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VAN HALEN!


Toronto Zeppelin

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Any fans of the band?

Yes - Not like when I was younger, but still a fan

Seen them live on the reunion tour? (or before for that matter)

3 times -

Fair Warning - Boston Garden 1981

5150 Tour - Worcestor Centrum 1986

DLR Band - Worcestor Centrum 1986

Reunion - (Sort of ... no Michael Anthony) - Worcestor Centrum (now DCU Center) 2007

Fav album?

1st

Fav Song?

Top 5

Little Dreamer

Atomic Punk

You're No Good

Light Up The Sky

Somebody Get Me A Doctor

Fav Member?

Alex

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Chase, thank you for the earlier post on the latest news.

Concerts:

1988

1992

2007

2012

Fav Disc: varies, but always come back to Fair Warning.

Fav Song(s):

Unchained

Everybody Wants Some!!!

Little Guitars

So This Is Love?

She's The Woman

Fav Band Member: Eddie

Huge fan back in the early 80's, fell out during the Hagar years, back in with the return of DLR still am with their latest release! :yesnod:

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Better, how?

Van Halen - DLR version - went multi-platinum with every release from 1978-1984, 6 discs. EddieVan Halen one of the top-5 or so most influential guitarists ever. Then they changed singers and sold more, stayed relevant. Whether it sold or not, their recent release is an amazing disc, best 'comeback' disc heard in years - IMO. Which leads me to my last statement. If you don't have a favorite member (or at least a time period of the group) and you don't have a favorite song - why the hell would you write an opinion of the group?

Soundgarden, RHCP, Pearl Jam, c'mon man!

:huh:

Yes Soundgarden, Pearl Jam & RHCP!

I do own everything up to & including 5150. The music of Van Halen is slightly better than BLAH for me - much of the stuff sounds the same. Not until Haggar arrive did their music expand.

My favorite period is form Women And Children First & Fair Warning. 5150 was good too.

I'm probably the only one in the world that thinks Van Halen's album 1984 sucks. Was never a fan of 1984 - Hot For Teacher, Panama, Jump? Lame!

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I agree with you, 1984 was their worst disc with Roth - so you are certainly not alone there. Never was a fan of Sammy in VH, but their sound did expand - for better or worse.

Did you listen to last year's release? Old ideas brought to new light - I really enjoyed that and still do on occasion.

To each his own, but I still believe they trump the 3 earlier mentioned bands, for a number of reasons...

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As far as 1984 goes,I always felt they left the fans short changed, and I blame that on Diver Down being half covers half originals. I thought it could've used 2 or 3 more songs.

Van Halen had planned to do something with the songs that wound up on A Different Kind of Truth years ago. The tribute band Atomic Punks were going to make an album out of most of those songs, but they were going to stick to the original versions. Van Halen's management prevented them from doing it. Now we know why...

It's cool to see Dave surfacing over the past few months and letting people know what's been going on, working with John 5 again, and Wolfgang out on the road with Mark Tremonti, before Alter Bridge regroup this year. I think Alter Bridge is going to get some renewed attention because of Myles with Slash last year (including the GNR Rock Hall induction) and Tremonti putting a kick ass solo album out.

What's always been funny to me is how Dave turned out to do far more experimental stuff than Van Halen had done. I do like parts of VHIII, but Ed was being an epic ass that year about the reunion falling through. All they had to do was the one tour and do whatever they wanted after that.

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Agree with everything you said there, dalsh327. I didn't know about the Atomic Punk trying to record those songs though.

Dave is the only one giving insight into the band at this point. I know it's a pipe dream to get back with the original 4, but glad to hear Dave is publicly pushing for it - however that might be a reason to push him back out again. What a saga they are.....

:peace:

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I know it's a pipe dream to get back with the original 4, but glad to hear Dave is publicly pushing for it - however that might be a reason to push him back out again. What a saga they are.....

If it weren't for the joy of performing with his son Eddie would probably elect to remain inactive. There is no way Wolfgang is getting replaced.

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If it weren't for the joy of performing with his son Eddie would probably elect to remain inactive. There is no way Wolfgang is getting replaced.

