Van Halen 1982-09-19 El Paso, TX

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

While there is no known recording of the previous concert in Las Vegas on September 17th, this is either the first or second show to not include D.O.A. in the set, after having been a setlist constant since late July. The song was last known to have been played on September 15th, and would never appear in the setlist again from this point onward.

It seems Dave’s mic had some sort of sound issue during Happy Trails, as his mic becomes very faint not long after the band starts the a capella. There is a noticeable lengthier pause following the first part before the band finally comes back in, during which Dave’s mic seems back in working order.

While the beginning of this show had been recorded at one point in time, Roy seemingly grabbed this tape to capture the ending of a show in Porto Alegre beyond the confines of his usual choice of a single 90 minute tape per concert. Due to that, this El Paso recording starts over halfway into Jamie’s Cryin’ and no longer survives with Romeo Delight, Unchained, Alex’s drum solo, The Full Bug, or Runnin’ With The Devil.

The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out during the first part of Everybody Wants Some, however the tape is flipped pretty quickly, so only misses approx 25 seconds. Roy pauses the tape after Somebody Get Me A Doctor, so does not capture Dave’s acoustic solo or Ice Cream Man. The recording starts again about 3 seconds prior to Intruder. The tape is paused again during both encore breaks. With D.O.A. sadly no longer being in the setlist, it at least gives Roy enough time to capture the encore songs in full, something a lot of previous tapes had been lacking.

Track Listing:

01 Jamie’s Cryin’ (cut) [0:00]
02 Little Guitars [1:20]
03 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [5:46]
04 Bass Solo [9:01]
05 Hang ‘Em High [13:05]
06 Cathedral [16:30]
07 Secrets [18:04]
08 Drum Solo II [21:25]
09 Everybody Wants Some!! [23:06]
10 Dave Talks [25:34]
11 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise) [29:47]
12 Dance The Night Away [31:33]
13 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [34:39]
14 Intruder [40:47]
15 Pretty Woman [42:42]
16 Guitar Solo [45:42]
17 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [55:26]
18 Bottoms Up! [1:01:34]
19 You Really Got Me [1:05:27]
20 Happy Trails [1:08:37]
21 You Really Got Me (Reprise) [1:10:07]

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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