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Bring back Sammy!! (VH)
halv
Posts: 680
Went to see Van Halen last night in Vancouver. The 3 Van Halen's were incredible. Eddie is in top form, Alex was rock solid and Wolfgang was a solid replacement for Michael Anthony. The music sounded perfect and their backing vocals was impressive. And then there was David Lee Roth....ugh. I never thought I would say this, but Sammy Hagar would have been soooooo much better. DLR was borderline awful. Either forgetting lyrics or not bothering to use them. Annoying scat singing. Mostly completely out of tune. He outright ruined songs. The momentum build to the big chorus in Everybody Wants Some.....here we gooooo..."scooby do wah wah wah"...AWFUL! I felt bad for the Van Halens. They were so good. They need to call up Sammy, make amends, offer him a ton of cash to sing Roth era songs and then get back on the road.
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sammy rocks
"what a long, strange trip it's been"
He's using a headset mic? Does he wear a half-shirt and choreograph the whole show, too?
Nope, he's sticking to throwing around the mic stand and pulling some James Brown shaky ankle moves.
I really have to stress that Alex, Wolfgang and Eddie were amazing. Really tight and sounded great. If Dave had been any good it could have been a very cool, nostalgic party like show. Oh well. Good thing I only bought the $29 seats but snuck into the $170 section...ya!
It surprises you that one of the biggest bands ever has paying customers?
I can't wait for Iron Maiden in July!
Vancouver, BC - 2009
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Mountain View, CA - 2014
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Quebec City, QC - 2016
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Bruce Dickerson has one hell of a metal voice and can frnce too.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
pEACE
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
I don't think anyone would tell you that DLR had a great voice. He never did - Sammy was always better in that regard.
But what Diamond Dave lacks in talent, he makes up for in over-the-top entertainment value. The guy is, like, the William Shatner of the music industry. Over-the-top goofy as hell.
Speaking as only one fan of the DLR-era of Van Halen, I can tell you that I do not still watch the videos for Panama, Jump, and Hot for the Teacher because Dave has such a compelling voice. I watch them to listen to Eddie Van Halen shred...and I watch them to laugh at Diamond Dave's antics - pure and simple.
That was always the magic of DLR-era Van Halen - Eddie Van Halen's jaw-droppingly awesome talent combined with Diamond Dave's jaw-droppingly stupid over-the-top antics. A unique marriage of the Incredibly Awesome and the Incredibly Goofy. And it worked for them! They were the only band on the planet who could pull off this odd combination....and they did it really, really well. And in the 80's, were the biggest arena band going as a result...despite giving the impression (mostly thanks to Dave) that, in spite of Eddie's amazing talent, they never took themselves too seriously. This was their magic - it's what made them such a refreshing change of pace from every other band out there.
The OP must have never seen them back in the day if he went to this show expecting Dave to deliver superior vocals. That's not his forte - never was. Dave will never make any top 100 vocalists in rock list. Never.
You have to have a whole other mind-set for a DLR-era Van Halen show. Because while, even back in the day, Dave would never have made a top 100 vocalists in rock list, he would have easily made a top 10 entertainers in rock list. So the mindset you need to have is that you will get the mind-blowing music from Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang...and the get the laughs from DLR.
You really cannot approach DLR-era Van Halen with the same mind-set and idea of "good" that you approach most other bands. At least I don't think so.
Remains the worst concert I ever witnessed.. Because of DAVE.
VH fans wil appreciate this..
On "ain't talkin bout love" he wouldn't even sing "I've been to the edge.." part..
Band had to just keep playing while he giggled to himself in the microphone ..
My older brother got me into Hagar independent of the VH STINT.
He and his friends saw HAGAR back up BOSTON (in Boston!) and everyone agreed HAGAR blew them off the stage.
If you never heard Sammy solo, buy his first live CD "all night long" and play "bad motor scooter" "reckless" "young girl blues" and "turn up the music"..
You will understand why..
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
This is exactly what happened at the Vancouver show last week! A lot of Van Halen songs are kind of epic with a big sing-a-long chorus and Dave would just ruin it. You could feel the crowd just deflate. If I want to see a comedian or lounge act I'll go to a casino.
Sounds like Eddie may begin to recall why they got rid of him in the first place.....
Not making this a DLR vs. Sammy thing (Though I guess that's exactly what the thread is). Both eras have GREAT music. And DLR definitely helped build the brand. But, ultimately, it's about Eddie and his guitar, and while at times Sammy's writing didn't necessarily lend directly to album stuff for Eddie - he knew how to draw folks in and allow Eddie space to breath in a live setting which is really where he's at his best anyway.
Kind of funny that the profile works the opposite (Eddie wasn't happy where Sammy's albums were headed and thought Sammy thought it was about him when in fact Sammy was the best thing that ever happened to him). Eh, I guess it's the old story of not knowing what's good for ya.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZigvKtaC_3o
I would still go to the show if I could get cheap tickets..
Word.
I'm not sure what Ed didn't like about Sammy's writing. Ed was still the one writing the music, so the style of music he played would have a lot to do with the type of lyrics Hagar would write. Did he think that "Feelin'" or "Don't Tell Me What Love Can Do" should have been less serious? Then don't write serious-sounding music. Did he think "Amsterdam" was too goofy? If so, then why get back with Dave when his voice is so bad that he's really only capable of doing goofy (especially without Mike's backing vocals to pick him up)? I think Eddie and Alex just gradually became more and more insane as time went by. I read the part of Sammy's book where he describes how they got back together to record new songs for the "Best of Both Worlds" set. Yikes!
EV Solo: 7/11/11 11/12/12 11/13/12
cool brother!
:corn:
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
True. And you're probably more on target. It was more Sammy having enough than anything else and now they NEED someone that will put up with them, and Daves the best they can do.
In the end , I guess it's better the family stuck together than The Kinks where the brothers ended up hating each other.
- Al Swearengen
http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com
It has recipe for disaster written all over it, and some of these reviews only go to confirm that.
None of this has anything to do with the argument of which era is better (which is a silly and futile argument if you ask me. They were both great). It just goes to some fans desire to see this band as an entertaining going concern. This train will lose steam real fast if this becomes the prevailing wisdom of this tour. Nobody's paying $100 to seer Dave with a back up all time guitarist. At that point Eddie would just be better off going back to theaters and doing a co headlining tour with Jeff Beck or Joe Bonamassa.