Early into Van Halen’s two hour set, frontman David Lee Roth told the crowd at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday. “I feel like this will be a good show.” Then he asked, “Is this show going to be a winner or a 9-car pileup? That’s Valen Halen, baby!” he explained. This came after Roth forgot the words to “China Town” and signaled his bandmates, all with the Van Halen surname, to get to the chorus.
Van Halen’s show was exactly what one should expect from a Van Halen show: incredible musicianship from guitarist Eddie Van Halen, ridiculousness from Roth and amazing people watching while your parents’ friends tried to prove they still had rhythm during opener Kool & the Gang’s set.
Kool & the Gang was, at least in my opinion, terrible. Not that they played poorly, but their singles, all ubiquitous at weddings and in casinos, haven’t held up as well as their funky peers’ music like James Brown, George Clinton and Prince. “Celebration” and “Jungle Boogie” should have been left to die in the 1970s. More puzzling was that no one from Van Halen acknowledged their set or explained why they were on this tour.
But when Van Halen came out, it was on one of the smallest stages I’ve seen for an arena rock show, cut more than in half by a giant screen that showed the concert live in black and white. The only color image I remember on the screen was a Best Buy logo, instructing us as to where we could pick up VH’s latest album, A Different Kind of Truth.
Roth sometimes mumbled through songs, but when the band played “Hot for Teacher,” Van Halen was running on all cylinders. Eddie’s guitar riffs were unforgettable and Alex Van Halen’s drum beat, one of the most memorable in rock and roll, was on point and Roth was captivating and nailed his vocal performance.
Roth was quite funny and animated throughout the night, and worked as a frontman who kept the show moving and the crowd entertained and knew when to get out of the way for a great Eddie Van Halen guitar solo. He was immensely quotable, telling the crowd (to someone up front in particular), “I could be your father. This isn’t my first time in your town, I’ll tell you that.” Another time, he talked about how the “one type of martial arts” he does is “Adidas Kung Fu.”
My favorite story in my favorite recent music book is from Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum’s I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution. It has a story where an MTV contest winner wins a weekend partying with Van Halen and the band gets the winner drunk, high and laid (but not necessarily in that order), only to find that he can’t actually drink without getting violently ill and his life is in jeopardy after a day of partying with Van Halen. Those days are long gone and now Eddie’s son Wolfgang has now replaced Michael Anthony on bass. He was pretty good.
The setlist was entirely made up of songs from Roth’s years with the band, so nothing Sammy Hagar sang lead on (or, heaven forbid, Gary Cherone). Van Halen had enough hits (and new songs) in their catalog to do that, but could you imagine Van Hagar not playing “Panama,” “Jump” or “Hot for Teacher?”
For Roth being the comedic force of VH for much of the night, he was also responsible for the most touching, when he showed a video of his animals and narrated a story about his involvement with them while strumming an acoustic guitar. It was a nice bit of “Story Time with David Lee Roth” (as my friend Travis Hay of Guerrilla Candy put it) before leading into a version of “Ice Cream Man” that Roth made famous. It was also one of the few moments of the night where you didn’t see Roth with his almost-perpetual shit-eating grin.
Van Halen was a band I loved growing up, especially with the wonder that is Eddie Van Halen’s guitar riffs, so I was glad to finally get the chance to see them live. It was flawed, with Roth forgetting some of his words, and he can’t kick as high as he used to, but when they needed to be on, like they were for “Hot for Teacher,” it was perfect. Even better, it was rock and roll.
Setlist:
1. Unchained
2. Runnin’ with the Devil
3. She’s the Woman
4. The Full Bug
5. Tattoo
6. Everybody Wants Some!!
7. Somebody Get Me a Doctor
8. China Town
9. Hear About It Later
10. Oh Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison cover)
11. Alex Van Halen drum solo
12. You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover)
13. The Trouble With Never
14. Dance the Night Away
15. I’ll Wait
16. Hot for Teacher
17. Women in Love
18. Outta Love Again
19. Beautiful Girls
20. story time with David Lee Roth
21. Ice Cream Man (John Brim cover)
22. Panama
23. Eddie Van Halen guitar solo
24. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
25. Jump
Chris Burlingame is the editor of Another Rainy Saturday.
Chris you forgot to mention how terrible the sound was. I am a hugh Van Halen fan from back in the day and I know all of the songs on the set list. I couldn’t even tell what they were playing until the chores kicked in on most songs. This was not only my opinion but that of others around me and people I talked to after the show. I loved the lights and the video but was horribly disapointed in the way the show was mixed. Sure is sucked that I paid $100 for something I couldn’t inteligibly hear but what ticks me off most is that this is the last Van Halen show I will probably see and it sounded like a train wreck. By the way I was on the floor row 56 not far behind the sound booth.
