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[whitjoss]

Here's a link to a review in the San Antonio Express with some good pictures. Eddie's left hand is bandaged up in one of the pictures. Anyone know what that's about?

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/happens/2008/01/van_halen_still_running_with_t.html

[King Edward]

Cool article and solid pics. Thanks for the link. Sounds like a great show. As for Edward's hand, didn't look too bad, have to wait and see if anything comes of it.

[UnMiked20]

Dude! I was there!!! A buddy of mine took some great pix too!

Ed is STILL the king!!! Bandaged hand and all!

Hope to see them on an annual basis!!

[radikal]

whitjoss wrote: Eddie's left hand is bandaged up in one of the pictures. Anyone know what that's about?

Thats probably when he knocked out his Tech guy at the Jersey show :yell:

[kevinzvanhalen]

He was wearing the bandage Jan22 it didnt seem to effect his playing.Did they change the setlist yet?

[Mink]

Thanks for the link, nice review and cool pictures. Looks like Wolfie could use some Oxy wash or something for his acne :) Oh to be sixteen again.

[guitard]

Here's a rather entertaining fan review from the DiamondDavidLeeRoth.com forums:

poster: CrackEd
Re: Official San Antonio, TX 01.24.08 Thread
« Reply #23 on: Today at 06:05:00 AM »

Howdy folks! I've enjoyed the mostly non-hero worshipping reports that I've read here from the first leg of the tour, so I signed up to share my thoughts on the San Antonio show from which I've just returned.

After the video of the Vegas solo from 12/30, I was ready to write Ed off (again). I was just gonna pass on the Texas shows, but I heard the Okie show was good, and when I woke up today I realized that fuck, Dave and Ed were gonna be just down the road from me tonight, and even if it sucked, I needed to be there to say a last goodbye to one of rock's truly legendary pairings. My various Halenhead friends are burned on Ed but I decided to give him one last shot. I rate him as second to Jimi only, so that sort of status deserves a break. What the fuck!
I looked around at ticket prices online and decided to test my luck at the venue.

I jumped into the car in Austin at 6:12 and was parking near the venue at 7:30, as Marley Jr (#37?) was going on. Walk a mile or so to the entrance, talk to a couple scalpers, turn down a 15th row Wolfie side floor for 120 (they wanted 150 to 250 online for this). Go to the other entrance, pass on an Ed-side 35th row floor for 70 (it was me noting the sides, the scalpers clearly didn't really understand how much better an Ed-side was (500 bucks to see Wolfie's fat little ass up close and personal? No thanks!), go back near will call, talk to a few scalpers, let them know I'm not really interested, I'm "going to Houston and Dallas" (we'll see about that, can't go Saturday as I've got Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings ducats), and tell them that "the reason you guys still have tickets is the end of the last tour sucked". They looked at me with interest and said, "Hey, we got 1300 and 1700 before we got here [ie on the net last week]." So clearly folks were paying stupid prices to have the chance of catching some Mexican Waiter lint from Dave.

We chat for a few minutes, and this one grizzeld old brother of a scalper who looks like he's sold 8,000 shows and couldn't care less if he ate ten tickets from this one sidles up to me and smiles. "I got this single here." Shows me a gorgeous floor right on the aisle, center section Ed side, four rows from the s of the Sammy salute, about 14th row from Ed, directly in front of his amps. Asks for an offer. I say I don't want to insult him, I'm just a guitarist, don't have lots of bucks, you know, just hoping to maybe see the show...cut to the fuckin' chase, after all the fake phone calls from his scalper buddies with the guy who's gonna give him x amount for this seat, blah blah, I get him to walk me to the door, the chick scans the ticket and I see it's real, and I give him 80 bucks for this 150 ticket. He smiles at me as I slide him the cash in a handshake in front of the guard and laughs. "You have a great show." He knows I've just got the deal of the year from him. Fair enough. He knew a real music fan when he saw one. Humor and friendliness pay many dividends!

