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Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
Van Halen
Meadowlands Izod Center
East Rutherford, New Jersey
United States of America
November 3, 2007
Notes: I was going to call this one "Meltdown at the Meadowlands," but after I heard the sound quality, not to mention the fact that it is incomplete, I decided to pass on the formalities such as titles, artwork, etc. The show is in the category of forgettable (or unforgettable..depends how you look at things). I guess the high point of the evening's drama was Eddie Van Halen stomping around like a 3-year old because his guitar cable kept getting tangled (as he yanked on it violently)...no wait...it would have to be him screaming..SCREAMING at the tech guys on the side of the stage for the better part of the show...no...the part where he flipped the monitor over, because it was either too loud, or he didn't like what was coming out of it..no...maybe it was when he picked said monitor up and threw it across the stage...NO..I got it..it was when he proceeded to pick up the monitor and throw it OFF the stage. That was it.
I'm not making any of this up.
There were some other noteworthy occurrences..like during one of Ed's fits, where he was switching guitars.."and the Cradle Will Rock" starts..only problem is..Ed is not holding a guitar..but it starts nonetheless, with the swoosing flanged guitar..that's he's not playing..it's pre-recorded..so is the rhythm part..I'm pretty sure it's a keyboard, but I never noticed it, because he was usually playing. This show seemed to measure up to the KC show everyone was talking about..except Dave was great. I gained a newfound respect for him tonight, as he was the consumate professional as his bandmate stomped, sneared and screamed through 90% of the show, during which he paid little attention to his playing, stopping at times, screwing up at others. After the monitor toss, he pretty much threw and swatted at anything and everything in his path.
I feel bad for Wolfie too. I can tell this is all getting to him fast. He looked like he wanted to be ANYWHERE else for pretty much the entire show. At times I caught him staring at Ed with this "what the f*ck??" look on his face. At one point, after one of his meltdowns, I guess Ed realized that yeh..there are like 10,000 people watching this, he tried to do his goofy dancing and jumping pikes, then he goes over to Wolfie's side and picks up a straw cowboy hat, puts it on, then tries to put it on Wolf, only Wolfs backs up, slaps the hat away, then proceeds to kick it off the stage into the crowd.
This thing is unravelling..fast. After the monitor throwing incident, Ed came back up and looked almost possessed. Very sad indeed. Sad for everyone involved. Sad for the fans that shelled out $500 to be in the VIP circle. Actually, it was sad for any fan who shelled out even $1 to see this charade tonight. Saddest of all for the multi-millionaire guitarist whose band is making 1.5 million per show that he can't put everything aside for 2 hours a day, play his music and act like a swell guy.
In any event..here it is. The recording matches the performance. BTW - I'm not on the whole VH-bashing bandwagon either. I'm just really disgusted at the show Ed turned in last night. I considered not going to MSG next week, but figured I might as well, and hopefully go out on a high note.
Some clips:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4n_1Wwl9c
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
As most of you know, I have been wavering for months on whether or not to buy tickets to this. I was considering buying last minute tickets with my next check. I have now decided against it. This is a clusterfuck. The backing tracks are unforgivable, but now they're throwing hissy fits on stage? No thanks.
Whats lame is when they fuck up, they cant recover because they're using canned music and vocals. You cant stop all that and continue from where you fucked up. For good or bad, the song has to continue.
Lame.
I understand this is history and possibly the last chance to ever see VH, but its just not worth it.
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
The thing is is that EVERYONE wants this to succeed, including the media who have a fetish for train wrecks. But notice something. VH and this tour were getting a ton of publicity when it started. Now you hear nothing. The media is pretty much doing a blackout so the thing doesn't unravel.
VH reuniting was supposed to be magical. Everyone had this vision of how it would be for years. The reality clearly isn't living up to the fantasy.
As far as canned vocals and music, they should NOT be charging that kind of money for that shit. Tickets should be like 40 bucks.
The only artists who have an excuse to have added music and/or vocals are people like MIA who don't have a band and have so much shit going on in her songs that a little assistance is required. A legendary rock act doing it is inexcusable. I understand they are older now, but if you can't bring the goods, stay home.
When I had visions of VH reuniting years ago, it wasn't them getting onstage and sometimes playing along to a greatest hits cd. Fuck that.
That part about EVH not even holding his guitar but the music is playing anyways is hilarious.
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
Russ, you went to one of their shows. Do you feel ripped off, or did the nostalgia factor sort of cloud over any negative feelings you had towards the show? I understand being there is different than reading about it or youtube clips. As I mentioned, M.I.A. has her DJ play the music from the album and also the backing vocals,etc. But she sings the songs. I could obviously tell what was going on, but it didn't bother me because she was kicking so much ass.
I actually wish she would go to a more "raw" performance of the songs. She did this at the Radio One show before the album came out, and even though she is obviously shit faced drunk, it sounded amazing.
Maybe VH should drop this backing shit and just go back to basics for the rest of the tour. If it doesn't sound like the album, so what. If people want to hear the album, they'll stay home.
- Jimmy Zig Zag Bobiadis
- Rep: 25
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
backing tracks? what a load of shit.
but i don't think anybody seriously thought this thing was going to last? bands like this break up for a reason and these types of reunions never live up to what you expect, nor do they usually last very long. To be honest, I'm surprised its still going.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
Furthers my theory that reunions should be for recording not touring 
But that said...i hope its not as bad as the reviews its getting, I'd like EVH to go out on a high note. I mean the man is a legend 
- NY Giants82
- Rep: 26
Re: Van Halen Tour Imploding??
The show I saw, on dvd, they were on fire. Absolutley on fire. All bands have bad shows, doesnt mean they are melting, but this is VH we are talking about, so who knows?!
