Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:53 pm

If it wasn't for David Lee Roth and Edward Van Halen, I may have never got into rock music. I've been listening Van Halen for 23 years... they were my very first rock concert... their music has been genetically engineered into my DNA. Dave or Sam, it doesn't matter... it's just all about Van Halen. I've seen them four times with Sammy, once with Gary Cherone, I've seen Sam solo and Dave solo, and even saw Edward in a small sweaty Chicago club. Van Halen is such an important force in my life.

So, when I got that text message... the text message that said "We r in"... I thought I was going to lose my mind. I was about to go see Van Halen do a full production of their show... with David Lee fucking Roth. At that point, I could've stormed into any convenience store in face paint and demanded a bottle of anything and a glazed donut, to go.

That text message came from my best friend of almost 10 years, the Almighty Yeagster. Being the super snazzy guy he is, snapping photos of Metallica around the world, he's got to know quite a few people through their involvement with Metallica. Butch, who is Metallica's lighting guy, designed the new Van Halen stage so, when the invitation went out, Jeff got in, with a little help from Mike Gillies who made sure Butch checked his e-mail. So, yeah... I'm the low man on the food chain, but the luckiest Van Halen fan in the world. Kudos to Jeff, kudos to Butch, and kudos to Mike... you guys are fucking amazing.

I met up with Jeff in the afternoon and caught up. The plan was to meet up with everyone and head over to Kirk's hotel. However, once Kirk's guest list exploded from 2 to 5, we decided to just go on our own. Personally, this night was all about Van Halen, not star hanging with Kirk Hammett and Scott "I Lack a Shred of Integrity" Ian. After getting lost looking for an In-N-Out Burger outside of Hawthorne, we headed down to the Forum and were greeted to a huge line. We thought it was going to be an intimate show with about a hundred people. Instead, it turned out to be a mini-arena show.

The crowd blew... from the moment we walked in the venue, it was just the LA poseurs who remind me why I hate LA so much. They could've resurrected Hendrix on stage and 3/4 of this crowd wouldn't have given a shit. Pathetic. I was going to let my surroundings ruin the night, though. Jeff and I scoped a nice spot out on Wolf's side right in front of the catwalk and wait.

9:15... a drum roll and a guitar squeal tear through the arena, the lights drop, the curtain drops... and there's Dave up atop the upper walkway waving a flag... Edward tore into "You Really Got Me" and I went nuclear. Being that I've seen Dave before, I was worried about a lackluster vocal, but once he opened his mouth, all my worries were shattered. He sounded fantastic. Immediately as they ended the opening track, Edward immediately tore into one of my all-time favorite songs, "I'm the One." I couldn't believe I was witnessing this song being performed to almost perfection. Anyone who doubts the background vocals of all those involved need to listen to the a-capella part and they needn't worry anymore.

Following Wolf's time in the spotlight with "Runnin' With the Devil," it was time for my other all-time favorite Van Halen song... "Romeo Delight." However, right before the song was to start, there was some friendly banter between Zakk Wylde and Ed. This resulted in a hysterical reaming from Dave where he asked Zakk "Are you in show business? Get off the stage." Funny shit, as you've all seen by the YouTube video. During the breakdown of "Romeo," Wolf pulled out a pretty sweet piece where he played the tapping intro on his bass... that kid smokes. I'm so pleasantly surprised. He was tight with Alex throughout the whole show and complements Eddie the whole time, filling in some pretty sweet notes while Ed solos and everything. While I'll be a Michael Anthony fan for life, I gotta hand it to the kid. He was awesome.

They ripped through classic after classic after classic... Dave never lost a smile, constantly grinning like the Joker, as Jeff playfully told me during the show. Edward... jesus Christ... the man was possessed. I saw VH on the 2004 tour... and he was a wreck. This was the absolute polar opposite. He was energetic as hell... and was sharp... and, fuck, he just shredded. "Atomic Punk," "Mean Street," "Hot for Teacher"... goddamn... the riffs and the solos were just awe-inspiring.

I was pretty surprised that Dave didn't showboat as much as I expected. They were pretty good going into the next song either immediately after the previous song ended, or very shortly thereafter. Dave had his moments. From the clichÈd, but extremely welcome and smile inducing "LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE HERE TONIGHT," to his stories about having house parties in 1972 where his buddy would bring over his ice cream truck to keep the beer cold. Dave was right at home on stage... the motherfucker is ripped as hell... and just looked and performed great. I was so happy that he pulled it off. The banter between Dave and Wolf during "Unchained" was priceless with Wolf doing the whole "C'mon Dave, gimme a break" part... and Dave ribbed the fellow a few times as well, such as during "Panama" when he shouted out "Nice try, Junior!" Everyone, for that matter, was pretty playful on stage... you can tell that Dave and Ed are enjoying being around each other right now... it really did show.

Everything wasn't perfect, though. Alex's 8-minute drum solo was about 7 minutes too long. "Little Dreamer," while it was performed well, was painfully out of key at times. Any thoughts that the band is using any backing track vocals are silenced by seeing something like that. Oh yeah... and I don't care how big of a hit it was... "Dance the Night Away" still sucks.

Edward's solo, which followed an awesome performance of "Panama," started off with the intro to "Women in Love," which blew me away. At first, I thought they were going to play the song, but he than started going to town. "Cathedral" was a little too long, but still very cool and "Eruption"... well, many of you have seen the video of it by now. Unbelievable.

For you guitar fans, Edward played his sunburst Wolfgang for a good chunk of the first half of the show without changing guitars. Frank came out for a little bit and he played a mini-Frank for "Little Guitars," as well.

The show wrapped with the inevitable performance of "Jump" and there I stood, in a pool of sweat from dancing, head-banging, and air-guitaring. I haven't moved that much at a show in a very long time. There's just something about Van Halen music that makes you want to move.

Jeff and I walked over to thank Butch again, said our hello's to Kirk and Gillies, and headed out to try and piece together what we just witnessed.

What did we witness? Pure rock-n-roll magic. Something that music has been severely lacking. The Mighty Van Halen is back... and I couldn't be any happier.

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