I get in, down to the seat which is even better than hoped for (and cheaper than the worst seat in the house which was still on sale), amazingly quiet crowd considering Van Halen is about to play, but this is the ATT Center, and this is 2007, and the last album from these guys was 1984 and that's about where we're at now. Kiss my ass, any Rethuglicans out there. Your piece of shit world sucks. Rockphantom, your section was not unique. Down on the floor in front of the s there was a weasel named Reuben who made sure everybody knew he was The Cop. I relished getting in his way while he tried to bust photo-takers. I had the aisle seat and was dancing like a mofo (yeah that was me freaking out! You would have too if you'd had the same things in your brain...) while he stalked around trying to scare these poor sheeple who'd paid 300 bucks for their seat (everyone in my row!). He got pissed at me but I made a point of pointing out to him what a fuckin' dick he was being. Everyone just kowtows now. WTF?? Back in the day you paid five bucks a ticket and were allowed to party. Now you pay 300 and have to be a sheep? FUCK YOU!! I'll have as much fun as I want, you little fuck. He finally relented and let the chick next to me take some photos. You suck, Reuben! As does your female counterpart who played the same shit in sections F3 and F4. Everybody wants to be a fuckin' cop. Kiss my ass, you bitches. And I smoked a couple times right under your dumbass noses! That was my fine-ass smellin' shit! Hohoho. I'm Rick James, bitch!!

So I've pre-ingested the necessaries (I'm from the old school, it's clean and strong and pure and it was saved for just such a night) and the lights go down and off we go.

I've seen a few vids from the first leg, heard many tapes, and would say that this was, from a purely musical perspective, a show that started off strongly and faded into merely decent territory. The set-list was the same (yawwwwwn), but you know what? This never was a jam band. This was a do the drugs, fuck the chicks, go on to the next town band. So yeah, it's all kinda Hollywood now, but they grew up in Pasadena which is just suburban Hollyweird, so wtf anyhow.

Dave is in sick fuckin' shape, my abs have never and will never look that good, even when I'm mountain climbing. I salute the fucker. He is IN SHAPE! He is also an android programmed to smile like a fucking wind-up Pekinese dog while waving at the sky every two seconds, so you know, whatever. I miss the old wasted I can't remember the words Dave, as Ed had to pick up the slack. How times change! But for his age, Roth's really an impressive specimen. And I say that as a heterosexaul male whose gorgeous girlfriend is asleep on the other side of this wall (and whom I'm gonna go ahead and jump once I've noodled the rest of this out). The guy is buff. It's positively un rock-star-like. You can tell he doesn't party any more, despite his mention of Lynchburg early in the show. But that felt like a nod to Ed and the fact that how can you expect Van Halen with Dave to be dead-on every night? It's like Dave was saying, yeah, I know you're a drunk but let's rock it while we drink, ok Ed? I've got bills to pay and I know you're going to be toast in a couple weeks at this rate but we're making shitloads of cash here, just play the licks and grin the goofy grin. And yeah we made it as the Party Boys but we're pushing 60 here, beeyotch. But the really weirdest New Dave moment came during "I'll Yawn"; he was right in front of me on the s-ramp and looked at this chick in front of me and he said "Are you for real? It's so hard to tell" and he looked totally robotic when he said it and my brain just flashed: too many Vegas nights and plastic tits and ambulance rides, this guy has passed over into BladeRunnerville and now he's gonna become a dove and fly away and only Rutger Hauer's cold blond corpse will remain. But then again, I was kinda buzzed. (What kind of Richie Cunningham haircut is that, by the way? Diamond Dave? More like Zircon-Encrusted Dave).

And so we come to the hero of the tale, Eddie Van Halen. Those words spell "guitar God", let's face it. It's gotta be weird carrying that mantle all your life, even if you've set yourself up with it. Hell, especially if. Ed is kind of trapped in his guitar-hero world, knowing that all the players are drooling over his moves but so fucking tired of himself being no better now than he was thirty years ago. Sorry, but it's true. He worships Debussy and all, but those guys progressed. Ed has NOT. But that's okay! Maybe he hasn't because he wanted to live like a rock star. And Debussy never did lines off three strippers' cans while midgets came by with more mounds for the mounds as the hot tub bubbled merrily along. So yeah, artistic retardation has its plusses.

And fuck, if you're Eddie Van Fuckin' Halen and you can't have some Jack and do some lines of blow and maybe just a little crank in there before the show (is he smoking the ice too? His face seems to indicate that as a possibility. Hope not. That shit burns holes in your brain. He is looking pretty vacant, not quite Sid-like yet though), then what is this world coming to? So who can blame him? Yeah, the people who pay stupid amounts of cash every night to see him party...but he's a rock star, he's THE rock star, that's why they pay, so why not rock it out?

