Van Halen cancel tour

[squallumz]

broken hips or what

 

[Death-Proof-69]

I saw them during their prime..actually the first concert I ever went to when i was in like the 8th or 9th grade...right before they went "commercial" with the 1984 album, followed shortly after by the Sammy Hagar era...I can't imagine a better first concert to attend...absolutely amazing...Incredible solos by Eddie, Alex and Mark Anthony...and David Lee Roth gave an unparalled stage performance.

I've been blessed to see alot of great concerts. but Van Halen, at that time, had to be the best. I kind of lost interest in them after Hagar joined in '85...They made some decent music after that, but nothing compared to their earlier stuff IMO.

you're lucky to have seen that. cause it's not gonna happen ever again i'm afraid.

 

[JoeyH]

Pffff... wrong. Re-routed. Break. Members getting on just fine.

 

[JoeyH]

I saw them during their prime..actually the first concert I ever went to when i was in like the 8th or 9th grade...right before they went "commercial" with the 1984 album, followed shortly after by the Sammy Hagar era...I can't imagine a better first concert to attend...absolutely amazing...Incredible solos by Eddie, Alex and Mark Anthony...and David Lee Roth gave an unparalled stage performance.

With Mark Anthony? That must have been one hell of a show

 

[L3ggy]

If you would have seen them at their prime then you would be as old as me and you don't want that.

Wouldn't want that, would we?

 

[Joelward69]

Yea, they were OK. But I can think of better for the time; RUSH, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Deep Purple...

 

[Facetious]

Meh, remember their music for what it was, we don't need to see creaky old men up on stage pretending to be twentysomethings, besides, reunion shows are usually about money, retirement money for the band members to be exact.

I think the show would be depressing, Dave and Alex aren't even the same people I remember.
Keep fighting guys.... I hope they didn't all drink and **** their life savings away.

I thought maybe their bass player was grounded.

Why, because he's a chickenfoot?

 

[eric2136]

I saw them during their prime..actually the first concert I ever went to when i was in like the 8th or 9th grade...right before they went "commercial" with the 1984 album, followed shortly after by the Sammy Hagar era...I can't imagine a better first concert to attend...absolutely amazing...Incredible solos by Eddie, Alex and Mark Anthony...and David Lee Roth gave an unparalled stage performance.

With Mark Anthony? That must have been one hell of a show

AMAZING...Actually Mike was the most impressive to me...I knda expected excellence from Alex and Eddie, who definately did not dissapoint...but Mike's solo was incredible ! I had a new found respect for him and David Lee Roth after seeing them live..

I'm sure you would agree if you ever had the opportunity to see them perform during that time...I don't know what they're doing now with all these reunions and hiatuses and bickering...I felt like they lost there artistic edge really in '84 but definately when Hagar joined....Hagar is an excellent musician but too commercial for me...I think he joined the band right after he did "I can't drive 55 " which was totally commercial ... I liked their vibe much better when they were openning for Sabbath...after Diver Down ...I felt like they were kinda on the way out

I'm a fan of hardcore type music... independent of the genre, I gotta feel it. ...if i feel like a group is selling out and/or going pop, then i cut ties with them...I don't patronize reunion tours /revivals etc...either put out new hot music or just quit.

 

[hiropro]

Remember seeing them at the Monsters Of Rock at Donington in 84.Great show. It was funny seeing adverts for the new album saying the classic line-up re-united for the first time in years.Obviously they forgot about Mike Anthony.

 

[bobjustbob]

Don't forget 20 years ago the Sam & Dave Tour. What a fucking train wreck. How much arm twisting did it take for Roth to put his name second? If Sam played first, the Sam crowd came early and left early because they couldn't stand Dave. Dave fans would come late because they hated Sam. Same scenario if Dave was to open. It was like going to a baseball game with some of the crowd leaving early to beat the traffic and others that only come during the 3rd inning just to watch the final pitch

 

[Mr. Hyde]

AMAZING...Actually Mike was the most impressive to me...I knda expected excellence from Alex and Eddie, who definately did not dissapoint...but Mike's solo was incredible ! I had a new found respect for him and David Lee Roth after seeing them live..

I'm sure you would agree if you ever had the opportunity to see them perform during that time...I don't know what they're doing now with all these reunions and hiatuses and bickering...I felt like they lost there artistic edge really in '84 but definately when Hagar joined....Hagar is an excellent musician but too commercial for me...I think he joined the band right after he did "I can't drive 55 " which was totally commercial ... I liked their vibe much better when they were openning for Sabbath...after Diver Down ...I felt like they were kinda on the way out

I'm a fan of hardcore type music... independent of the genre, I gotta feel it. ...if i feel like a group is selling out and/or going pop, then i cut ties with them...I don't patronize reunion tours /revivals etc...either put out new hot music or just quit.

