Van Halen 1983-02-12 Buenos Aires, Argentina (SBD)

Here is an uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Buenos Aires during the South American leg of their Diver Down tour in 1983 (No Problem tour). This is the second of two consecutive nights Van Halen played at the Estadio Obras Sanitarias (Obras Stadium). This recording is another from the collection of VH’s then-front-of-house sound engineer, Roy. While the proshot video of the first night is well known, no recordings from this second night have circulated previously, audience or otherwise.

This show in Buenos Aires is the grand finale of Van Halen’s 1983 “No Problem” tour, and overall finale of the 1982-1983 Diver Down tour, notwithstanding the then-unplanned US Festival gig. The band is in a full-on celebratory mood, easily making the most off-the-rails performance we’ve heard, with a ton of improv and goofing off. Possibly the most unusual Van Halen concert to ever occur, it’s a miracle that it can now be heard.

To list Dave’s most notable bits: he starts the show screaming “Van Halen!”, his story of “Chew-Me” and “I-Lean” during The Full Bug, his noises during Mike’s bass solo, his tangent about dreams and pickles during an extended Little Dreamer, the extended intro to So This Is Love, his rendition of “New York, New York”, and extra lyrics prior to Happy Trails. This is also the only South American show with his “forgot the words” routine: “No recuerdo las palabras” during Romeo Delight, then during Good Times he “forgot the words again”, adding “but it’s the last show, and you probably don’t understand English anyway, I know I don’t”. Other unique parts and humor from Dave, Mike, and Ed are heard throughout the show, such as the recurring word “guido”.

As we’ve seen the Somebody Get Me A Doctor jam regularly evolve over the course of 1982-1983, and including the progressing evolution of Girl Gone Bad, this show also teases House Of Pain. While we know the song dates to the 1970s, its appearance here tells us that its revival for 1984 was likely already being considered.

Following Everybody Wants Some where Alex starts Dance The Night Away, Dave stops to say “you got it right… why not?”, then Ed says “It was different last night”. While these songs are missing on the first night video, I was recently gifted an uncirculated broadcast recording of the first night that has all missing songs, which reveals DTNA and SGMAD were played in swapped order that night. Both Argentina shows also see the return of Growth, but as an intro to Bottoms Up rather than for You Really Got Me in 1982.

Once again, Roy used two 90 minute tapes to record this show, allowing him to capture most of the show without many major cuts. This is easily Roy’s longest recording, and the only one to clock at over two hours. Yet this show still isn’t without cuts. Roy did his typical pause partway into Dave’s segment that precedes Jamie’s Cryin’, but then missed a chunk of the song before recording again. With all the improv, you can’t really blame Roy for not timing his tape flip better, but sadly the first side of the tape runs out during the guitar solo of So This Is Love.

While Summertime Blues can not be confirmed at this unique show, a fan who attended both shows tells me that he recalls the song on both nights. Unlike in Montevideo where the song transitioned from the end of Somebody Get Me A Doctor, in Buenos Aires they did Summertime Blues after So This Is Love. We could assume the song was played before Roy flipped the tape, which is a shame that he’d miss a rare song, but the show easily makes up for the loss. The only other cut worth mentioning is the tape flip after Pretty Woman ends, so misses the first ~45 seconds of Ed’s guitar solo.

Track Listing:

01 Intro [0:00]
02 Romeo Delight [0:31]
03 Unchained [4:14]
04 Drum Solo [9:09]
05 The Full Bug [12:47]
06 Runnin’ With The Devil [17:26]
07 Dave Talks (cut) [20:37]
08 Jamie’s Cryin’ (cut) [22:06]
09 Little Guitars [23:17]
10 Bass Solo [28:02]
11 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [32:33]
12 Dancing In The Street [35:47]
13 Little Dreamer [38:42]
14 So This Is Love? (cut) [43:43]
15 God Bless The Child / New York, New York [47:15]
16 Cathedral [49:04]
17 Secrets [51:06]
18 Drum Solo II [54:29]
19 Everybody Wants Some!! [56:45]
20 Dance The Night Away [1:01:45]
21 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [1:04:53]
22 Argentina Jam [1:18:47]
23 Ice Cream Man [1:21:52]
24 Heartbreak Hotel [1:25:39]
25 Intruder [1:28:11]
26 Pretty Woman [1:30:35]
27 Guitar Solo [1:33:41]
28 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [1:44:28]
29 Bottoms Up! [1:50:40]
30 You Really Got Me [1:55:02]
31 Happy Trails [1:58:20]
32 You Really Got Me (Reprise) [2:00:33]

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