Reply To: 2015-07-07 Amphitheater Northwest, Portland, OR

jroundy: I couldn’t tell if it was Ed or Alex…. I think maybe Alex may have made the mistake.He is only human or is he?

It was Ed. Al was ready. I backed it up and listened to it. Al was counting him in and Ed missed his cue, hesitated, and then they all caught up. And yes, they are human and I’m not really knocking anyone. Second night of the tour and stage jitters will do that. I screw up songs I’ve been playing for 20+ years all the time. Just thought it was kinda funny. I remember back in ’07/’08, Al had to do a different cowbell count on the intro to Dance the Night Away, because Ed couldn’t follow the count the way it was recorded. Al has been playing it the original way since 2012. That is one of the coolest things I always loved about classic Van Halen. They had a lot of those songs that had interesting time changes, intros and segues. The cowbell hits during the intro to DDL and the tempo are unique, the intro to House of Pain is another one that sticks out as well as how the drums come in on Blood and Fire. These can be difficult to play live and considering they NEVER played DDL live before and the song is over 30 years old, I would be surprised if Ed DIDN’T make a mistake now and then. That’s the beauty of “falling down the stairs and landing on your feet”.