I agree Steve. It seems that is what keeps Eddie touring with the band at this point. Btw, Eddie's playing was fantastic when I saw them last year. His best solo I have witnessed in the 4 times I saw him perform. Thanks for your input SAJ.

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A 5 pc lineup would be a great solution .. Wolfgang can play Drums, Bass, Keyboards and Guitar..

Who knows? Wofgang might want to branch out.. Looks like he has with some of the projects he's been doing lately..

Also, a lot of people rag on the kid unfairly.. for being fat and in Van Halen... He must be a little fed up with it.

Michael Anthony could tell them to jump in a lake too...

He actually gets to play his Bass in Chickenfoot .. instead of riding 8th notes on the E string all the time .. like Ed always made him do.

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Saw VH 7 times. 5 times with David and twice with Sammy. EVERY time I saw them with David they just kicked serious butt, EVERY single time I saw them with Sammy they just didn't have that same energy nor that same VH sound. The 1st was their debut when they "warmed up" for Black Sabbath. Warmed up?? No, they blew Sabbath off the stage, and Sabbath was really good. The last was in 2007 with the reunion tour in Phoenix. That concert was a close 2nd with the 1st concert for sound and energy. I'm just curious as to why the band has not released a Blu Ray of the 07 reunion tour?!

Jeff

Edited by Great Sombreo
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I'm just curious as to why the band has not released a Blu Ray of the 07 reunion tour?! Jeff

If an attempt was made to properly record one or more of the shows it's possible it was an off-night for Eddie (and there were more than a few). The other thought that comes to mind is they may have felt releasing a live blu-ray/dvd would cut into ticket sales for the more recent tours.

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If an attempt was made to properly record one or more of the shows it's possible it was an off-night for Eddie (and there were more than a few).

Eddie's playing was much better this past tour than any of the other times I had seen him perform, so I get what you're saying Steve.

Sombrero, I completely agree with your statement about the energy! When I saw them in 07/08 the energy was much greater than this past time. Plus the set list was better too! When they performed songs off ...Truth, they seemed more energized - but overall there was not the same spark as when they came around with Dave/Wolfie the first time.

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Dave is the only one giving insight into the band at this point. I know it's a pipe dream to get back with the original 4, but glad to hear Dave is publicly pushing for it - however that might be a reason to push him back out again. What a saga they are.....

:peace:

I think I read where Sammy had suggested the same thing in consideration of his good friend Michael Anthony and the fans.

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The latest I've read (in addition to that interview Dave did with Rolling Stone) is this brief article from Billboard where Wolfgang says VH is at work on new material. There's not a lot of details beyond that. I think it's admirable that Dave is standing up for Michael Anthony but I don't believe it's realistic at this point to think that he'd ever return to the band. If he pushes it too hard it could lead to the demise of VH (again).

So If both Dave and Sammy are standing up for Michael, what does that tell you about Eddie?

I thought Dave and Sammy didn't like each other much?

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I don't think it's any secret that Edward isn't exactly a saint. It was always assumed that Dave was the prima donna and the one most difficult to work with but when news of Roth returning to the band initially surfaced back in 1996 Edward (along with Alex) revealed himself to be an absolute asshole in interviews with MTV. What struck me as odd in the new Rolling Stone interview with Dave is that he's apparently buddy-buddy with Alex, whereas before, Alex always strongly aligned himself with Edward. It may just be Roth flapping his trap, there's really no way of knowing for sure.

I'm not sure how deep that runs. I know they evidently got along with each other well enough to tour together back in 2002. In subsequent interviews Hagar complained about how Dave was pretty much off-limits during the tour. Again, is there any real animosity there? It's hard to say. Hagar wrote a tell all type book that was published last year called Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock. I've never read it but in the one excerpt I saw, he didn't hold back at all when it came to dishing on Edward. I'm not sure how Roth fared in the book.

Very interesting information, thanks. I've seen a bunch of the interviews on youtube and I come off thinking that Eddie is an asshole, while Dave is just wacky.

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