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Van Halen Live Album & 2015 Tour Discussion


RussTCB

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I've seen Van Halen in 1995, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2015. The 2015 show was the best. Awesome setlist and the band, all four members, were on fire.

Out of curiosity, what show did you see this year? I've been fairly unimpressed with Dave in the videos I've seen on Youtube.
Mansfield. YouTube videos, filmed via smartphone, in no way give a good sense of what the concert experexperience is like. They were awesome and the show was sold out, or close to it.
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Dave is an intentionally funcheesy, whereas some of the Sammy songs are cringeworthy attempts at stronger lyric writing.

Yeah, Dave just wants to have fun. It's interesting cause he's highly intelligent and funny. He never took life too seriously and he was always entertaining back in the day.

Sammy is a good guy, a great singer, but like Powerage5 said, it's not compelling to me.

In the studio it worked anyway. Dave captures a certain vibe that only he can. It goes perfectly with Eddie's thing imo.

ADKOT is still one of the best things they've managed to pull off in more then a decade.

Btw: I have no problem with Wolfgang. He's the fuckin' reason there is a van halen at all. Great player as well.

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As far as Van Hagar goes, give it another listen after you are married and have kids. Because that's what it is imo, the best grown up rock music ever written. Classic Van Halen is party music, great for feeling young. Van Hagar is just directed at a different age group imo. That doesn't make one better or worse, just different. Yes I prefer classic van halen, but I do really appreciate van Hagar as well.

If you grew up during that time, than you may have really strong feelings about it, therefore you probably won't like van Hagar much. But to those of you who are 25 or under this is my advice for you: put the Hagar stuff on a shelf until you are married and possibly have kids, then give it another listen. I think you will find a better appreciation for it then.

I can only speak for myself, but I find myself relating to the Hagar stuff a lot more at this point in my life. But when I was a teen and in my 20s, I liked the Roth stuff way more. But now I listen to those "sappy" love songs and what not and can appreciate them for what they are, really great songs. Van Hagar really made some great music.

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I can imagine how strange it must have been for those growing up with Roth for the band's total stylistic change once Hagar came aboard. Discovering Van Halen in the current generation is different because it's already known going in that there were different singers, styles, and so on. It's similar to how many Rush fans hate the keyboard dominated eighties stuff. If they grew up with Rush then it was probably way different, but for me it's what I know as Rush.

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Van Hagar were for people who liked Journey and Foreigner, at first it seemed weird that they'd be in the same band. Van Halen with Dave was more of a "boy's club" band.

The Brown M&M rider is on the Smoking Gun website if you have never seen it.

Fernando should find the letter Dave wrote to Axl.

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Van Hagar were for people who liked Journey and Foreigner, at first it seemed weird that they'd be in the same band. Van Halen with Dave was more of a "boy's club" band.

The Brown M&M rider is on the Smoking Gun website if you have never seen it.

Fernando should find the letter Dave wrote to Axl.

But...I like Journey and Foreigner. I just don't like my Van Halen to sound like that.

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I still say if they were all smart and wanted a lot of cash then they'd throw the egos aside and do a proper Sam and Dave tour. Wolfgang can be rhythm guitar and live keyboards so that way he can stick around with Mikey back in the fold. The setlist would be half and half with Sam and Dave together for a couple songs in the encore like Jump. I'd see that as a farewell tour.

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Van Hagar were for people who liked Journey and Foreigner, at first it seemed weird that they'd be in the same band. Van Halen with Dave was more of a "boy's club" band.

The Brown M&M rider is on the Smoking Gun website if you have never seen it.

Fernando should find the letter Dave wrote to Axl.

I sort of agree, but not completely. Journey were always a pretty soft rock band really, the hardest journey song has nothing on half of Van Hagar's discography imo, excluding the ballads of course. But songs like Poundcake, half of 5150, seventh seal, humans being, etc are much heavier than anything Journey ever did.

Foreigner was a legit band in the 70s, but then went pretty soft in the 80s, so maybe they are a better comparison. But again Van Hagar never went completely soft rock. Balance for example has some soft rock tunes like can't stop loving you and not enough but also has some pretty heavy shit like seventh seal and Amsterdam. I just don't see 80s foreigner still hit you with those kinds of songs at that point, they went completely soft.

That's why I do in fact love Van Hagar, because they didn't completely go soft, they still brought plenty of thunder. Not as much as the Dave years, no. But for every ballad their were still some pretty heavy Shit. Honestly I can't think of another band that really compares to them, they are sort of unique in the annuals of rock history imo. They never sold out and hired outside writers like Bob Jovi and Aerosmith did. They did write music more appropriate for their ages (30s and 40s), but still brough enough thunder to remain a legitimate rock band. Like I said before, I love them. Yes I prefer classic VH and am glad I got to see that reunion happen, but I still appreciate the Hagar years. Honestly Van Halen and AC\DC are the only bands to pull off a major line up change and remain super successful. A Hell of a lot more successful than NUgnr. I really like CD, I do, but Van Hagar owns NUgnr on every level.

Edited by Iron MikeyJ
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I'd be surprised if Van Halen does any more big tours after this.

The one album that is on par with ChiDem is VHIII. Ed still stands by that album.

It's really not a bad album. It has good songs. But just like CD, the biggest problem with it is production. EVH and Axl both should have let outside people produce those records, the end results would have been better. When I listen to VH3 songs, I always think "this part went on to long, etc." But the songs and music themselves are all solid, it just could have used some reorganization.

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I'd be surprised if Van Halen does any more big tours after this.

The one album that is on par with ChiDem is VHIII. Ed still stands by that album.

It's really not a bad album. It has good songs. But just like CD, the biggest problem with it is production. EVH and Axl both should have let outside people produce those records, the end results would have been better. When I listen to VH3 songs, I always think "this part went on to long, etc." But the songs and music themselves are all solid, it just could have used some reorganization.

Ted Templeman and Mike Clink should be the producers and all will be right with the rock world *L*

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Really good show in Darien Lake tonight. I was expecting Dave to blow it tonight since he was sick, and it was REALLY cold (Way colder than London - I was in jeans and a hoodie and still freezing), but he was really really good. I'm not saying he was perfect, he still had some tough moments, but he had a lot more moments I consider great than usual. He actually nailed the first verse of China Town, first time I've heard him keep up with the pace of that one. The first verse of I'll Wait was great too, then he went full Shatner on the second :lol:

He talked a lot more than in London. Some of it was really entertaining, some of it was really odd. On the entertaining end, there was one great one where he was talking about how when he was growing up he wanted to be James Brown or Mick Jagger. Then there was another one were he started talking about "40 Shades Of GAY" :shrugs:

But a great show in all. I didn't enjoy it as much as London (On the barrier, how do you top that?), but still great.

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