Van Halen at LA Staples Center

[Endrik]

It was fucking awsome!!!!

Dave is the best frontman ever.
Eddie is the greatest guitar player alive.

It was pretty loud, the sound was great but sometimes kinda confusing... but hey my ears are fucked up.

The setlist was great.... no Hagar songs. :ROTF:

Eddie was all over the stage... great performance.
Dave of course is the performer... not as good as in the early days but still beats the hell out of the others.... and he is funny as hell too.

Ed's back vocals were great.
Wolfie is a great back singer, and he has very good chops on the bass, he did all kinds of harmonics and tapping things wich Ed does on the guitar.
The bass sound was pretty overdriven.
But he plays more like a guitar player wich I'm really not into much, I perfer Mike's deep pocket grooves.

The biggest minus is that Wolfie isn't a great performer, he is bigger than the rest of the bandmates combined and looks kinda stiff.
He also doesn't have the trademark VH smile.
He should move around more... might help him losing a couple of bounds.

Dave's vocals were great, he did all the high screams and whatnot.

Eddie was on, he has never been the cleanest player but at least he made me have goosepumps and not bored me with stupid fretboard karate. And fuck all those who bash Eddie being sloppy... they NEVER even played on the stage.
His tone was ridiculously good.
He switched between neck and bridge pickup a lot and seemed to use tone controll too.
He mainly played with his new Fender Wolfgangs. Also he played with two newer Charvels and Frankenstrat.
What suprised me was that he had the best chunk I've ever heard... durning palm muted riffing on the low E string. I've heard a lot of really heavy bands bands with chugga chugga riffs and hyper gain amps.... Ed's chunk was WAY WAY ballsier.

Alex looked old, wich he is... but he played great. His solos allways get better with time. The average music fan may not understand... but all the jazz rudiments and even afro-cuban syncopated rhythms with the backing track he did is way more advanced than the random skin bashing durning the old days.

Something was missing but still overall it was one of the best shows I've ever seen

[Posepatrol]

I was there too.

The obvious stuff was the Piped In Vocals ( Back Ups) The Tracked Rty. Gtr and VERY LOUD MXR Flanger Hooks.(Cradle)

Wolfie plays along to a pre-recorded Bass ( Look at him during Running with the Devil) and they use is as a Guide Track or Click in away.

Not every song has tracked Bass and vocals, which is easy to tell after halfway through the set

I was close enough and blessed with good eye site at my age to look at the Screen on the Soundboard ( Digidesign "VENUE" AKA Live PROTOOLS)

Had tickets to all 4 shows, sold the other 3 pairs the next day.

But felt I got My Monies worth.

[skorb]

I was there too.

The obvious stuff was the Piped In Vocals ( Back Ups) The Tracked Rty. Gtr and VERY LOUD MXR Flanger Hooks.(Cradle)

Wolfie plays along to a pre-recorded Bass ( Look at him during Running with the Devil) and they use is as a Guide Track or Click in away.

wow, from the live clips I had a sense the backing vocs were track-assisted (sorry, they were just too good to be all real), but Wolfgang really plays along to a bass track?
:ROTF:
talk about major lameass shit.

how did you verify this anyway?

[Endrik]

wow, from the live clips I had a sense the backing vocs were track-assisted (sorry, they were just too good to be all real), but Wolfgang really plays along to a bass track?
:ROTF:
talk about major lameass shit.

how did you verify this anyway?

lameass shit is your stupid comments in every VH thread.

don't tell me this is the first time you hear about tracked bass parts??

he doesn't play along with them, the track is to deliver the low end while he plays upper register/doing harmonics/whatever...

this is what even the most advanced bass players in the world do...
Victor Wooten does this in the studio EVERY time.

Durning live concerts some use loopers instead of pre-recorded tracks... like Michael Mangring

[Shawn Lutz]

wow guess it is the Millie-Van-Hillie tour

[SEEGERMANY]

wow guess it is the Millie-Van-Hillie tour

Post Of The Month

[khabibissell]

This is what I keep saying guys... It is cool as hell to hear those old tunes with Roth in front, but they're cheating way too much, and Eddie's playing is nowhere near where it should be.

If Anthony was in the band, the backing vocals would be real, and there sure as hell wouldn't be any pre-recorded bass tracks going on.

EVH needs to get his head out of his ass, sober up and start playing like he's capable of too.

