VH 2015

Brad737

This space for rent...
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
1,254
Location
Cincinnati, OH
My wife and I went to see Van Halen last night. Van Halen has been my favorite band for years, and have seen them 8 or 9 times. The shows I've seen have ranged from "PLEASE stop drinking, Ed!" to awesome. I'm glad to report that with Ed finally sobering up several years ago, he was in top form last night. I'll admit that David Lee Roth has lost quite a bit of his ability, but he still hit a lot of the notes that count. Call me a fanboy, but even though he's past his prime, I think he's the most entertaining frontman in rock. Anyway, here are a couple of pics from the show. For the record, the sunburst Wolfgang is smaller scale. Ed's such a little guy, it looks almost normal on him. That's VH playing "Little Guitars".

P1070452_zpseidjcts6.jpg


P1070455_zpszi2grk5o.jpg


P1070492_zpsqmka1gog.jpg


P1070486_zpsst11wc3v.jpg


P1070424_zpshlu184sz.jpg
 
Wow, great pics Brad. You must have had really good seats. Curious, how was Wolfgang? I hear he's a really good bass player.
 
Wow, great pics Brad. You must have had really good seats. Curious, how was Wolfgang? I hear he's a really good bass player.

Wolfgang really is a good bassist. He does a lot more embellishments than Michael Anthony was allowed to do in VH...stuff like finger tapping, slides, etc. Personally, I think it's shitty how Wolfie got the gig, although I blame the brothers, and not Wolfie. But I do think Wolfgang saved Van Halen. First off, he's a fan. He writes the set lists for the shows. He's the one who dropped the hammer and got Ed back to rehab. It seems to have stuck this time. From what I've read, Ed has been sober for over 3 years, the longest he's ever been. Wolfie also has finally awakened VH to social media. He posts backstage and behind the scenes vids, lots of updates, etc.

I will say I admire Michael Anthony. He's always taken the high road. He isn't the greatest bassist in rock, but he was always a solid player. I sure do miss his background vocals. Even Dave said in an interview recently, Mikey has the best high tenor in rock.
 
I was never a super fan, but the way Anthony was treated is total BS in my book. Same for the Eagles and Don Felder...
 
Wow, great pics Brad. You must have had really good seats. Curious, how was Wolfgang? I hear he's a really good bass player.

Wolfie is really good - saw him with Tremonti at Exp a few years ago, and he was quite impressive. I was a doubter - and he definitely doesn't have Michael Anthony's pipes - but to quite Tim Wilson, he "can play a damn bass". (You're welcome, Lloyd!)

I was never a super fan, but the way Anthony was treated is total BS in my book. Same for the Eagles and Don Felder...

Agreed on both counts, with the caveat that Felder did have a somewhat contentious relationship w/Frey and Henley. I've yet to see anything that said Anthony was ever anything but courteous and respectful to EVH and AVH.
 
Great pics.

I saw them in their original form back in 81 at madison square garden in New York City. They were a lot of fun. That's when Eddie could jump from one stage level to another and David Lee Roth could throw in those high pitch screeches while singing and do karate moves. He was a stud and Eddie was a guitar god.

A couple of years before that, I remember doing math homework when I was a sophomore back in high school. The radio was playing and "you really got me" came on. I immediately realized that this was something different. The next day I went out and bought their first album. Loved it.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

Alan
 
My wife and I saw them in Virginia last weekend and they were great! One of my favorite bands that I'd never seen play live. Little stiff between the Van Halen boys and DLR, but still a great show!
 
Great pics! I've never seen them. I was looking at tickets right around the time the last album came out, I just just couldn't spend the amount of money they were asking. It was pretty ridiculous. I always worry Dave would be so bad it would ruin the show for me.
 
DLR was never really great live. Tons of schtick. I can remember on the last tour I saw him with during the original run, someone threw a quarter at him, and he threatened to bang the guy's girlfriend. My buddy's friend lived in Florida at the time, and damnedest thing, someone threw a quarter at DLR there, too. Then, when I saw him on his first solo tour (with Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan - including Vai playing a bit of 'Eruption'), someone threw a quarter at him then, too. Years later, I got a couple bootlegs, and it happened at those shows, too.

I'm thinking, if I'm that guy's girlfriend, either I'm going to stop going to shows with him, or finally say, "You're not really here to watch Van Halen, are you?"
 
FWIW - Andy Fraser was my all time favourite bass man, RIP man!
 
Back
Top