Tricky dilemmas for Ed. He seems to respond by getting more fucked up and playing louder. Fair enough. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. No, wait...

Anyhow, the first few tunes were messy but really pretty wailing, and it all felt a lot looser than some of the first leg shows I've heard. Frankly I was in kite-land, and am at present into my home-made stout, so forgive me missing some details.

It was the same set as ever. The Magic Bus bit was funky. Dave and Ed were in general pretty tight and it occurred to me that each thinks that the other is there to make him look good! They both think they're the Boss! Seems to work pretty good...

But here is the main point of this review and this tour: it is flat-out legenfuckindary that the greatest guitarist of his generation is now playing arenas with his 16-year old son! Yeah yeah, I know, Mike is way better as a bassist and singer and everything else, and his energy is key to the old real VH (it may live again, don't give up yet!), BUT, and this is the key "but" in the whole deal: Ed is doing this tour to play with his brother and his kid!! Period!!!! Get it??

I did, right at the start of Cradle, when Ed started walking toward Wolfgang while getting funky on the riff and he locked in with his son and had this look of pure joy DNA-looped musical helix ascending to the sky but in a wasted Old Ed way on his face (new fragrance? "Old Ed. It's manly and you'll forget where you are!") and I'll tell you what, that moment right there was worth a million whatevers because who the fuck else has ever had that joy? Hendrix? Page? Beck? Segovia? Reinhardt? Etc etc? None of 'em. It's all Ed, and kudos to him for it. At least he's still here to enjoy it. Imagine Jimi with his kid on bass! Even if Wolf isn't great, he is getting better, and Ed is in heaven out there at points with that kid. Who wouldn't be? The point is that this is HIS KID!! From Valerie! And if you grew up in the late 70s, you'd know just how classic it all is. Bring on the blow-dryers!

So yeah, there you go. Fuck all you Mike-lovers. You're missing the point. This is about the Van Halen family, and name, and ego. But hey, that's what made it the VH brand in the first place. Total attitude.

And that's what I liked about this show. It was messy. It had problems. Ed started strong but was clearly fucked up on something (maybe sobriety?). He looked about six or eight drinks and a couple trips to the powder room in, and as usual once the buzz wore off the issues showed up. I caught Wolfie giving Alex a "there goes our fucked-up friend again" look a few times, but then Ed grooves on up while playing yet another classic riff and smiles at Wolf as if to say, yeah, your old man's a wasted Crack Ed, but look at your amps. See that EVH logo on them and these guitars and the look on everyone's face when I fart? I am the MAN and don't you forget it! I'm Eddie Van James, bitch!! I invented rock star, and if I can't get fucked up while laughing at these idiots for paying five hundred or a thousand for a seat, then what's the point?

I came here to rock! I am your father, Luke! I met your mom when she was the hottest little slut on tv and I plugged her and you plopped out and she got fat and I got thin and now you're on tour making millions while your friends are still jerking off to Hannah Montana who is really just your Mom but for the new generation...get it? You've got it made, punk! And all this cash will be yours! So don't give me shit for partying you little fuck! I love you but lift some weights! And no you can't party like me! Look what it's done to me! It's vacant back here!

But it always was, really. I met Ed and had a chance to talk to him alone for a minute back in '94, and what I realized was that he's pure instinct, the guy is all about that balls-out rock and roll FEELING. He wouldn't have that if he was brilliant. All his smarts were submerged into his incredible animal ferocity on the guitar. When he fires that beast up (and it's drug-fueled, let's face it, that's what rock is, sex and drugs. "Actually, I could live without the rock and roll if I had the sex and the drugs..." But Ed was always beyond Tap, he was uber-Tap...still is!), he is a fuckin' joy to watch. When you're peaking your brains out a dozen rows in front of him (I was dead center in front of his stack...love that scalper!) and he's leaping about with that grin, and totally fucks something up (like Panama where he just refused to play the riff the first time out and Dave looked at him like, Huh?), and then he just fuckin' laughs because he's Eddie Van Halen bitch and yeah he's gonna lose it before the end of this tour, but fuck, it's the second night and you're all stuck with me now and you need the money and the stroking Dave, and Wolfie you're starting to get comfortable with all these chicks and all the Anthony-lovin'-homos giving you the stink-eye all night even if you still need to listen to Bootsy with JB over and over and over until you GET IT, and Alex you are the real hero here because you NEVER suck, but I'm Eddie Van Halen and even though I'm fucked up in front of 20,000 people yet again, check this out, and boom he peals off some delicious sleazy little riff that falls right into the chorus...when you're peaking your brains out with that going on in technicolor all around you while the sheeple try to capture it on their cell phones instead of fuckin' dancing and living it, well, that's when you realize that this is the end of an era in so many ways.

