Monday, December 3, 2007

Beavs Won Civil War, Diamond Dave & VH Rocked the Rose Garden

Civil War Update: So, the Beavers won the Civil War... in DOUBLE OVERTIME! I thought we had it locked up at the end of the 1st quarter, but then the game got interesting. We got shafted with the Emerald Bowl, but who's complaining?


I also had the surprise opportunity to check out a reunited Van Halen after the game. Great show. I was going to write up a review, but my buddy Clark wrote sent me his review of the VH show @ the Staples Center in LA. He got it all right - so why reinvent the wheel? Here's Clark's review, with my hearty endorsement:

Here's what didn't happen at the Van Halen show:

* The buttcheeks of David Lee Roth never saw the vari-light of day, though he was kickin the leather pants full-on
* The backing vocals, aka The Secret Sauce, DIDN'T BLOW without Michael Anthony's high harmonies
* Replacement teenage bass player Wolfgang Van Halen thankfully didn't have his shirt off/open unlike the two nearly-triple-his-age frontmen (who pulled it off)
Diamond Dave neither attempted nor pulled off any high "splits" jumps off the drum riser
* The "cashmere black bear shawl" did not come out of DLR's wardrobe closet, tho he was pumpin some kinda matador thing and still fully Vegas of course
* No "circus like twirly streamer circle making thing" was weilded on stage (though there was no shortage of karate/circus/generally swashbuckling poses from Diamond Dave)
* Roth didn't showcase a hair weave or similar sad scary attempt at keeping his lion's mane
* There was no 10minute bass solo/Jack Daniels advertisment (and unsurprisingly, zero mentions of tequilla)
* Between song psychobabble rarely stretched beyond 60 seconds
* The set list didn't provide us with the numbing familiarity required to time regular beer/bathroom breaks (Halen without beer? heh no) - Which meant i was in pain for the first 50minutes of the set, as a barrage of classic and unexpected early VH ("Romeo Delight", "So This Is Love"?!!) kept me and my full bladder rooted at my seat, shocked and, um, singing along

What did occur:

* Roth remembered the lyrics on at least 3/4 of the songs and generally belted it out 1978-81 stylee instead of his bloated 1982-2002 "sloppy party hey hey guy" way (see the 1983 US Festival video to witness one of the most inconsistent performances of all time)
* Eddie's pudgy kid played bass like a motherfucker throughout, changing and improving arrangements while never detracting from them
* Eddie and Wolfie stood toe to toe constantly, trading riffs with shit-eating grins on their faces like they'd been sitting around the house doing just that for the last 10 years (hmm...)
* Roth and Eddie each looked totally fit, happy to be playing together, and ... maybe not completely crazy? (woulda been hard to fake it given that the video screen spanned almost the width of the arena)
* Alex, actually, didn't look quite so hearty and hale comparatively, but still sounded excellent as always
* The set was just song after classic song, not just the hits, a wet dream for every true VH fan (apparently Wolfie wrote the set list)
* When Diamond Dave got to the perv-talk part of "Everybody Wants Some", he ad-libbed instead "Take off the dress... and leave the shoes" ... and it totally worked
* Dan and I decided there and then we need to scalp tickets to the December return show

Who'da thunk it?

Conclusion: Hail Wolfgang!

Setlist (unofficial):

01. You Really Got Me
02. I'm the One
03. Runnin' With the Devil
04. Romeo Delight
05. Somebody Get Me a Doctor
06. Beautiful Girls
07. Dance the Night Away
08. Atomic Punk
09. Everybody Wants Some
10. So This Is Love?
11. Mean Street
12. Pretty Woman
13. Drum Solo
14. Unchained
15. I'll Wait
16. And the Cradle Will Rock
17. Hot for Teacher
18. Little Dreamer
19. Little Guitars
20. Jamie's Cryin'
21. Ice Cream Man
22. Panama
23. Guitar Solo
24. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

ENCORE:
25. 1984
26. Jump

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Rockin' show - They impressed me, especially Dave - Except for him skipping verses of songs - that sucked!

I don't think he forgot the words, I think he was just winded ;)