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[Vince G.]

Van Halen FUCKING ROCKED SAN DIEGO TONIGHT, PEOPLE!!!!!

Plain and simple!

Now....for anyone who attended the show on 8.7 in Las Vegas, and thought that show kicked ass, let me tell you, the guys were dragging their asses that night compared to tonight's performance! 2 different bands, compared to Vegas. As diiferent as night and day. They were on fucking FIRE! OMG! Ed was everywhere! I met and spoke with a shitload of people who were in Vegas for both of the shows and they all agreed that tonight's performance smoked both of them. I thought it was 1998 all over again, seriously. The crowd was very into this show. Even during Hagar's solo set, I didn't see too many people leaving en masse as they did in Vegas.

Again, Al was the backbone of the band. His drumming was totally on, not a beat was missed. Every time the camera was on him, he had a mile-wide grin on face. I don't think I've ever seen him smile this much on any tour I've attended. He was having fun, in the moment, and it showed. He and Sam were having a ball playing off each other. Never thought I'd see them acting this way with each other. IMO, it's Al who is carrying this band. And he's doing a great job.

Sam's vocals were a bit rough tonight, here and there, but he still kicked ass and showed everyone he still has the vocal chops to carry this band thru until they decide to finally call it quits. One thing everyone will like to hear is that the interaction between Sam and Ed just had to be seen to be believed. It was 1986 again. They were slappin' hands, huggin' on each other, sharing the same mic....just really cool how they were getting on with each other.He managed to squeeze in 3 songs during his set; "Rainy Day Women #5 & #12", "Eagles Fly", and "Hallelujah". I'm glad to see he replaced "Deeper Kind Of Love" with "Hallelujah". Noticeably absent, again, was "Learning To See". Ed burned on "The Seventh Seal", though.

Mike virtually did the same exact lead-in to "SGMAD" with his bass solo as he did in Vegas. It's as if he has this thing totally choreographed now. Really let me down. It was as if I were back at the Mandalay Bay almost 2 weeks ago. "SGMAD" kicked the crowd's ass, as did "Unchained". I thought the venue's awning was going to collapse at one point from all the screaming when "Unchained" was played.

Ed....holy shit. "Taxi accident"??? If the man is on painkillers, it didn't show. If he was in pain, he hid it really fucking good. I'm telling you, it was 1998 all over again. Not as much noodling before each song, and his playing was on point. He improvised, but this time the improvisation sounded much better than in the past, and from what everyone has mentioned from other shows. He looked alive, vibrant, happy, enjoying himself...I saw NO signs of inebreation. No stumbling, or anything else other people have reported from the shows they've attended. His speech is slurred a bit, yes, but I'm guessing it's due to his tongue surgery and I was still able to understand him completely. His solo was much shorter tonight than it was in Vegas. No "Women In Love", either. Bummer. And, no Wolfie. Ed had enough energy in him tonight to power the next 10 Space Shuttles.

The one sign I saw that the Ed of old we knew was back on track happened at the end of "Runaround". He jumped up in the air, spun himself around, landed firmly on his feet, and had a look on his face that said "Dolemite, Muthafucker!!!" The crowd really got off on that. And, prior to "ATBL", Ed noodled the intro chords from, get ready..."One I Want".

If this is a taste of what's to come in L.A., the Staples Center has no clue of what's about to hit them Thursday and Friday. "It's 5150 time!" is putting it mildly. I don't know what bug crawled up their asses tonight, but it lit our boys into a frenzy that didn't stop for 2 hours and 10 minutes. 2 shows in a row where I was not let down. They're on a roll. Maybe finally hitting their home soil is what did it, I don't know. But, I'm glad to see they *are* back. The only thing I saw that actually garnered a "Boo" from everyone was when, during "Right Now", they showed the clip of President Bush with the "Right Now, Nothing Is More Expensive Than Regret" caption. This is a military town, and I'm willing to bet at least 70% of the crowd tonight was military. This treatment of Dubya here wasn't appreciated, and the crowd let them know. Sammy gave the mic to some fool skank during "Panama", who proceeded to scram into it about how much she loved "Sammeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!". She then passed it off to some other drunk dipshit who screamed something unintelligible into it. Hope Sam learned his lesson tonight to stop doing pulling that shit

If tonight was any indication for what's to come, Thursday night at Staples is going to be INFUCKINGSANE. If anyone else disputes what I've said about tonight, they were at a different show as far as I'm concerned. Either that, or they were drunk beyond all comprehension.

As for Shine Down, I have to give them an "A" for effort. Real solid effort. They are a good young band, just not my cup of tea. If VH's idea was to try and pull in the younger crowd by hiring an up and coming band like Shine Down, they should've gone with someone like Saliva instead. Even my son said, "Dad...these guys really need some improvement."

See you guys on Thursday night!

[Metal Marc]

"Dolemite, Muthafucker!!!"

Ha HAAAAAA! :thumb:

Great review, man. Very cool that Eddie was dickin' around with "One I Want". Love that song!

[Anonymous]

Wow Vince!!!!! Great review! Glad to hear you had such a blast! I'm also glad to hear that the chemistry between the boys was a-plus. That's great news with all the speculation of late. Bumps in the road are common in all relationsips, but hopefully things have worked out and the band will remain united and strong for the rest of this tour and into the future. I was just watching LWAN the other day, and the energy from that show was unbelievable. To think that they recaptured that energy last night, almost 20 years later is unreal!!!! Thanks for the great news Vince!

[oryo]

Thanks for the review Vince...I saw them Monday night and for the people seeing them @ Staples Center have something to look forward to...They did kick ass!!!

[RockinwithVH]

I was there too!!!! Im still on cloud 9! :thumb:

[coolbeans9]

I love reading reviews like this....i can feel the energy :thumb: