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[guitard]

Date: June 14, 2004
City: Buffalo, NY
Venue: HSBC Arena
Setlist:

1. Jump
2. Runaround
3. Humans Being
4. Up For Breakfast
5. Bass Solo (Michael)
6. Somebody Get Me A Doctor
7. Poundcake
8. It's About Time
9. Drum Solo (Alex)
10. Top Of The World
11. Unchained
12. Why Can't This Be Love
13. Eagles Fly
14. Deeper Kind Of Love
15. Learning To See
16. Best Of Both Worlds
17. Guitar Solo (Eddie)
18. Dreams
19. Ain't Talking 'Bout Love
20. Right Now
21. You Really Got Me
22. Panama
23. When It's Love

Length: N/A
Format: DVD
Menu's (Authored): N/A
VIDEO Quality/Generation: N/A
For multiple angle shows, shot where?: N/A
Audio Quality/Generation: N/A
Comments: N/A

[Vince G.]

Reviews from the Buffalo gig at vhlinks.com:

"All I can say is FUCK the attendance number. Yes there were some empty seats at the HSBC Arena tonight but the people that were there were on fire and the place was jumping.

Heading out to the show I took everyone's reviews from Greensboro and Hershey into consideration and I brought along some ear plugs. You know...those foam thingys. After Van Halen took the stage the sound was so loud it was hard to decipher some of the bottom end sound. So I tried popping the earplugs in and whammo!!!! Perfect sound! These arenas were never built for concerts of this volume and the earplugs really calmed the sound down a lot! Even with the plugs it was FUCKING LOUD!!!!! Overall the sound was good where I was sitting. (don't ask where....can't remember... ) I was fine until Duke10 decided a shot of Southern Comfort would be a good idea at the Pearl St. Grill before we left for the show.....

Set list was the same as the previous nights. You know...before the Buffalo show I was looking at the set list along with everyone else and I was wondering why they had chosen certain songs and why they excluded others. Let me tell you....when they played them live and back to back they flowed amazingly and the vibe kept growing. I have to back up everyone else at Hershey and Greensboro when they said things really picked up at Best of Both Worlds. When Eddie hit the first notes of that tune the roof blew off the joint. It felt absolutely amazing to hear that song. It felt good to be a Van Halen fan!!!

I am not going to rehash the whole night.....(getting tired... ) but my 2 favorite moments were moments that made the band feel normal. I don't know about you guys but many of these shows feel like they are rehearsed to death and every error is criticized and analyzed. There were a few mistakes and the band embraced them as if they were truly human. Moment #1. During Somebody Get Me A Doctor Ed's guitar came unplugged and the song went on for about 15 or 20 seconds without a guitar. A guitar tech ran out and plugged Ed back in and he played on with that grin on his face. People in the pit can probably add more to that since it happened right in front of them.

#2 During You Really Got Me Mikey was horsing around with the crowd and when the back up vocals in the chorus came around he was no where near a mike stand. He looked left and he looked right and realized there was no short way back to his post so he just ran around the ring and joined in when he got there. Sammy laughed pretty hard at him.

All I can say is.....it felt good. Real good! This is what we live for. Van Halen on stage in any form is better than any other live act out there. What impressed me the most is that the arena was half empty and they played to the people that were there. They could care less that there was empty seats in the 300 level. They took care of the people that were there. A class act all the way.

To the people that previously reviewed Hershey and Greensboro that stated the band was having fun....bang on the nose. I have never seen them have this much fun on stage. It was infectious!!! I cannot wait for July 3rd in Toronto.

Before I left for the show my wife gave me a bit of a hard time. She was smirking at me and I asked her what was up. All she said was "I didn't know I was marrried to an 18 year old!" Her reference was to me being as excited as I was back in the mid to late 80's whenever Van Halen was within drivining distance. I took it as a complement. She also made fun of the Mickey Mouse shirt I was wearing but I fixed her by buying an expensive tour shirt!

Thanks to Tora Tora, 1979 and Duke10 for a great time at the Pearl St. Grill before the show. The bar was giving away Cabo Wabo beach balls, wrist bands and tatoos to anyone who bought a drink with Cabo Wabo Tequila. As well, cheers to NoAverageJoe who stopped by to say hi. We must have smelled pretty bad because he never came back! See you in Toronto!

A great night! Don't let anyone tell you any different. Van Halen is back and they are absolutely kicking ass...(and yes...they did get the video to Right Now correct...It did say Van Halen is kicking ass in Buffalo..)

Cheers everyone!!!"

And....