It sounds like we grew up on the same kinda music. I actually think 1984 is a good album, although I'll agree that "Jump" was a little bit of a sellout. I'd say Jump was a preview of what VH was to become once Dave left the band and Hagar joined. Many people want to blame VH's demise on Sammy Hagar, and he sucks, but EVH was already starting to use the sythesizer in 1984 and was getting away from the guitar a little much. OTOH, 1984 also delivered two GREAT VH songs....Panama and Hot for Teacher. And even though it's synth heavy, "I'll Wait" is a solid song, mostly because of DLR's voice. Their best work was in their first three albums, but I'd still put 1984 right up there with them. Hell, those first 6 albums might be the best body of work by an American rock band ever.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see them live in their prime. I was THISCLOSE to it...I had some friends that wanted me to go see them live at the Hollywood Sportatorium for the 1984 tour. They were doing two shows on back to back nights, but I had a high school basketball game I had to play in, so I didn't go with them, and of course, the night they went was the night of my game. At the time, you didn't think "oh man, this might be my last chance!"

Oh well....like I said, I saw their show last month and a bunch of guys in their 50s can't do the same thing they did in their 20s, plus they're fucking missing Michael Anthony.

If they tour again and have him, I MIGHT be willing to give it another shot, but the show I saw just wasn't like what a concert in the 80s was.

 

[zeeblofowl_1969]

Saw them in 1985 and DLR just sat there and talked **** to EVH!! Actually quite humorous!!

 

[squallumz]

these guys just need to get married already.

 

[eric2136]

It sounds like we grew up on the same kinda music. I actually think 1984 is a good album, although I'll agree that "Jump" was a little bit of a sellout. I'd say Jump was a preview of what VH was to become once Dave left the band and Hagar joined. Many people want to blame VH's demise on Sammy Hagar, and he sucks, but EVH was already starting to use the sythesizer in 1984 and was getting away from the guitar a little much. OTOH, 1984 also delivered two GREAT VH songs....Panama and Hot for Teacher. And even though it's synth heavy, "I'll Wait" is a solid song, mostly because of DLR's voice. Their best work was in their first three albums, but I'd still put 1984 right up there with them. Hell, those first 6 albums might be the best body of work by an American rock band ever.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see them live in their prime. I was THISCLOSE to it...I had some friends that wanted me to go see them live at the Hollywood Sportatorium for the 1984 tour. They were doing two shows on back to back nights, but I had a high school basketball game I had to play in, so I didn't go with them, and of course, the night they went was the night of my game. At the time, you didn't think "oh man, this might be my last chance!"

Oh well....like I said, I saw their show last month and a bunch of guys in their 50s can't do the same thing they did in their 20s, plus they're fucking missing Michael Anthony.

If they tour again and have him, I MIGHT be willing to give it another shot, but the show I saw just wasn't like what a concert in the 80s was.

I'm sure we do have some similar musical tastes, esp. since we both like Van Halen...its a shame you didn't get to see them at their prime...I know what you're saying...When you're a ***, you don't really have any context of how rare it is when you see truly great things...I certainly didn't...It wasn't untill years later that I began to realize how fortunate I was...There were so many other great artists that I never got to see...such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix....I would definately put Eddie towards the head of that esteemed class of Guitar virtuosos, and I'll always feel very fortunate to have seen him, at his prime, rocking extremely hard with the other Van Halen original members !

As for the "1984" album, I know it was definately a big commercial success...I think different people feel differently about their evolution depending on their specific musical tastes...My friends and I were into serious Heavy Metal/Hard Rock at that times...We were into Sabbath Zepplin BOC Frampton Iron Maiden Skynard Pink Floyd RUSH YES Ozzy AC/DC..and all of the other Heavy Weight Rock Bands of that era....

We always viewed Van Halen as somewhat commercial compared to those other groups. ..but we put them amongst the greats of that time more so because of their outrageous talent as musicians....they had a fun and light unique perspective not so dark and pensive as some of the others...but what made us take them seriously was their immense talent, esp. EVH, that lent a certain level of credibility to their otherwise superficial musical subject matter...

I think from "1984" on...that balance between the groups musical genius, and their lack of substantive subject matter became skewed... Songs like "Jump" and "Panama" were huge mainstream pop successes...but Van Halen really had no hardcore legitimacy pretty much from that point on...because they seemed to be putting the goal of mainstream success in front of artistic and creative purity.

But that's just my opinion, I'm sure there are people who like Van Halen's later work maybe even more than their earlier albums...As you alluded too, Some of the albums during the Hagar era, like "5150", did great on the Billboard Pop charts....although Van Halen's record sales declined markedly during this era, Van Halen was nominated for two Grammy Awards during this period, winning the 1992 Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal award for the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"...Even "Van Halen III" during the brief "Cherone" era had some critical success, although record sales were somewhat dissapointing overall.

I don't plan to go to any reunion concerts, but I would hope that they can get this "A Different Kind Of Truth" tour back together . I don't know whether the problem is EVH's health , in-fighting , or something else, but hopefully they can resolve any problems favorably, so they continue to play their music for the fans that want to see them.

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