I love old VH but between all the studio tricks going on and EVH's subpar playing I had to walk out of the show I was at. People are giving these guys way too much slack.

[yard dawg]

lameass shit is your stupid comments in every VH thread.

don't tell me this is the first time you hear about tracked bass parts??

he doesn't play along with them, the track is to deliver the low end while he plays upper register/doing harmonics/whatever...

this is what even the most advanced bass players in the world do...
Victor Wooten does this in the studio EVERY time.

Durning live concerts some use loopers instead of pre-recorded tracks... like Michael Mangring

Yea in the studio they do it but MIKEY never did it live. He could actually play bass.


I have mixed for a band once that needed a click track in there in ears monitors. Its sad when a drummer cant hold time unless he has a click and musicians cant follow him without it either. Oh well.

[SEEGERMANY]

I don't mean to ruffle feathers, but I think people get so excited, so hyped up about a show, they let the excitement of the moment cloud their good judgment as to what really is good music.

I go see "live" music on average of two days a week, every week. If these cats can play their asses off without loops, gimmickry, etc, etc, surely a superstar band can do the same. If I want to hear recordings, I'll stay at home. Having said that, I hope everyone has a grand time at the shows. Let the excitement and the unlimited poon make you grin from ear to ear!

[mattsmusiccenter]

The show I saw kicked ass. I think some of us can be over critical considering we may have never stepped foot on a stage bigger than our local bar. I've done some huge gigs but I personally have no idea what it's like doing a tour the size of the one VH is on. I'm sure there are all kinds of challenges involved when it comes to doing an "amazing" show every single night. If a little technology is used to make the band sound over the top good, show after show, which clearly people are expecting... then so be it.

[khabibissell]

The show I saw kicked ass. I think some of us can be over critical considering we may have never stepped foot on a stage bigger than our local bar. I've done some huge gigs but I personally have no idea what it's like doing a tour the size of the one VH is on. I'm sure there are all kinds of challenges involved when it comes to doing an "amazing" show every single night. If a little technology is used to make the band sound over the top good, show after show, which clearly people are expecting... then so be it.

True, but these guys (minus Wolfie of course) have been doing this for what... almost 30 yrs. You would think they'd have it down by now...

Besides, they didn't use any of these studio gimmicks in past tours.

That stuff aside, EVH is in no shape to be touring. He needs to put down the bottle and start woodshedding.

[pro-fusion]

Interesting, I just met a bassist last night who also believes that there was a lot of "piped-in" bass. He saw the show at the Verizon Center in D.C. and said that during some of the video closeups of Wolfie, his hands didn't match the bass parts.

Why, Eddie, why?

[skorb]

lameass shit is your stupid comments in every VH thread.

don't tell me this is the first time you hear about tracked bass parts??

he doesn't play along with them, the track is to deliver the low end while he plays upper register/doing harmonics/whatever...

whatever, fanboi.

just for the record, I made a comment about the band's cheating, not a comment about you. in fact, the comment had nothing at all to do with you. funny that you chose to take it so personally.

I like VH as much as the next guy, but piping in backing tracks is lame and everyone else here seems to be able to grasp that, but for you.

[Shawn Lutz]

I don't mean to ruffle feathers, but I think people get so excited, so hyped up about a show, they let the excitement of the moment cloud their good judgment as to what really is good music.

You know what that may be the case. People can be so caught up in the moment finally seeing DLR an EVH, hearing tunes from there youth when they had hair and 20 lbs lighter that their judjment of quality totally go out the window :ROTF:

[Endrik]

I like VH as much as the next guy

then why you are bashing them in every friggin thread, I don't get it, what's all the bitterness, it's like Eddie fucked your girlfriend or something


I don't support pre-recorded tracks... but it's easily understandable that even with the help of modern technology their chops are in shape and they can sing (unless they have a bad day)... I would know... because I have actually seen them
Two French guys I know years ago were also at the show... both have been jazz session pros in Europe (keyboards and drums) for a couple of decades, they have more credibility than most people when it comes to music... they didn't complain one bit, they thought the show was killer. I guess some people just enjoy music and some people expect everyone to be fucking robots.



ok, Foreigner is an amateurish band and Jeff Pilson can't play for shit... even though when I saw 'em it was one of the most perfect shows I've ever seen, the level of musicianship was out of this world.... but when Jeff Played an arpeggiated bass line, the bass root note was coming from a track... so they fucking suck :ROTF: