fact that there is a market that not only tolerates but demands them.

[Joey Ace]

Very sad, but I disagree that they should have stopped and corrected the problem.

They are entertainers, not artists (anymore).
You can't deny the crowd loved the performance, and hardly anyone noticed the problem. (I know that's sad, but so are the prices they paid for the tix).

If they had stopped to fix the problem, everyone would have noticed that something was wrong.

It's show biz folks.

[scott murray]

even the greatest players are off at times, and wrong notes are played. It's the last song of the show, and the song is more than halfway done at that point. it would be kind anti-climactic to start the song over. also, i think that's the only tune they're doing on this tour that has keyboards (along with the 1984 intro to Jump), so it would be a little silly to have a keyboardist in the band. not that they can't afford it!

i saw opening night of the tour in Charlotte and had a complete blast. one of the best shows i've ever seen. and i think another Van Halen in the band is fantastic... and it's Eddie's son. how cool is that? the kid has chops. he will probably end up being a much better bassist than Michael Anthony if he ain't already. let's face it, Mike's one of the luckiest guys in rock'n'roll.

and btw, i had an extra ticket that i couldn't even give away... some of these scalp prices might be a little exaggerated. i don't know.

i think the real travesty with this band is the fact that Hagar and Anthony were the ones who accepted the awards when they got inducted in the Hall of Fame. that's just ridiculous.

[Chris LeDrew]

I'm with Joey. I was blown away - not by the awful display of dissonance, but by the way they handled themselves. Right up the bow at the end, they dealt with it professionally. They knew something was wrong, but soldiered on for the sake of the audience, who paid big money to see a seamless show. And the visual is way more important in this situation than the audio, right or wrong. A club gig would be different -stop, make a joke out of it, start again.

I can only imagine the scene backstage after the show, though.

[Tony Prior]

I'm thinking a Guitar tech could have tuned one of EV's guitars up a half step and brought it out to him...

this was really ugly...

[b0b]

They're a lot better than people give them credit for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXbCt_1mrak

[ajm]

"I'm thinking a Guitar tech could have tuned one of EV's guitars up a half step and brought it out to him... "

That's a nice thought. However, even if his guitars had stop tailpieces on them, the song would be over by the time someone noticed and got around to it. All of his guitars have locking Floyd Rose systems. No need to discuss tuning one of those on the fly.

During the Hagar years he used a Steinberger with a Trans-Trem tailpiece to change tunings in mid-song. Now that might have worked if it had been set up properly. I'm pretty sure that none of the Roth era songs had this requirement.

[Ben Jones]

saw em on the 1984 tour
blew my fragile young mind
eddie "played" the keyboard on the song back then.....and David Lee Roth did a martial arts sword and scarf solo


despite the canned keyboard fiasco, this tour has been getting great reviews. "Have you seen Wolfie's grades?!"

[David Mason]

Maybe it would have helped if he'd been playing one of these, instead of some random, bottom-feeder scut guitar:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=513703


Sir Edward does claim that they're just as good as the originals, even a master artiste like himself can't tell 'em apart. I guess at $25,000 a pop, they're just too valuable and well-crafted to risk taking out on the road.

I mean, it would be such a horrible, terrible, tragic shame to get a scrat.... grrhgrh, grrhgrh... oh never mind.

[ajm]

"Maybe it would have helped if he'd been playing one of these, instead of some random, bottom-feeder scut guitar:"

If you are talking about the video where the keyboards went awry, looking real close, that guitar looks like a Peavey Wolfgang.

Yeah, a random bottom feeder scut guitar. Uh-huh.

[ajm]

Not that anyone here will care, but here's where Bob's recent entry got it's start.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4VKwMEOIoyc

[Frank Estes]

You might find this little cartoon funny...

http://videos.newsobserver.com/vmix_hos ... id=1515880

[Terry Edwards]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PoD78foaZ4o

[Drew Howard]

b0b,

The clip you linked to is a gag, different guitar dubbed in. You knew that right?
Youtube is rampant with guitar instructional gags.
Drew