Van Halen 1983-01-16 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 third 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.

First thing to note, this is NOT the same performance that has circulated for years as January 16, the date of that show is actually January 15. The recording being shared here is a completely unheard performance. For a more detailed explanation on the date discrepancies, see the notes for the January 15 soundboard that was shared right before this one. Though as a brief recap, ticket stubs, adverts, and the band’s itinerary provide us with a date range of January 14/15/16 for the three Caracas shows. Despite all the contradicting date ranges you may see online, there’s been nothing to confirm that any sort of rescheduling took place. To further affirm this, Roy labeled his other tape “2nd show Caracas” and in it Dave is heard stating it is “Saturday night” in Spanish, which solidifies that show as January 15. In comparison, Roy labeled this tape “Caracas III”, so that solidifies the recording here as the third and final Caracas show.

Unfortunately, this show is another victim of Roy’s occasional decisions to record over his other recordings instead of buying more blank tapes. While this show was recorded on a 90 minute master tape, the majority of the show was overwritten a few days later in São Paulo. Fortunately, I’m inclined to believe Roy must have deliberately chose to retain the rarer songs, considering those are all the bulk of what survives from this show. I’m not sure how he timed his São Paulo recording so precisely, but as soon as the São Paulo show ends after You Really Got Me, the entire remainder of the tape contains what is being shared here from the final night in Caracas. It’s worth noting that the tape is also labeled with “T.1″, indicating there was once also a second tape that contained the ending of this third Caracas show. Since the second tape was not found, it’s safe to assume that it ended up recorded over as well.

Track Listing:

01 Bass Solo (cut) [0:00]
02 Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers [0:46]
03 Little Dreamer [3:54]
04 Mean Street [7:09]
05 Cathedral [12:14]
06 Secrets (cut) [14:16]

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