Van
Halen |
| 06-26-04 |
| Albany,
NY |
Pepsi
Arena |
|
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Jump
Runaround
Humans Being
Up For Breakfast
Bass Solo
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Poundcake
It's About Time
Drum Solo
Top Of The World
Unchained
Why Can't This Be Love?
Eagles Fly
Deeper Kinda Love
The Seventh Seal
Best Of Both Worlds
Guitar Solo
Dreams
Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
Right Now
Encore:
You Really Got Me
Panama
When It's Love
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Three
out of six shows for me down so far, and while nothing can match
the excitement of opening night, I'll say this is the best Van
Halen have sounded so far this tour. They're getting into a
groove, and getting much more used to each other. As I write,
I'm probably going to end up reviewing the tour so far as opposed
to just the Albany show, since it's getting harder to separate
them.
Before the show even began, it was interesting to see Eddie
at the side of the stage talking to members of the crew. He
didn't even try to hide from sight and waved to the crowd cheering
for him. When the lights went down, he simply walked from that
position onto the stage. His hair was down, sadly he's not leaving
it that way.
"Jump" continues to be a surprisingly good opener.
Sure, it's a keyboard song-- but the crowd knows it, it keeps
the DLR fans happy and is high energy. "Runaround"
came next followed by "Humans Being." Humans is a
continued highlight. I'm not even sure the bulk of the crowd
even know it, but I could care less. It's good and heavy, and
I headbang like Beavis to it.
"Up For Breakfast"-- the lyrics may be dumb, but I
love the groove of this song and it manages to hold the crowd
even though they don't know it.
"Somebody Get Me A Doctor"-- love it. You know, it's
somehow interesting to see Sammy sing backup on it and acknowledge
that he even knows it I'm hearing they're doing "Runnin'
With The Devil" at some other stops and would love to hear
that. I see no reason why Mike can't get a whole repertoire
of the old songs to sing.
"Poundcake" got EVERYBODY back into the show, and
my thought at one point was "how can this not be anybody's
favorite band?"
"It's About Time" doesn't quite have the energy live
as "Breakfast". I think I like the studio version
better.
Al's solo-- I like that he's not doing any sound effects, pre-programmed
anything. This is a 50 plus year old just letting it rip.
"Top Of The World," "Unchained," and "Why
Can't This Be Love"-- I'm grouping these together because
this section sums up some of my feelings about the set list
itself. I AM disappointed that while they're doing 6 DLR songs
per show (more than they had before), they're still the SAME
songs. Nothing we haven't heard Sammy (or Mike) sing before.
And if this were the set list in 1997 (had they stayed together),
I would have been very disappointed thinking "I just saw
this."
But it's been NINE years since I've heard Sammy and VH do "Top
Of The World" together. So I try to focus on that. And
I try to focus on the fact that Sammy DOES seem to be singing
the DLR era with some enthusiasm.
WCTBL is interesting for me to note-- I've seen VH 23 times
now since 1986, and that's the ONLY song that's been in every
set list.
"Eagles Fly" and "Deeper Kinda Love"-- I'm
trying to support ya, Sam, I really am. While everyone in my
section sat or took a bathroom break, I was the only one standing.
But two acoustic solo songs is just too much. You're making
me long for "I Can't Drive 55"-- at least it has more
energy.
Here's something else I don't get about it. Sam's done "Eagles
Fly" every tour since 1988, and he always has to explain
what it's about, where he wrote it, ya da ya da ya da. We KNOW
it by now. So he intro's that, then goes into "Deeper Kinda
Love", a song I'd say 10% of the crowd knows with no explanation.
"Seventh Seal"-- nice! If I was told ahead of time,
they'd do only one song from Balance, I'd guess one of the singles,
not this one. Think about it-- it'd be like doing "Judgement
Day" or "Mine All Mine."
"Best Of Both Worlds"-- good and energetic.
Ed's solo-- best of the 3 I saw so far. He added Mean Street
back in, and Wolfie's coming out was a nice thing to see. The
cynic in me hopes this is a special feature of this tour and
we don't get too much Wolfie in the future, but it was nice
to see. Ed seemed to be PLAYING tonight, whereas honestly earlier
in the tour, the solo seemed to be more about sound effects.
"Dreams"-- sounded great-- Sammy didn't go up into
the rafters. Don't know if the arena was too small or what.
"Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love"-- I'll use this opportunity
to talk about the gold seaters or 5 star packages or whatever
they are. During the break in the middle, Sammy let them sing
a bit. When it came to "I've been to the edge..."
he put the mike in some dipstick's face who went right to "Hey
hey hey!" I liked that Sammy knows the DLR song well enough
to move to the next guy.
But here's something that's gotta be said. One of the guys I
went with is a casual fan who said afterward: "I paid to
see Sammy sing, not to sign autographs." And I gotta agree
the more I think about it. I know you paid 400 bucks for those
seats, but that's not my problem. Put your pens down and let
them do the show. Sammy's TOO accommodating in that regard.
In Albany especially, the autographs were way out of hand.
"Right Now"-- never fails to deliver chills. It may
be the highlight of the night. By the time they hit the final
notes, I can see the goosebumps on my arm. Always amazing.
"You Really Got Me," "Panama" and "When
It's Love"-- good choices to keep the energy up. By this
time, following "Right Now", I'd love whatever they
play.
Halfway there-- three more shows to go for me-- and I can't
wait! |
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