Van Halen 1982-11-26 Baton Rouge, LA

Here is yet another uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Baton Rouge during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. It’s worth noting that an incomplete audience recording of this show does also exist in circulation.

Following the unique surprise break of routine the night prior in Kansas, Dave again suddenly and completely slams the breaks on the band while they’re playing a song. This time, it is during Dance The Night Away, making remarks about someone throwing their “nasty f’ing chewing tobacco” on stage. While the night prior he seemed genuinely irritated when he abruptly stopped Secrets, this time it seems more deliberately timed and more in his usual joking manner, and topping it off with his usual “I’m gonna f your girlfriend” line. It seems he figured it’d be funny to take the previous song-halting incident to make the “throwing things on stage” bit of his much more impactful than it had been during some earlier dates of the tour, and also use the chewing tobacco stereotype here in the deep south. Or did it really happen? In any case, it’s quite hilarious.

As usual, Roy paused the tape during the 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 not long after the first part of Everybody Wants Some. The second side of the tape starts over halfway into Dave’s interlude, so is missing several minutes. Then as usual, 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 over halfway into Intruder. Roy paused again during the both encore breaks, as always. However, Roy didn’t start recording again in time for the second encore, so we’re completely missing the first part of You Really Got Me. The recording starts again right before Happy Trails, and runs through the end of the concert. This tape is another one of the few that captures the outro music that would play over the speakers after the band walked off stage, that being Kid Creole’s “Imitation”. There is about 30 seconds of silence before the outro music starts, not because the tape had been stopped, but because Roy seemed to have shut off all other mics that may have picked up any crowd noise.

Track Listing:

01 Intro [0:00]
02 Romeo Delight [0:51]
03 Unchained [4:23]
04 Drum Solo [7:59]
05 The Full Bug [10:54]
06 Runnin’ With The Devil [14:34]
07 Jamie’s Cryin’ [17:34]
08 Little Guitars [21:05]
09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [25:41]
10 Bass Solo [29:03]
11 Hang ‘Em High [33:48]
12 Cathedral [37:08]
13 Secrets [38:50]
14 Drum Solo II [42:10]
15 Everybody Wants Some!! [44:09]
16 Dave Talks (cut) [47:03]
17 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise) [48:49]
18 Dance The Night Away [50:35]
19 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [54:01]
20 Intruder (cut) [1:01:48]
21 Pretty Woman [1:02:25]
22 Guitar Solo [1:05:27]
23 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [1:17:46]
24 Bottoms Up! [1:23:28]
25 Happy Trails [1:28:24]
26 You Really Got Me (Reprise) [1:29:39]
27 Outro Music [1:32:01]

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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