Van Halen: What's old is new again

I remember seeing Van Halen at the Hollywood Scumatorium years ago . I'd play guitar for hours trying to emulate Ed..
I wonder how Ed's sobriety is holding up , and if we'll see any new music ...

Thought Eddie sounded great, but DLR seemed way out of sync most of the time. Was kind of disapointed.

They were Super Hot...better then we thought.. Eddie is a Guitar GOD...and nobody keeps time like Alex. Wolf was quiet but Killer...and Roth is ROTH..nobody Like him..GREAT SHOW.

I was up in the upper level and the sound was horrible. You could not make out the vocals as they competed with the other member's of the band's instruments. I was pretty disappointed in the concert because of the crappy sound.

Great show; would agree that the sounds of the music
over-powered/drowned out DLR's vocals at times but cannot help wondering if this was intentional. At any rate, the entertainment value of the show and an opportunity to revisit my teen years with these tunes was priceless.(as priceless as $170/ticket could be)

Glad i did not go, saw them in the early 80's in Hollywood and then again w/ Sammy. "Monsters of rock" in Miami good enough for me....I don't want to ruin the memory of those shows....

If you didn't go, be glad you saved your money. There were some highlights, but very few. DLR was over-the-top with the cheese factor. He laid it on thick. He had this stupid grin on his face and the whole show seemed so scripted and choreographed.
EVH's guitar solo was completely self-indulgent.
If you saw them in the 70's or 80's, rely on the memory of those shows instead of wasting your money on this overly loud nostalgia trip.

The sound was horrible - this was my favorite all time band and I couldnt make out which song was being played until halfway thru each song. I was dissapointed in the sound quality - but still glad I went. Eddie shreds as always and it was great to see them together again. My ears are still ringing as I type this.

Ok, first off, anybody who is complaining about DLR being "over the top".....let me ask you this:

Are you familar with David Lee Roth at all? He IS over the top, he is a hamosaurus in every sense of the word.

I thought the concert overall was very good. Great tempo, great energy, I think the sound problem is the arena, saw Buffett there once and couldn't hear him either

I have to agree with dupree (somewhat). I love VH, as that music was my soundtrack through middle and high school (graduated 1989), growing up in a lower-middle class neighborhood. However, I have to be honest - Eddie seemed to have much more fun on stage playing with Hagar than with DLR. The show last night was too scripted (they haven't deviated from the set list since the tour began); DLR couldn't sing (and looked strained trying to); and Wolfgang looked like the winner of HIgh School Musical 3 who gets to play with VH (though Eddie's public gestures of affection to him felt sincere - who wouldn't - he's rocking with his only son). It was way too loud, but that may have been intentional to drown out DLR. Further, there was no real break between songs and since DLR was more or less stop singing long before the song would end, we couldn't tell right away what song was being played.
But with all of that said, and even had I known that all in advance, I still would have gone, and would go again, if for no other reason but to see a guitar god play the songs of my youth that absolutely no one else can play like that.

Sound wasn't very good at venue. At times sounded garbled

Jim wrote:

Ok, first off, anybody who is complaining about DLR being "over the top".....let me ask you this:
Are you familar with David Lee Roth at all? He IS over the top, he is a hamosaurus in every sense of the word.
I thought the concert overall was very good. Great tempo, great energy, I think the sound problem is the arena, saw Buffett there once and couldn't hear him either

Hamosaurus LOL nice

The sound was terrible, but it was worth it
to hear Eddie play "Unchained" Roth was well Roth.

Ignignokt wrote:

I remember seeing Van Halen at the Hollywood Scumatorium years ago . I'd play guitar for hours trying to emulate Ed..
I wonder how Ed's sobriety is holding up , and if we'll see any new music ...

If it was for the 'Diver Down' album, I was there, too.

David Lee Roth is such a douche. What an ego maniac.

Up high the sound was bad, DLR was not loud enough, and had alot of feedback when walked the circle. He did not have the energy he did years ago. They did play every song you would wanted them to play, and I would not have missed it for the world.

I was a huge fan in the 80's but too young to go to see the 1984 tour. This tour was like a time warp for me. The sound quality was awful from my seat - but I loved it anyway. I really wanted a t-shirt but $55 is a little steep, don't ya think?????

Very sad that I feel my money was wasted as the show sounded horrible.

too loud, too distorted, too cool to see them again

They have not played live together in 20 plus years and it showed. I was thinking about going to the 2nd show but will now save the money.