* * * The Official EE Van Halen Thread * * * (1 Viewer)

I saw Van Halen in May 1980 in Largo, Md. We got the tickets months ahead of time, and then I found out I had a final exam that evening. Since the tickets came before the exam, I asked my Econ professor if he'd let me take the exam early. He agreed on the condition I let him know how the show was. Off we go, and Van Halen....Sucked. No stage presence, crappy sound system, and the band just looked like they'd rather have been elsewhere. No energy whatsoever. VH was one of the worst concerts I ever saw, and after VH and VHII, I had high hopes. I saw my professor the A couple days later and told him about the show. He said "I was going to warn you I heard they weren't great live, but I didn't want to ruin your day. However, you got an A on your final" :)

We saw them again on the Diver Down tour and they still blew. Sellout crowds both times and VH just mailed it in.

I've since heard others say VH is not the greatest live show. Good studio stuff, but they were a letdown in person.
 
I saw Van Halen in May 1980 in Largo, Md. We got the tickets months ahead of time, and then I found out I had a final exam that evening. Since the tickets came before the exam, Ia sked my Econ professor if he'd let me take the exam early. He agreed on the condition I let him know how the show was. Off we go, and Van Halen....Sucked. No stage presence, crappy sound system, and the band just looked like they'd rather have been elsewhere. No energy whatsoever. VH was one of the worst concerts I ever saw, and after VH and VHII, I had high hopes. We saw them again on the Diver Down tour and they still blew. Sellout crowds both times and VH just mailed it in.

I've since heard others say VH is not the greatest live show. Good studio stuff, but they were a letdown in person.

Wow.

I really enjoyed the concerts in Shreveport.

Maybe they got brown M&M's at your shows.
 
Wow.

I really enjoyed the concerts in Shreveport.

Maybe they got brown M&M's at your shows.
It was a letdown. We saw a bunch of other shows around that time; Boston, Kiss, The Cars, AC/DC (Hell's Bells tour and one of my top 5 concerts) Styx, Judas Priest, Rush, Springsteen. etc., and all were great. I could never understand the VH thing because their music would seem to translate so well to the stage.
 
Van Halen is flat-out my favourite band. Unfortunately their first tour of Australia was in 1998 with Gary Cherone (and I was only about 12 years old at the time anyway, so didn’t go).

I finally got to see them in Sydney in 2012 when they played some absolute debacle of a music festival 45 minutes out of the CBD (debacle in the sense that the organizers booked about 15 bands including Aerosmith and Billy Joel and managed to draw fewer than 12,000 people to an 80,000 seat stadium because Sydney crowds suck, but I digress). Wolfie was on bass by that stage. It was a fun show but Dave’s vocals aren’t what they once were and a bunch of fans left after Aerosmith played second to last.

I’ve got a bucks party in Vegas in March and the tentative plan at this stage is to go to DLR’s show while we’re there as part of his residency. His solo stuff from ‘86-‘91 is better than the Van Hagar stuff so it would be cool to hear that live.

I like Sammy, for what it’s worth. He sounds great. The problem is with his songwriting. “Only time will tell if we stand the test of time.” Yeesh. And his love song schlock really made Van Hagar indistinguishable from bands like Foreigner, even though they were really good at it.

Hot take though: VHIII wasn’t given a fair chance and they should have done a second album with Cherone.
 
It was a letdown. We saw a bunch of other shows around that time; Boston, Kiss, The Cars, AC/DC (Hell's Bells tour and one of my top 5 concerts) Styx, Judas Priest, Rush, Springsteen. etc., and all were great. I could never understand the VH thing because their music would seem to translate so well to the stage.

They usually started tours in Sherveport because of Eddie and Valerie.

Maybe they more fresh. I don't know.

But Dave made us laugh and Eddie blew us away with a 15 minute solo.
 

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