Van Halen fans rejoice! Andrew Bennett is here to answer all your questions on his recently released Eruption In The Canyon coffee table book about his insane year-long adventure with Eddie Van Halen at 5150 Studios from 2004-2007 during the time of great change of Wolfgang joining the band, the return of David Lee Roth & so much more!
Order the book here! – https://www.eruptioninthecanyon.com/product-page/eruption-in-the-canyon-coffee-table-photo-book
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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.
Episode 1 takes us to Tulsa, OK to sit down with author Greg Renoff to discuss his book the upcoming Van Halen Rising about the mysterious, almost previously entirely undocumented pre 1978 era of the mighty Van Halen.
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Van Halen
A Different Kind of Truth
Interscope Records 2012
Release Date – Feb 3rd, 2012
It would be virtually impossible for me to catch you up on everything that has gone down in the Van Halen camp in the 28 years since they last released an LP with David Lee Roth as the vocalist, in the space provided here, so I will touch upon a few key milestones for the desired effect of what this new record brings to the table.
After Roth leaving the band in 1984 and being replaced by one of the world’s biggest turn-offs Sammy Hagar, the acrimony only seemed to increase with each passing year of non-stop shit-talking from both camps. That’s why it was truly a hell-has-frozen-over moment when out of seemingly nowhere that in one fell swoop, Hagar was out, and Roth was back in, at least for two songs in 1996 on their first greatest hits package.
We all know how that ended, but something magical happened with those two songs: Other than a little rust in DLR’s voice, they sounded just like they had in 1984, and those songs could have easily have been on the follow-up to 1984 if Roth had stayed, not to mention but these two songs serve as the last recordings of the original lineup
Though Michael Anthony is sorely missed (he was famously replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s 16 year old son Wolfgang in 2007) Wolfgang has really risen to the challenge and is not out of place here. (His last name after all is Van Halen).
In spite of the short-comings David Lee Roth’s voice now has due to even more years of rust, there STILL isn’t anyone else I wanna see front this band, and that’s not just a nostalgic trip, there is just something really special about these guys and even in the face of all of the adversity they still managed to make a killer new LP.
Here is probably what you know so far:
If you had any interest at all you listened intensely with equal skepticism/hopefulness when the first single Tattoo was released, only to be even more disappointed than you had feared.
The accompanying video didn’t do much to help this cause.
Here is probably what you don’t know so far if you are reading this:
That’s really only one of the album’s very few flaws and what lies beneath is a killer tour de force by the Van Halen brothers, and you’re talking to someone that quotes Diamond Dave like scripture, so it’s not easy for me to be critical of him, and for the most part, I don’t have to. We are talking about a man that at 57 is still so loud that he makes Kanye West look like he’s ready for the priesthood.
I thought this record deserved a song-by-song breakdown so here we go:
Tattoo –
The first single and the album’s lead-off track – In what’s been an otherwise successfully creative and unique marketing plan of setting this LP up, especially with expectations in the stratosphere, I don’t know how they missed the mark so far with this one. This is easily the weakest song on the album, and I may never voluntarily listen to it again. Having said that, I still love this song more than anything from OU812.
The song’s structure is based largely on a song entitled Down in Flames which was written and played by Van Halen on their 1978 world tour.
When the band decided to cover Clint Ballard Jr.’s song You’re No Good for their second album, Van Halen II, they incorporated the intro from Down in Flames as the intro to their arrangement.
A version of the song was worked on during the aborted 2001 reunion with Roth
She’s the Woman –
Van Halen historians will remember this track as it pre-dates even the first LP and appeared on the original Gene Simmons produced demo tape. Critics of this record, (including Sammy Hagar) have claimed that nothing on this record is new, as a sign that the baffling dysfunction of old is still in place, and that these are just left-over scraps assembled from years of old tapes. I’m not sure this is a bad thing.
You and Your Blues –
A pretty average track compared to what’s to come, but it still has all the elements that you want and expect from them – Great backup harmonies, a solid riff that sounds like it could have come from the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge era. Dave sings as high as he can get on this LP on this track, as you will see that a lot of these tracks were written for the key he can now sing in, which makes Dave seem contained at times.
China Town
The first holy-shit moment of the record – Starts off with the EVH you have been missing all these years, in a dizzying flash or relevancy, you have already forgotten about Tattoo as it takes off in a Hot For Teacher meets Loss of Control charge. Though that momentum is largely squandered on a pretty embarrassing chorus, it will still surprise you with its heaviness.
Blood and Fire
Incredibly catchy tune, makes me feel good and swell with cheer despite an ill-arranged chorus by comparison. – and Ed’s solo on this will instantly silence anyone that might have thought his demons had done him in once and for all. This is the brownest he has sounded since Fair Warning. The song dates back to 1984. It was an instrumental known as Ripley, which was featured in the film The Wild Life.
Bullethead
Ok, the party is starting and this song is really fun and Ed is so in the pocket here. One observation that needs to be made is that besides the taming that comes with age, is that the biggest difference it seems as we know now, is that before, Van Halen were in David Lee Roth’s band, now it’s clear, and I’m sure conditions to this union that DLR is now in Van Halen’s band – but that doesn’t stop him from having his first of many ease the seat back moments we have been dying for.
As Is
Three words – Good fucking lord – This should have been the album’s opener no question – The strongest song on the LP, and coming out guns-a-blazing like this would have stomped out any doubt instantly. It is everything you want a DLR-led Van Halen to have and a riff so spectacular that it single-handedly re-crowns Eddie Van Halen as the greatest to ever to do it, just in case you needed a reminder. No one in the 14 years since we have heard anything from EVH has come close to matching this, nor if they practiced everyday in that time would they still have the ability.
