Van Halen 1982-09-07 Phoenix, AZ

Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Phoenix during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously.

For the most part, this is a very strong show for the band, with lots of great live versions of songs. The sound mix has some pretty unique aspects here, such as the effects on Dave’s vocals during Hang ‘Em High. Eddie’s backing vocals are also more prominent than usual throughout the show. Often times you’ll hear this cool stereo separation with Mike’s backing vocals on left and Eddie’s backing vocals on right. There’s also a decent amount of audible audience noise captured in mix. It really seems that Roy felt like experimenting with the sound on this night in Phoenix. For some reason he also recorded this show with noise reduction, something he never really did before or afterwards.

As this bit shows up at random points on random nights, it’s interesting to note that Dave throws out his “I’m gonna f your girlfriend” bit during his acoustic solo prior Ice Cream Man, this time purportedly about someone “throwing bottles” on stage.

As usual, Roy paused the tape during break where Dave would give an extended talk to the crowd prior to Jamie’s Cryin’. The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out near the end of the first part of Everybody Wants Some, while the second side starts near end of Dave’s storytime interlude, so the majority of that segment is missing. There’s a short unusual cut near end of Ice Cream Man, when the band stops playing where Dave usually does his drawn out “g-g-g-guaranteed” thing, but the recording starts again pretty quickly before the song ends. There is one more tape pause during encore break before Bottoms Up. The tape runs out before the ending of Bottoms Up, so does not capture the second encore with You Really Got Me and Happy Trails.

Track Listing:

01 Intro [0:00]
02 Romeo Delight [0:53]
03 Unchained [4:27]
04 Drum Solo [8:09]
05 The Full Bug [11:13]
06 Runnin’ With The Devil [14:59]
07 Jamie’s Cryin’ [18:37]
08 Little Guitars [22:12]
09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [26:47]
10 Bass Solo [30:14]
11 Hang ‘Em High [34:05]
12 Cathedral [37:33]
13 Secrets [39:22]
14 Drum Solo II [42:50]
15 Everybody Wants Some!! (cut) [44:43]
16 Dance The Night Away [49:57]
17 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [53:10]
18 Dave Acoustic Solo [59:15]
19 Ice Cream Man [1:03:02]
20 Intruder [1:06:56]
21 Pretty Woman [1:08:53]
22 Guitar Solo [1:12:08]
23 D.O.A. [1:21:41]
24 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [1:25:17]
25 Bottoms Up! (cut) [1:31:11]

Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette / Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / Audacity (24 bit – 96 khz) / FLAC 6

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