I’ve read countles reviewss regarding the sound quality during previous concerts on the 2012 tour…I was in the nosebleed seats and heard every word perfectly. The show was tremondous given it being one of the most dysfunctional and unpredictable bands to ever reach such a broad range of fans. The Tacoma concert gave this 49 year old teenager a chance to remember what good ol’ fashion rock and roll needs to keep on kicking…an entertaining and unique frontman with a kickass band…Van Halen baby!!
PS Some of the babes I used to gawk at back in the day when VH first came on the scene still lookin pretty good despite being grandma’s…. better than my prescription to viagra!!!Looking forward to the next tour!
@D Gilkey: Hmm. Interesting. I think loud rock shows are one of those times when the closer $100 seats aren’t as good as the $47.50 seats in the back. I was in section 1A row 27 at the back end of the dome, at the left end of my row (house left, viewing stage). The view was unobstructed and the sound was great. I had zero complaints. Well, I wish they had played even more of the new album since it rocks and I love it so much, but it was a pretty killer set list regardless.
I’d chalk it up to the far less than perfect acoustics of the Tacoma Dome. I saw KISS there in 1996 and I was seated on the left side, and the sound sucked. I could tell it wasn’t the band’s playing, though, it just sounded bad where I was sitting. When I walked around in the back of the floor area it sounded fine. But you were on the floor near the center and it sounds like you were far enough back, so maybe the mix really wasn’t as good as it should have been. I just know it sounded fine where I was. *shrug*
Memo to reviewer Chris: it’s possible Dave forgot the words to China Town. It’s also possible he didn’t and it’s just part of the act. His “I forgot the f*ckin’ WORDS!” line — that exact line — has been in use since at least the early ’80s, and many early fans have stated that Dave “forgets” lines frequently and did so back in the day as well. See this clip of show opener “Romeo Delight” from their 1983 US Festival performance — http://youtu.be/zeHqEq7VPI0 — which you should see anyway because it’s awesome.
The show in New York was outstanding. They sounded tight and you could tell they were having blast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9QBxrzx1Tc check out first song “Everybody Wants Some” and at 4:00. Good, tight, fun and magical. He even rubs his package a little, that Mandingo. There were plenty in Cafe Wha? to go around.
Then the show in Indy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxcaUlyH5I
and they seemed to be on the verge of unraveling. I was thinking “there is no way anyone in the crowd can even tell which songs is which.” Too many awful antics to even list, but that is Van Halen, the good with the obnoxious. David Lee Roth is a critical part of the band. No Roth, no Van Halen. I love that crazy bastard!
While the sound quality is marginal and I agree with Gilkey, it was, I also see the point Waterfish is making about rock shows filling the venue with distorted crappy sound and that is part of the beauty. The Tacoma Dome isn’t called “The Woodshed” for nothing. I saw the roof ignite into a small fire during an AC/DC show. Some troubled skid shot a bottle rocket into the wooden roof during the song “The House is on Fire.”
The Guitar solo was great, his talent is amazing, but I find myself sleeping during those if I’m not careful. I’m not sure it counts as a set-list song, or “Story Time with David,” but it is an interesting twist to hand out fiction as fact in our social network-news gathering era.
I like David’s stories, but Eddie and Wolfgang do not enjoy them at all and when you are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, asking your band for a few minutes and some respect is apparently out of line.
My friend went backstage and almost got kicked out for taking off his shirt. These two little dudes roughed him up a little: http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm218/Guerilla_Guy/van20halen_backstage2020FF15FB.jpg
Didn’t find any brown M & Ms though. http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp
All they really had backstage was a bowl of pretzels and you could buy merchandise without waiting in line. My buddy still has his VH shirt from the Spokane show in 1981, size Medium. It doesn’t fit anymore.
David’s kicks aren’t as high as they used to be. He does some very weird stuff, but he is a genius!!
Now I hear they have cancelled their tour, what a bunch of crap! Play the shows!
The Van Halens may be getting tired of David. However, without David, they are boring and washed up.
I guess Gene Simmons is saying that Eddie wanted to be in Kiss, but he said “no way.” He is a shred businessman and Kiss is one of the most confusing, money-generating businesses I have ever seen. http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gene-simmons-rejected-eddie-van-halen/http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gene-simmons-rejected-eddie-van-halen/
I have to go now. Keep up the great work on this blog Chris!
Fancy footwork can’t out-tap missing vocals. Half floor exercise, half concert. It seemed like we were all Dancin’ With the Stars and singing karoke. David Lee Roth tickled the stage like Fred Astaire.
He commands a presence and he doesn’t want to leave. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s6g5JQhIYE
Good reflections http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvqc05AHogA&feature=related