Honeybabysweetiedoll
We are still rocking, and hey why bring back Dave if we are not gonna let him do his thing right? And with a title like that, you wouldn’t expect anything less and he totally delivers. You will smile the entire time.
The Trouble With Never
And the hits just keep on coming, another rawking tune, showing Ed and Alex in top form. The whole band sounds great here, but its one of the songs I mentioned that the chorus suffers from having to write in a lower key for Dave’s voice. That and with some pretty embarrassing lyrics still don’t take away from the groove and the drive.
Outta Space
An almost tie with As Is for my favorite track on the record. It’s got this great vibe to it that gives it an I’m the One or Atomic Punk feel to it – How many songs on Balance can you make that comparison to? – The riff is just bananas, and Ed’s solo is so stupefying and awesome that I actually laughed out loud when I first heard it.
Stay Frosty
Hey, Dave’s back so it gives the vehicle to do something in the vein of Ice Cream Man or Could This Be Magic? In that way that showcases that thing that only Diamond Dave can and still do. A perfect coda as it’s a term used among musicians that means to keep the rust off, stay cool and ready. Now, as much as it would have been a sin not to do something like this after all these years, I can’t completely forgive the lack of self-awareness that DLR shows when he shouts Uh-huh-awn-Uh-huh-awn – and embarrassing amount of times in succession in a really irritating off-key syncopation. Awesome warts and all.
Big River
We have definitely peaked at this point, and you will find yourself listening to As Is and Outta Space repeatedly before you even get to this track. Just a good, straight-forward rock song, that also sounds like it pre-dates the first LP.
Beats Workin’
This song just works and the perfect way to end the LP – This song almost made me emotional when I first heard it, as its a perfect marriage of finally hearing Dave’s voice and swagger with Ed’s guitar. It has elements of the Gene Simmons’ produced demo track Put Out the Lights.
If you have made it this far, you are probably a huge nerd and that’s good, because chances are you will get my final analogy. If you were a fan of the first three Stars Wars films and cannot separate the inspiration and era behind their productions with the prequels that were released 16 years later, than your just setting yourself up for disappointment, and thus missing out on enjoying three new films that are different but maintain a standard of magic that could only come from the originators.
Same thing applies here – yes Michael Anthony is gone, and so is David Lee’s ability to scream and do the splits from the drum riser – but the magic remains and has even evolved as Eddie literally breaths fire throughout this entire LP. Hell has frozen over, the one thing I’ve always wanted was to see Dave and Ed finally reconcile and give us one more summer. This delivers that and it just feels like a REAL Van Halen album, but as important it just feels like a new chapter; like the sky is the limit and I couldn’t be happier.
Van Halen – June 20th – American Airlines Arena – Dallas, TX
Now its time for the real thing etc. Though I waited my whole life for them to re-form with David Lee Roth that now has been over five years and I couldn’t wait to hear the new songs live. That’s what is such a triumph about the new record is most of the time when a band has been around for this long and haven’t put out any new material for that period of time, people are hoping to have to stomach as little of the new stuff as possible. That’s how I usually feel too, but they could have started with the new record in its entirelity and I would have been fine.
One thing that hasn’t changed was sudden controversy a few days before the show – back in 2008 literally the day before the show (and my birthday) the band postponed the show for several months due to Eddie going back into rehab. This time much has been made about the sudden decision to postpone more than 30 dates on the tour, including (of course) rumblings of animosity. But the quartet that features three late-fiftysomethings merely said its schedule was underthought and therefore overbooked.
I get to the venue and I didn’t have a ticket and no one I knew was going. Weird. But I was determined – I spot a guy that was just looking to dump his ticket – I just wanted in the buidling for the least amount possible and he let his ticket go for only $20 before I had a chance to jump in. I eventually purchase one for $40 that is right by the stage, but at the highest level of the building. Who cares? I’m in and I’m ready.
I go to my seat, with the full intention of only staying there long enough to scope out a better seat during Van Halen’s set.
The opening act was Kool & The Gang, which may sound like an odd choice and everyone seemed to make a big puzzled deal about it, but if you know anything about VH you know that David Lee Roth picks the openers and this is the kind of stuff he’s into. Why does no one seem to remember that Ky-Mani Marley opened the tour in 2007?
If you were one of the ones that thought Kool & the Gang were an odd choice, things made more sense while watching the veteran soul band crank out a tightly choreographed string of hits. Why not kick off an evening dedicated to throwing down with party music of a different stripe?
The most glaring difference between this gig and the first reunion shows in 2007 was the return of Roth as showman centerpiece. A half-decade ago, he was tentative about deploying the old shtick, opting to focus on his vocals rather than his stage persona and ceding the spotlight to reinvigorated guitar legend Eddie Van Halen. But that was then, this is now — and Vintage Concert Roth is back.No, there wasn’t any Jack Daniel’s swilling, midair leg splits or (sadly) those trademark wailing vocal fills. And Roth’s onstage gymnastics mostly have been replaced by soft shoe (he used a roughly 6-by-8-foot hunk of buffed wood for spins, twirls and slides, though there were several impressive high leg kicks). But what the crowd got instead was good ol’ Chatty Dave. He told stories, made jokes, tossed in comments — and generally seemed to enjoy himself.
