Van Halen – Cincinnati Concert Review
Van Halen’s reunion tour came to Cincinnati Tuesday night. This show has been long awaited by myself and many of the fans in the area, especially since this rescheduled show was originally supposed to take place on March 5th. This show was postponed so Eddie Van Halen could take care of an undisclosed medical condition. ( Turf Toe?, Male Pattern Baldness?, Erectile disfunction? the world may never know.)
I never had the chance to see David Lee Roth with Van Halen, back in the early 80’s and I have always regretted it. I wouldn’t dare miss this reunion show, especially with how volatile the bands’ relationship has been over the years.
The questions I had going into this show were the following:
Will Michael Anthony be missed? Can David Lee Roth still sing?
Can Eddie Van Halen still get it done live? Is Van Halen worth the over inflated ticket price?
I have heard and read a lot of good and bad things about this tour, from the cities where it took place prior to Tuesday Night’s Show.
I opted for the cheaper seats for this show, and by cheap, I mean the $49.50 ticket before Ticketmaster added their extortion rates to the ticket price. With the huge video screen behind the stage, there truly wasn’t a bad seat to be had for this show. U.S. Bank Arena was at near capacity. If this wasn’t a sell out, it was damn close.
The Stage set up for Van Halen was quite cool. The stage was set up in a Giant S configuration. The bottom part of the S reached out into the stands, and circled the people in the pit close to the main stage. The lighting, and monsterous video screen were pretty cool, in fact the video screen greatly enhanced my view from my nosebleed seats.
So as far the Answers to my questions…….
Michael Anthony was definitely missed. At times I thought they may have used his recorded back up vocals. Michael always was one to run around the stage and get the crowd going. Wolfgang Van Halen is not. The kid can certainly play bass, and his Frankenstein paint scheme was pretty cool. The bad thing is, the kid doesn’t have any stage presence. None, zero, zilch. This will come in due time, but it isn’t there in 2008.
David Lee Roth was the surprise of the night for me. Diamond Dave sounds great. He can’t hit all of those
high notes he used to, but his vocal performance was spot on.
Eddie Van Halen was pretty impressive and boring all at the same time. While his fretwork was second to none, he didn’t move from his position on stage. I don’t know if his legs were chained down to a certain area, but Eddie was center stage for 99% of the show. He moved very little, and certainly did not make use of the cool ramps they had on stage. His playing and solos were awesome, especially when he played Eruption, but his lack of energy was extremely disappointing.
Aside from David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen had the most energy. His drumming was excellent all night, and his drum solo was very cool.
As a whole, Van Halen sounded awesome all night, they just didn’t have any energy on stage. Maybe I have been spoiled by seeing Airbourne’s high energy live show recently. Van Halen had about a tenth of the energy in their show that Airbourne had.
The energy from the crowd at U.S. Bank Arena was quite a different story. Tons of people were singing along and dancing. As a whole most people seemed to leave happy, and quite a few were hooting and hollering as they exited the arena.
So the Bottomline…..was Van Halen worth the ticket price. In my estimation, yes they were. I wouldn’t have paid the mega bucks required to sit on the floor ($150.00), but I was glad that I went. David Lee Roth called the band three quarters original, one quarter inevitable.
Maybe it was inevitable that Van Halen’s live performance would not quite live up to my expectations. The band is certainly past their prime. Van Halen is still one of the biggest hard rock bands to ever come from the United States. Past their prime or not, I am glad I got to see them with Roth as the singer for the first time. Even though they were not at their best, they still sounded great. The live music is what matters the most!
Danger Danger - Revolve
Lynch Mob - Smoke and Mirrors
Outloud! -S/T
Stryper - Murder By Pride
Am glad that most folks are enjoying this reunion.
But we will never go to see VH at those prices…period.
We should of went to see them “back in the day”……sigh
& DE Barnes….stop spamming our favorite Rock site!
There’s a messageboard for posting stuff like what you have listed above….go there please!
[...] * Read Hard Rock Hideout’s review of the same show. [...]
How amazing was the Van Halen concert last night? « The Writer’s Journey said this on April 23, 2008 at 6:48 pm |
I was there too…in the cheap seats (of course). Section 214, on Eddie’s side of the stage. Couldn’t see the jumbotron, but it’s ok because I was still close enough to see most of the action. Great show. I got chills when the lights went dark and had to fight back tears when the started “You Really Got Me.” Amazing.
Hi please go listen/view to my new song entitled “Kim Kardashian” on Kim’s official website. Just click my name to view.
i am close with some “tour crew” from the tour, guys that have been around them for years. i think everyone should know that eddie has been completely sober the entire tour..his body is just not handling being clean very well and thats what the “medical stuff “is all about. the reason he is not moving very much is because of his hearing.. that is the best spot for him to hear well. these problems will heal.. but they will take time
I was at one of the early shows in Chicago. I have been a Van Halen fan for a long time – except for the Van Hagar years. And I was pretty stoaked about the chance to finally see them Live with DLR. I guess the early shows before Eddies “illness” were a bit better as he was jumping and running around the stage almost a much a DLR was. Unfortunately for me I saw them a The Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL which is not the best place to see any concert, let alone a Van Halen concert, as the acoustics in this “Arena” are far from optimal. DLR did forget the words to some of the songs during the performance, which I found amusing. Wolfgang I believe took about 2 steps away from the mic stand during the entire performance, so yes, Michael was sorely missed. But all in all I am glad I got to see them play live, I just wish I had seen them about 20 years ago.
Don,
I am not sure if you were at the same show I was at. The band did sound great, but Energy? There wasn’t much of it. Aside from Roth, the band was fairly boring to watch.
Glad you had a good time though. I was glad that I went too.
Looks like you and Allyson from Bring Back Glam attended the same show.
I’ll be very honest, I have always wanted to see Van Halen with Diamond Dave but I’m still not going. The band is coming to Providence May 25 (a rescheduled date) and I just pulled up a floor seat on Ticketmaster for $120 with all the fees. At that price, I won’t go.
Maybe I’ll change my mind the week of the show and grab a cheap seat but I’m not really up for it. I’d rather spend the money on the Maiden tour, Priest tour, Cruefest, & the Rockstar Mayhem tour.
Steve
Heavy Metal Addiction
http://hardrockheavymetal.wordpress.com/
Great show. I was impressed by the energy of the 50+ year old performers. Certainly worht the ticket price. Eddie was “right on target.” Alex blew me away with his drum solo as well. One of hte best concerts I have been to in my 40+ years. Especially when you have seen other “reunion tours” with old bags. EVH…keep up the good work
It’s nice to see a balanced review of this. I think most people are so blind with happiness about the tour that they love it or so disgusted by all these reunions that they hate it. Admittedly, I’m in that latter camp and would have to think about even if tickets were free, but it’s good to see something that isn’t colored by either love or hate of the VH reunion.