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Last night... Worcester Centrum... VAN HALEN! I'm a long time fan and only saw them once before on the Monsters of Rock tour from the nosebleed seats. Thanks to my girlfriend Kim, I was 9th row this time!
The sound, lighting and stage show were great. I'm not sure what Eddie was using for amps, they weren't visible but I'm assuming they're 5150's. He definitely captured the old "brown sound" and his amps sounded AWESOME!
Sammy, Alex and Michael were excellent. Eddie looked, moved and played like he was drunk though, and the first thing he did when he got onstage was to light a cigarette. He pulled off all the tough stuff and it was great seeing him do it, but I have to think... if he would stop drinking he'd be absolutely amazing. I know alcoholism is a disease and from where I stood it looked like he's got it pretty bad. Kinda makes me sad because Eddie is one of the reasons I started playing guitar and the guy has so much to live for. The crowd was chanting "Eddie, Eddie" the entire night! Hopefully he'll get it together and get back to the Eddie Van Halen that guitarists all over the world worship. Still, the guy is amazing to watch and he was ear to ear smiles the whole night!
I've heard reports that he was playing his old Kramer 5150 guitar for a couple songs on this tour. Although he did play a red and white striped, single humbucker, Floyded guitar for one song... it was no Kramer. It looked brand new, had a strat headstock and didn't have any manufacturer logos anywhere on it. Obviously, he isn't keeping this guitar much of a secret if he's playing it in front of 15,000 people every night.
He played a sunburst Wolfgang for the entire rest of the night, which sounded great. Although I thought he used it too much, he does some pretty amazing stuff with his Sustainiac! A definite highlight of the show was when his son Wolfgang came out and played guitar with his Dad during Eddie's solo.
If you guys have a chance to see VH on this tour, jump at it. We had a blast!
Matt [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
The sound, lighting and stage show were great. I'm not sure what Eddie was using for amps, they weren't visible but I'm assuming they're 5150's. He definitely captured the old "brown sound" and his amps sounded AWESOME!
Sammy, Alex and Michael were excellent. Eddie looked, moved and played like he was drunk though, and the first thing he did when he got onstage was to light a cigarette. He pulled off all the tough stuff and it was great seeing him do it, but I have to think... if he would stop drinking he'd be absolutely amazing. I know alcoholism is a disease and from where I stood it looked like he's got it pretty bad. Kinda makes me sad because Eddie is one of the reasons I started playing guitar and the guy has so much to live for. The crowd was chanting "Eddie, Eddie" the entire night! Hopefully he'll get it together and get back to the Eddie Van Halen that guitarists all over the world worship. Still, the guy is amazing to watch and he was ear to ear smiles the whole night!
I've heard reports that he was playing his old Kramer 5150 guitar for a couple songs on this tour. Although he did play a red and white striped, single humbucker, Floyded guitar for one song... it was no Kramer. It looked brand new, had a strat headstock and didn't have any manufacturer logos anywhere on it. Obviously, he isn't keeping this guitar much of a secret if he's playing it in front of 15,000 people every night.
He played a sunburst Wolfgang for the entire rest of the night, which sounded great. Although I thought he used it too much, he does some pretty amazing stuff with his Sustainiac! A definite highlight of the show was when his son Wolfgang came out and played guitar with his Dad during Eddie's solo.
If you guys have a chance to see VH on this tour, jump at it. We had a blast!
Matt [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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