Van Halen concert review 3/1 @ MSG NYC

[LastInLine]

If anyones interested or thinking about catching them on tour, here's my .02 worth;

Let me start off by saying I've never been the worlds biggest VH fan. I have all the DLR lineup CD's (none with Hagar) including the new one, but I would consider myself a casual fan at best. I've never seen them live before and the chance came up so I went for it.

Arrived in the city early and killed some time in a nearby bar. Went to our seats too soon and had to sit through most of Kool and the Gang's set. No offense to any K & TG fans, but not my thing. Stage was cleared and VH finally came on somewhere around 9:00 P.M. or so. Our seats were 2nd level, section 221 so Eddie was right in front of me about 100 feet away. It was a side view, but I could see the whole stage clearly. The set list was as follows:


Unchained
Runnin' With The Devil
She's The Woman
The Full Bug
Tatto
Everybody Wants Some
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
China Town
Hear ABout It Later
Oh, Pretty Woman
Alex Van Halen Drum Solo
You Really Got Me
The Trouble With Never
Dance the Night Away
I'll Wait
Hot For Teacher
Women In Love
Outta Love Again
Beautiful Girls
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solo
Ain't Talkin' Bout Love
Jump


I have to say the show was outstanding - much better than I ever expected. DLR sounded great and even broke out some of those spinning roundhouse kicks from back in the day. The band played flawlessly and sounded great. Eddie was absoluty spot on. You could tell that they were having a hell of a good time together and it showed in their performance. One minor glitch when DLR forgot the lyrics to "China Town" mid-song, but he played it off and recovered nicely. Nice little drum solo from Alex (not too long), and the same for Eddies solo spot which actually came pretty late in the show.
No BS between songs. For the most part, it was one right after the other. Was a little bummed they didn't play "Mean Street". There was no encore either. After "jump", a group bow at the front of the stage, the house lights came on and they were gone!
Eddie used his black Peavey Wolfgang for all but 2 songs if I remember correctly. He broke out what looked to be a stock Charvel EVH Art Series (black and white) for "Tattoo" and then a black and yellow for "China Town". I could clearly see the "EVH Art Series" logo on the headstock.

All in all a great show. If anyone is on the fence, rest assured the band is in great shape and performing at a high level. If you have a chance to catch them on this tour I would say go for it.

[dvscool]

COOL man....I hope they are as good when they come to Toronto later this month. I'm looking forward to it !!

[MetalMedal II]

I gotta chime in too. I was at this show too, and decided to go last minute. I scored a kickass seat the day of the show thru CL. The guy selling the seat had a single given to him by his GF, but he was going w friends who sat elsewhere. It was super close at the left side of stage looking down on Eddie’s side. I’m a fan of DLR-era VH. I got to my seat about 3 minutes before they started. I didn’t realize how psyched I was to be there until the open D riff of Unchained started and I leaped up in excitement.

The band played great, DLR sounded good, but man, the 2 things that stood out were EVH’s playing and he and his son’s backing vocals, that really was icing on the cake. I saw this version of VH 5 yrs or so ago when they 1st got back together (my 1st time hearing them with Roth), and they sounded alright, but Eddie had a bit of a fall from the wagon which affected his playing. But now, he played flawlessly and effortlessly, and with that trademark grin on his face the whole time. Yeah, it would’ve been cool if M Anthony was on bass, but what can ya do.

I was hoping to hear Girl Gone Bad which they played 2 days prior but it didn’t happen, but oh well. Overall, a great show and I’m glad I went to hear and see one of the guitar greats. BTW, Eddie had a sizable pedalboard and I was surprised how often he stepped on the wah pedal. I never knew he used it so much. Now, I stop asking why he has his own signature wah!

[Larz]

Glad they sounded good.....maybe 1-2 too many new songs for my ultimate set list, but looks solid.