"Alright, guys! tburgsinner, a new member and hopefully poster sold me the best ticket of my life and I thank him a lot! 8th row, direct center!!! Amazing!!!! Anyway, I'll start off with the Pearl Street Grill. Me and Eric, tburgsinner, ate there with a fanatic who is planning on going to like all the east coast shows. I told him to stop by here. And I did see JetGuy and others, but dinner took a long time to be served and I didn't want to ditch the guys I was sitting with. Don't worry, everyone, I'll see most of you at Hard Rock in Toronto!!!! On to the show!!!! MY FIRST VAN HALEN SHOW!!!!! Let me just say I do not remember smiling that much EVER. From the sound of Eddie's guitar at the beginning until...well, even now...I SMILE(D)!!!! But so did Eddie!!!! All night!!!! I've never seen the guy so happy and I've watched a lot of perfromances. "Live Without a Net"...nope...WAY HAPPIER!!!! The guy looked great too...as did the rest of the band. On to the show: Almost everything seemed right all night. The band is getting tighter and Sammy is still singing amazingly. The thing is, I've never gotten the welcome feeling I got from Van Halen at this show. It was like they were my best friends up there. A funny incident occurred when I was singing word-for-word "Up For Breakfast" and Sammy was looking at me the whole time and actually looking pissed off!!! ...Don't worry, guys, he laughed as he walked away...I think he just wanted to prove to me that he can sing it better...lol. The best songs of the show had to be "Up For Breakfast," "Top of the World," "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" and "Panama," but all sounded great. Speaking of sound, I found no problem area from where I was. It seemed to be mixed perfectly. I never heard a show that close so clearly. Sammy put a House of Guitars shirt on his head and that place is from my area, so I got a kick out of it. Also, Eddie made it a point to shout-out to former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly quite a few times. I think he is real good friends with him, right? Eddie lit up a little, but not too much. Again, I have NEVER seen him jump around and act as goofy and happy as he did tonight. The only downside of the show was that Eddie was still pretty sloppy, unfortunately. Certain songs he has to the T like "Somebody Get Me A Doctor," but he needs to work on his picking and fingerwork for solos. Also, he hit a few wrong chords here and there, but that's cool. His guitar solo was also a real disappointment. The first part of it was just a bunch of noise and he attempted the "Little Guitars" intro but screwed it up...giving a funny face when he did. He can still tap super fast, though, and the end was a treat...even "Cathedral" was good. I'm just hoping he gets everything together playing-wise for the Toronto show. He also is not using his equipment wisely. He left reverb and all sorts of effects on during some parts were they definitely weren't needed. He didn't even play the "Panama" solo because he was trying to fix the sound. He also likes to insert random squeals to cover up mess-ups. Oh well. He only had a few weeks to prepare for this tour, so I totally forgive him, and like I said last night, at least he is out there and giving us the best show he can!!! And it was the best show I've been to!!!! They all seemed so close, Eddie slapped hands with nearly everyone in the rings, as did the rest of the guys, and Alex is still the man. Anyway, I'll be glad to answer any questions about the show. I highly recommend it!!!!!"

And, the setlist:

Jump
Runaround
Up For Breakfast
Bass Solo
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Poundcake
Its About Time
Drum Solo
Top Of The World
Unchained
Why Can't This Be Love
Where Eagles Fly
Deeper Kind Of Love
Learning To See
Best Of Both Worlds
Eddie Solo
Dreams
Ain't Talkin' Bout' Love
Right Now

Encore:

You Really Got Me
Panama
When It's Love

[guitar guru]

I guess I'll start it off. Drove from Syracuse to Buffalo with a quick stop at the house of guitars in rochester. We had 14th row tickets on Eddie's side of the stage, so we had a really good view.
The opening band was decent, but were a little too spazzy like that friend who tries too hard to get you to like them.
The VH Merch table had plenty of Overpriced VH stuff ($50 tshirt?). Anyways Let's get to the show. In a word, AMAZING!! They opened with JUMP which was a little odd to start with.
But they were all very energized and jumping around like teenagers. Ed was in awesome shape. He came out for the first 2 -3 songs with his hair down and long. Then he put it up in the Samurai shape.
Sam's voice was on . Alex was on the money and Mikey nailed notes that many girls can't hit. By the time they did Best of Both Worlds the crowd was completely with them. Sammy anounced "now this is a fucking rock concert!"
Which after hearing from a friend who was at the previous night show, said the crowd was dead, led me to believe BUFFALO was ROCKING tonight! And it was LOUD!! (the crowd and the band) The bass solo made my heart palpatate a new beat! Eddie said "he felt like he was playing for friends".
The only downside, if you could say there was one (because I had Chills from the performances including an AWESOME UNCHAINED and PANAMA and EXCELLENT RIGHT NOW Light show.) would have been the song order. It seemed as if the band would get you into it and then lose momentum by throwing Ed's solo right after "Best of Both World's" which they should have ended the show with, instead of "When Its Love". Sammy ran along the ceiling gurders and climbed up on this huge planet back drop with video screen in the center. (also 1 on each side of stage) Alex's solo proves his talent is growing over the years. Ed's solo was decent with some noodling. Sammy had a nice different solo (started off the same) with him going into a rock jam with cool note vibrato soloing. Also the new song learning to see kicked ass!! All in all, the BOYS are BACK!!
And once they get the bugs (set order) worked out, you can be sure that this will be the tour to remember for years to come. They were alive and energized and happy to be playing together. A lot of very in the moment pat on the backs, dancing and smiling, all around. JUST GO SEE IT, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!!! :thumb:

[Scott Roberts]

Updated set list. So far, all three shows have identical set lists, with the exception of Buffalo's exclusion of Humans Being. This may be another tour of little surprises. :roll:

[T-Burg Sinner]

Humans Being was played right after Runaround.
It was nice to see the band so happy, lots of smiles and joking around. It was worth the 3 hour trip. Even though the sound was not very good, they played sloppy (except for Alex), and Ed's guitar solo was very sloppy, it was great time. After 6 years they may need a few weeks to tighten up. If you get the chance to do the pit, do it. The band seemed to pay more attention to the fans in there then in the crowd (not that there was a big crowd, their loss). What I thought was interesting was the energy level of the band and crowd when they did old school VH. Overall those of you to see future shows are going to really enjoy it, I still can't get over how they were so happy on stage and that more than makes up for the sloppy play.

[Scott Roberts]

Quote: Originally posted by T-Burg Sinner:
Humans Being was played right after Runaround. Thanks you teh info, I've updated the above set list to include it. I had gotten the Humans Being-less set lists from two different sources, but I have to admit they probably were less than reliable. :D