VH 1982-09-02 Seattle, WA

Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated open-mic recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Seattle during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. It’s worth noting that an audience recording this show does exist in circulation.

This is the second show of the second leg of the Diver Down tour, with the band starting on the west coast in Portland the day prior, after having a little over a week off to rest from the tour. The time off gave the band a well deserved rest, as this show reveals a very strong performance with a ton of energy, a noticeable difference from their final show over a week prior in Ohio, particularly for Dave.

Interestingly, prior to Jamie’s Cryin’, Dave says this night is “the first Van Halen show on the west coast for 1982″, but this must’ve either been a slip up, or just something Dave said to pump up the crowd, as he does. An old newspaper review confirms the show in Portland did happen on September 1st, and another newspaper review confirms the show here in Seattle did happen on September 2nd, so there’s no debating the historical accuracy.

Straight away when the show is starting, some wise guy in the audience is popping firecrackers during intro and Romeo Delight, and again during The Full Bug, but luckily it doesn’t happen enough to detract from the show’s enjoyment.

One amusing thing to note, during the breakdown of Bottoms Up, Dave says “there’s some motherf’er who keeps untying my shoe every time I come up to him, but that’s alright, because after the show pal I’m gonna f your girlfriend”. While it’s a unique take on his “I’m gonna f your girlfriend” line he throws around from time to time when someone is supposedly throwing stuff on stage, it’s hard to really know if this actually happened, or Dave was just doing his thing to get a crowd reaction.

The first cut in the recording is where Roy would often pause to save space, during the lengthy break where Dave would talk to the crowd before Jamie’s Cryin’. However, he turns the tape back on sooner than he usually would, so we do still get to hear some of Dave’s banter.
The first side of the 90 minute master tape ends right at the ending of the first part of Everybody Wants Some, and while no music is missing during the tape flip, the second side starts recording pretty late into Dave’s long storytime interlude, so the majority of that is not captured.

Roy later pauses the tape after Somebody Get Me Doctor, as he usually would, so is missing Dave’s acoustic solo and Ice Cream Man. He starts recording again about 5 seconds before Intruder.
Roy pauses again for the encore breaks as usual, but seems he maybe forgot to start recording again for You Really Got Me and Happy Trails, as those songs are not captured here despite having a bit of time left on the tape to have done so.

Track Listing:

01 Intro
02 Romeo Delight
03 Unchained
04 Drum Solo
05 The Full Bug
06 Runnin’ With The Devil
07 Dave Talks (cut)
08 Jamie’s Cryin’
09 Little Guitars
10 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
11 Bass Solo
12 Hang ‘Em High
13 Cathedral
14 Secrets
15 Drum Solo II
16 Everybody Wants Some!!
17 Dave Talks (cut)
18 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise)
19 Dance The Night Away
20 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad
21 Intruder
22 Pretty Woman
23 Guitar Solo
24 D.O.A.
25 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
26 Bottoms Up!

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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