VAN HALEN 2015 TOUR DATES

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Dave didn't sound any worse on Kimmel or Ellen than he did at US Fest 1983.

100%, the only difference is he is older and bald. If you wanted to hear spot on vocals live from Van Halen then you would have to stick to the Hagar era.

Roth always had a big goofy grin on his face, because the guy loves what he does, even in the early days, he would sound flat, off key forget lyrics, but who cares?  People act like he has not been doing this his entire career.

At 60 years old David Lee Roth is not suddenly going to morph into Cali-metal's answer to Freddie Mercury

Exactly. He has always cut up, made jokes, left out lines, changed words, dropped pitch, croaked, cracked, squealed and danced all while twirling a sword and jumping off the drum riser. He just does it now w/ less hair and no spandex.

I saw him live in '88 (solo) he was terrible then as well.

I'll say it again, it WORKED back then. He's too old for that shit now. It looks awkward and clumsy and uncool.

Plus his performance back then compensated for his lack of vocal quality. Now it just magnifies his strain.

C'mon, this is obvious stuff.

corplhicks wrote:

I'll say it again, it WORKED back then. He's too old for that shit now. It looks awkward and clumsy and uncool.

Plus his performance back then compensated for his lack of vocal quality. Now it just magnifies his strain.

C'mon, this is obvious stuff.

Maybe too you, to me, its just DLR being DLR, just because you are no longer 25 means you are going to change, you who you are and admire the fact he is not afraid to be himself.

...and sometimes his screw-ups were part of the schtick. Years ago I was watching a bootleg video of the US Festival and during Romeo Delight when he got to a certain phrase he called out "I forgot the f**king words!". I said to my friend I was hanging out with "that's funny" and he told me, "yeah, but he also did the exact same thing the two nights I saw them on that tour". So it was just part of the show.

Yep, he "forgot the f**kin' words" in the same song in every show.

S.D. wrote:

In his prime Roth was the ultimate US hard rock frontman.  He was never the most gifted singer, but he had the personality and attitude to spare.  I don't think any of the 80s Sunset Strip bands ever got within 5000 miles of being as badass as Van Halen was in their late 70s/early 80s glory.  

corplhicks wrote:

I'll say it again, it WORKED back then. He's too old for that shit now. It looks awkward and clumsy and uncool.

Plus his performance back then compensated for his lack of vocal quality. Now it just magnifies his strain.

I whole heartily agree with both of these statements.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Yep, he "forgot the f**kin' words" in the same song in every show.

Oh yea, he did that back when I saw him live on the Little Ain't Enough tour. Another one of his gimmicks was to pull out an acoustic guitar, strum a few chords, then "Oops, I broke a string", and toss the guitar aside.

The "I can't believe I forgot the f*ckin words" bit was incorporated into a Dweezil Zappa song. I can't remember what it was from exactly, but at one point Dweezil stops mid-song and doing his best DLR impression, says "Oh man, I can't believe I forgot the f*cking words".

The main difference is now adays he actually sings and sometimes attempts to sing the entire song, not always the case in their heyday.

Interesting how the "production assistant" Dave finds on Ellen during "Dance the Night Away" is the same "fan" he pulled out of the audience on Kimmel:

http://www.ellentv.com/videos/0-rc47t0oy/

glassprison wrote:

Interesting how the "production assistant" Dave finds on Ellen during "Dance the Night Away" is the same "fan" he pulled out of the audience on Kimmel:

http://www.ellentv.com/videos/0-rc47t0oy/

Sure seems similar. Kind of a risky move for two network broadcasts.

On another note, fascinatingly enough this live release was somewhat arbitrary as the band was looking to release either a remastered collection of demos or a vintage live release! Never saw that coming. Unfortunately--and this is no surprise--the quality, according to Eddie, was too far gone on the live show to make it, and the demo tapes are lost. So they shot for the Tokyo release, which it seems wasn't anything special except for it being longer due to no opening act. I suppose this is the closest we've gotten to having some vault shit find the (official) light of day.

Also there is some hope for a new studio album. Ed claims to have enough material.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/eddie-van-halen-2015-interview/

This was weird. I was in the local Goodwill the other day and I pulled out this 2000 jazz album by Dave Brubeck...



I though that cover looked familiar, but I couldn't place it.

I know this has been posted before but also this:

Daaammnnn!

Wow. VH can't even come up with original artwork? WTF?

Could be a form of homage. Either way, for a band that has a decent score of rad album art, those two are the most generic. Not bad like Balance, just stock, like clipart. Always felt the name of the last studio album was rather stupid too.

Now I don't know the ins and outs of the music industry, but is that really Van Halen's fault? Wouldn't that fall on the record company /management/graphic design dept? Or do bands make the call on album covers ?

That Brubeck ripoff one is really heinous. It's obviously the EXACT same picture. I even counted the number of windows visible on either side of the bow; three and a half on each. Even the gray shading is the same. Look at the left side vs the right side.

007 wrote:

Now I don't know the ins and outs of the music industry, but is that really Van Halen's fault? Wouldn't that fall on the record company /management/graphic design dept? Or do bands make the call on album covers ?

Very good point. Sometimes yes sometimes no. Something tells me they didn't really care to give input at that point.

tohostudios wrote:

That Brubeck ripoff one is really heinous.  It's obviously the EXACT same picture.  I even counted the number of windows visible on either side of the bow; three and a half on each. Even the gray shading is the same.  Look at the left side vs the right side.

Yeah it's terribly derivative. Which makes me question if that was a studio move. Need to research it some more.

A new live album was never the plan at first. Ed originally wanted to release some vault scraps, but they were "not listenable."

It's beyond derivative; it's exactly the same picture. Must be public domain or something.

After some research, yes, it happens to be a vintage travel poster that is public domain.

HAHA!

Nice research Corpl!

007 wrote:

Now I don't know the ins and outs of the music industry, but is that really Van Halen's fault? Wouldn't that fall on the record company /management/graphic design dept? Or do bands make the call on album covers ?

Yea, I'd be more inclined to blame the record company or management for the end product. Unless you have an artist that is really hands-on, like Rob Zombie, the bands are probably shown a few different options, give their opinions, then some suit makes the final call.

And in this day and age with smaller budgets to work with and even smaller returns on the product, cost-cutting measures (ie public domain images) are used and generic, lame covers are the end result. Gone are the days when bands had custom paintings and photos done. Too expensive.