Van Halen – September 23rd 2015 – Gexa Energy Pavillion – Dallas, TX
To know me, is to know my love for Van Halen – it defines me. If you’ve ever met me, chances are I was wearing something VH-related and probably quoted David Lee Roth (like scripture) as I often do at some point in the conversation.
Needless to say, it was my personal equivalent of the Moon Landing when they actually reunited with Roth back in 2007 and though that proved to be a permanent thing in the years since, every gig seems closer to the end.
Call it trauma for going so many years without seeing Roth in the band, but some real life traumas have plagued this tour/band since it began.
I’m sure you’ve at least heard about the Jimmy Kimmel incident – what was supposed to be an “opening night” kinda party to start the tour (their first in over three years) in support of their first live record with Roth that was released over the Summer, turned into a potentially over-before-it-started fiasco that left Roth with two dozen stitches in his face over smacking himself with his own mic stand.
Contextually, it seemed the overwhelming momentum that carried that hugely successful tour back in 2007/2008 that led to their first studio record with Roth in 28 years, 2012’s excellent A Different Kind of Truth, was working double time this time against them. People were already all over Roth’s case for what they deemed lackluster vocals on the live LP, and then the Kimmel thing. It was as if they had already decided that Roth could no longer carry his weight before the tour even started.
That didn’t stop the tour from selling out mind you & it certainly did nothing to sway my anticipation to see my favorite band of all time, even if it could be for the last time.
I didn’t actually receive confirmation of credentials for the show until less than 24 hrs before doors opened – My plan was to hold out hope, and then just buy whatever was available as a last resort. Thankfully it didn’t come to that.
Though this was one of the final dates on the tour, I managed to not have the setlist spoiled for me – which is no easy feat this day & age. The only thing that annoys me more than this culture of poor cell phone ettiquette at concerts is these know-it-all-asshole types that look up & post the setlist like they are somehow in on some exclusive secret.
I was originally going to the show with author Greg Renoff, whom after 6 years of exhausting research released Van Halen Rising – a brilliant & comprehensive detailed look into their pre-fame days & by all accounts probably the most important book on the band ever released.
I interviewed Greg over the summer in advance of the book’s release for our TrickyKid Radio Podcast (you can listen/download the episode here) & we became fast friends & it seemed only fitting we’d see the tour together. He had to cancel a week prior (& I still didn’t have tickets) so when I got the last minute confirmation I called up my buddy Mike who he & I had some unfinished VH business dating back to 2007.
Polar opposites in our approach – I’m a get-there-mins-before-headliner-starts kinda guy & he’s of the let’s-hang-in-the-parking-lot-two-hours-before-doors open persuasion. Being the ticket holder we leaned more to my flavor but this time it almost cost me as though we left later, we still would have arrived more than 45 mins before they took stage as I was also scheduled to shoot the band – My first time getting to shoot my favorite band ever – I was gonna be a mere few feet from Dave & Ed + they were allowing 6 songs instead of the usual 3 & I wasn’t gonna blow it.
However, I hadn’t anticipated that tonight was the opening night of the State Fair (this venue sits ground zero in Fair Park) and now not only was I not gonna get to shoot, we may miss a portion of the show.
Missing ANY song was totally out of the question. Not to mention, the only portion of the show that had been spoiled me (potentially) was the opener Light up the Sky –
Some jerk off posted the setlist to my Facebook wall & before I could quickly turn my head I saw what I thought was L-I-G-H but I thought better of it as there was NO WAY that they were FINALLY playing my fave VH song ever & OPENING WITH IT!
Though parking came with the ticket, it was now at least a 30 min wait to enter the venue lot and they were scheduled to go on in 10 mins – this wasn’t happening, I had waited too long for this. Out of desperation we pulled into one of those enterprising (& wholly sketchy) lawns that face the venue that supplement/make up entirely the income of whose shifty homes they inhabit. I’ve done this many time before to harmless effect usually to the tune of $5.00 (or less).
You can imagine my laughable disgust when the young girl puts a little bass in her voice & says “That’ll be $20 bucks” –
Before I can tell her proudly “No FUCKING WAY” or even get out a seething “Yeah right”, Mike – my do-gooder buddy blurts out “Well he’s got $15 & I only have $2 for a total of $17 will you take that?” he pleaded. I couldn’t believe it – I was dumbfounded.
Already having my I.D. in hand ready to claim our tickets, she points to it, mistaking it for more money & say’s “What’s that?” in an attempt to shake us down for even more money. In ANY other situation I would have laughed in her face, told her no thanks and got back in the car and drove ANYWHERE else, but their was too much at stake and nothing I could do. Adding insult to injury, if I had just been ready to leave earlier we would have parked for free, saw opener Kenny Wayne Shepherd and stress free. Now we PAID QUADRUPLE, to park in someone’s scary yard, now not shooting & were potentially gonna miss that magical opening track.
Running across the street, still had to claim tickets at one end of the venue while entering at the opposite end – Mike went to our seats while I entered the production office hoping to still shoot. While waiting for a chaperone, I told myself hearing LUTS was more important & whatever came first: the chaperone or the lights going down – and when the the lights went down, I abandoned any hope of shooting , ran from the production office and made it to my seat as those first chords were being strummed.
Instantly all the stress & the 31 years I had been waiting to hear them play this since first receiving a copy of Van Halen II (on 8-track mind you) I was 10 years old again & Van Halen were still the greatest rock & roll band in the world.
Reports of Roth’s embarassing vocals by my estimate have been largely exaggerated (no one even in 1984 went to see VH to hear pitch perfect vocals) & he looked impossibly buff for a guy just shy of his 61st birthday.
My only complaint was though I’m one of the fans that look forward to hearing his banter & stories, even I found this round to be excessive & at times momentum killing.
That and the production was completely bare bones – They were still Van Halen & I was losing my voice by song 3 – especially over the bananas of a setlist – but it didn’t quite have that “mighty” vibe that goes hand in hand with the Mighty Van Halen.
Ed wearing jeans and a gray goatee and mostly playing a white-bodied version of the Frankenstrat with a studied absence of showboating.
Setlist –
Light Up the Sky
Runnin’ With the Devil
Romeo Delight
Everybody Wants Some!!
Drop Dead Legs
Feel Your Love Tonight
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
She’s the Woman
I’ll Wait
Little Guitars
Dance the Night Away
Beautiful Girls
Women in Love
Hot for Teacher
In a Simple Rhyme (Last time performed on tour)
Dirty Movies
Ice Cream Man (John Brim cover)
Unchained
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover)
Panama
Jump
Let’s hope we see it again (& even more new LPs with Roth) but the two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, the conclusion of the 40-date tour, feels like it might be the end of the road. Both Dave & Ed were both unusually reflective & their banter felt final, added with Ed’s son, bassist Wolfgang saying some very cryptic goodbyes via social media.