And you know, that's fine too.

Nice fuckin right-wing wet dream piece of shit world when you can't even light a joint up but everyone is laughing at Dave's story about smoking a joint as a kid. Hell, you only paid 300 bucks for this ticket! You want to have a good time TOO? This is the ATT Center, bitch. Pay up and do as you're told and join the herd moooooooving out to the parking lot where you were fleeced for an extra 15 in addition to the ticket. And buy the laughably expensive cheesy piece o' shit shirt to show your friends you were there, even if you were a do-as-you're-told pussyfart afraid to stand up to a fucking pissant security prick.

Just one guy's opinion. And oh yeah, Ed should seriously consider dumping his solo some nights. Yeah, I said it. He seemed bored at having the same predictable reactions to every old riff and tap. But it's a self-made prison, so that's a tricky one. I just think the show would be better if he didn't HAVE to do a solo. But he's Eddie Van etc. In any case it was the nadir of the evening's activities. He seemd so bored at moments. It was kinda sad. Wind him up and press play, someone! At least he's honest, I guess. It seemed to show that the artistic well is well-nigh dry. Please prove me wrong, Ed! New album, new riffs, new attitude! CrackEd is a compliment! Really! Holed up in the insane asylum on the hill with all the blow royalties can buy for decades...who can blame ya? It's an evil drug but it seems to have worked for you. Or you for it. Or something. At moments tonight I saw a look in Ed's eyes like a caged animal in the Twilight Zone..."a man, lost inside a world of chiming musical spheres he imagined as heaven and then was doomed to live in every day of his endless life....it's the EdZone..."

At the end of it all, he's been the soundtrack for some of my most wailing times, and Dave was always part of the vibe...he just makes Ed play better, fact. They were made for each other, they're cursed with it and you can tell they don't quite know how to make it work like it used to but the magic is still there because they love the music and when they lock in it's still one of the best feelings in rock music.

I'd go see them soon if you're thinking of it, though. Ed looks like he's waiting to implode. Hope not! We love you and your music, brother! But when your whole style and legend comes from total abandon, how do you turn the PartyValve off? (Hey kids, it's the EVH PartyValve amp! It goes to 11! And 12! And every other number until the variac just burns a hole in your floor and you wake up and Eddie is passed out in your kitchen sink with that grin on his face.) I'm glad I'm not Eddie Van Halen, just some sap who got a good seat cheap and had a juicy trip. I wouldn't want to have to deal with all that people staying up late writing shit about me because they're too fried to sleep thang. I'm just glad I don't have to get up in the morning!

Clarity has declared its surrender.

All told, it was a lot of fun for 80 bucks.

[liquid_steel_az]

WoW......now, that was a review. :yell: :yell: :D :sus:

[whitjoss]

Wow...I almost have tears in my eyes (I have a 15 yr. old son who is QUITE the trumpet player)...and the giant Gonzo tattoo on my back is tingling...as if Hunter S. himself had risen from the grave and written this...

Well worth the $80 indeed. I'm already chomping at the bits for tomorrow night here in Big-D-Land...and was thinking of writing a review...but I'll not follow you, my brother...me writing a review would be like Sabbath or Journey trying to follow the Mighty... :thumb:

[Mink]

Entertaining review, I liked his honesty.

[ekru]

forgive my unbound enthusiasm, but: i loved every bit of it, holy sh*t! nice reflections, quality stuff.

BIG UPS 'n' thanks for writing (CrackEd, wherever you are) & sharing (Guitard!).

[ks34vh]

Wow! That was indeed a review. thank you

[asdfanofpriest]

Thanks For Sharing The Review! :)