Zip Line Guitar

March 29, 2012 at 4:50pm

Atlantic City - Van Halen Concert Review

I have been hearing so many good things about the Van Halen concert, in which I definitely wanted to go see them this time around. I was away on business when they were performing at Madison Square Garden. I purchased tickets for the Atlantic City show on March 24th (11th row floor seats, on Wolfgang’s side of the stage). Below I am going to breaking this review down per performer with a short summary to end it.

•Wolfgang - He has a very boring and lifeless stage presence. Ok, so he can play bass and so can millions of other people. It was like I was watching Chastity / Chaz Bono playing bass guitar (Yawn). Please bring back Michael Anthony with his Jack Daniels bass guitar. At least Anthony can play and entertain the left side of the stage in his own right. Eddie, it’s time to kick Wolfe out of the nest and let him fly on his own. With the Van Halen last name, Eddie and Uncle Alex’s backing he should be fine in any band that he creates.

•David Lee Roth - There were 3 main issues with Dave’s performance 1) When Dave wasn’t singing a lick; his face was wearing a fake perpetual smile. He looked like a cheesy deranged bobble head doll. 2) All the fans understand that Dave is getting older. The use of the floor boards and foot slip-ons gimmick did not bring any coolness to Dave’s stage show, even thou Dave thinks it does. I’m surprised nobody has told him to lose the slip and slide trick. 3) I don’t know if Dave’s mike levels were too high or if he was screaming too loud. I could not hear him singing most of the songs. It seemed much distorted. Eddie’s and Wolfgang’s back-up singing was more clear and understandable.

•Eddie - Eddie’s play seem to be loose and not as tight as years past. I was looking for Ed to move around the stage more. The reason he didn’t was because of the use of numerous foot pedal effects. You would figure that with his talent he wouldn’t need many of them. Well you thought wrong. I can tell you that Eddie did step it up for his guitar solo. Ed hammering away at his guitar was as enjoyable as when I first saw the band back in 1982.

•Alex - The best performer out of this quad. He can still hit and roll those drums like none other. I loved the intro for “everybody wants some”. Only one little issue, some additional sounds and background music was piped in during Alex’s drum solo.

In conclusion, the band is slipping a bit and is definitely showing their age. Well maybe not in the studio but it shows on the stage. I even had an issue with the encore. Dave blurts out we don’t have to leave the stage to come back for the encore. The issue is, they only played 1 song (Jump) for their encore. Almost every single concert that I have been to in my entire life, an encore consists of a 3 song set and some rambling babble in between the songs. This Van Halen show reminded me of a wounded animal that needed to be put down for it final rest.