Van Halen 1983-01-15 Caracas, Venezuela (SBD)

Here is an uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Caracas during the South American leg of their Diver Down tour in 1983 (No Problem tour). This is the second of three consecutive nights Van Halen played at the Poliedro de Caracas (Caracas Polyhedron). Like all of the 1982 soundboard tapes, this recording is another from the collection of VH’s then-front-of-house sound engineer, Roy.

There’s a lot to talk about here, all of which I want to cover as briefly as possible. Firstly of note is a little bit about the South American tour. The band dubbed this leg as the “No Problem” tour, rather than “Hide Your Sheep” in 1982, which was apparently a joke referring to how problematic it was to arrange this South American tour. The setlists of these 1983 shows are noticeably different from 1982, and will change up every few nights. Throughout these 1983 shows, we get to hear seven songs that were not played at all in 1982. Standout songs for this particular show are Little Dreamer, Mean Street, and ZZ Top’s Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers, a song VH played during their early years.

Many are already familiar with both the proshot video and radio broadcast from Caracas that have circulated for many years. The video and the radio broadcast are of the same performance, but neither are the complete show, and both have some songs exclusive to each source. This new soundboard source being shared is indeed the SAME SHOW as those older sources, however this version is by far the superior sounding. I will explain the whole ordeal with the date discrepancy in the next paragraph. Unfortunately this source is also incomplete, as the 90 minute master tape runs out during the latter part of Eddie’s guitar solo, so is missing Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, Bottoms Up, You Really Got Me, and Happy Trails. The master tape is labeled “Tape 1″, but there was no “Tape 2″ found, so I assume that was yet another one Roy later recorded over. The tape is flipped between Mean Street and Cathedral, and there are a few minor pauses during non-music segments.

To elaborate on the date, the old sources of this show have largely been known as the “first night on January 16″, so it may seem confusing that this source is being labeled as the “second night on January 15″. On this master tape, in Roy’s handwriting, he wrote “2nd show Caracas” and I’ve had no reason to dispute his contemporary labeling. Roy also has another tape labelled “Caracas III”, which will be available next. It’s definitely not unusual for old bootlegs to have been labeled wrong, especially from multi-night shows where someone had to make a guess. Even though Dave speaks Spanish throughout the show, his broad statement of “first time” has proven in other cases to not necessarily mean the first night, rather is often in reference to the multi-night residency. One key is when Dave states “sábado noche”, literally “Saturday night”, which establishes January 15.

At various places on the internet, you will find these three Caracas shows among conflicting date ranges: one being January 14/15/16, another being January 16/17/18, while some things have suggested a January 15/16/17 range. This is all very confusing, and if you ask anyone who has invested in deep research on the South American shows, they will tell you it’s a nightmare. This is a recurring theme for most of these 1983 recordings. Simply put for Caracas, many ticket stubs and adverts have been found that provide us with the January 14/15/16 dates, as does the band’s itinerary. Among my own research, and others who have been researching these shows for a lot longer, there’s been no definitive evidence that would confirm any rescheduling took place. In summary, the consensus is that the Caracas shows took place January 14/15/16, and this recording (and old circulating sources) are of the second night, and confirmed as January 15.

Track Listing:

01 Intro [0:00]
02 Romeo Delight [0:16]
03 Unchained [3:50]
04 Drum Solo [7:38]
05 The Full Bug [10:27]
06 Runnin’ With The Devil [14:01]
07 Dave Talks [17:08]
08 Jamie’s Cryin’ [18:24]
09 Little Guitars [22:01]
10 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [26:50]
11 Bass Solo [30:21]
12 Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers [34:44]
13 Little Dreamer [37:31]
14 Mean Street [40:45]
15 Cathedral [45:31]
16 Secrets [47:22]
17 Drum Solo II [50:41]
18 Everybody Wants Some!! [53:05]
19 Dave Talks (cut) [56:23]
20 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise) [59:05]
21 Dance The Night Away [1:00:49]
22 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [1:03:58]
23 Caracas Jam [1:13:04]
24 Ice Cream Man [1:15:15]
25 Intruder [1:18:45]
26 Pretty Woman [1:20:42]
27 Guitar Solo (cut) [1:23:48]

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