Seeing Van Halen

So last week a friend of mine told me he had an extra ticket for Van Halen and asked if I wanted to go. I said, 'Umm... totally.' And tonight I went. Thanks to him totally.

I just got home and my ears are still ringing--- kinda bad actually. Almost like I can hear crickets underneath the semi-high pitched buzzing noise. That's what it sounds like in my head. I don't think this is any sort of old-guy-can't-deal-with-a-concert stuff. That concert was friggin way loud in real life.

Although, I'd never seen Van Halen before I was semi-psyched semi-nervous for this show. Mainly, because of David Lee Roth. That guy really seemed to have had a hard fall over the past decade or two or whatever. He used to be king and now all I heard was bad sad stuff about him. Rumor that he once hit himself in the head with a samurai sword on stage during a small solo show and staggered off bleeding. Stuff like that. I listened to his short-lived radio show and he sounded completely oblivious to the fact that he was no longer the biggest lead singer in the world and totally endlessly fascinated with his own greatness. And his zippity zap zow zam talk was starting to really cross over into just old uncle-style crazy.

But he always swore they'd tour again one day. And all of a sudden, last night! There he was... clomping around the stage like a grinning frankendork in full glory! And I gotta admit for the solid first third of the show I was shocked how much I was digging it. They rocked no question. And man! Eddie Van Halen is like really good at guitar and stuff! He's must practice alot! David Lee Roth's voice was better than I expected. And his karate kicks were higher than expected. Although the whole thing seemed staged down the high fives... I didn't care.

Yadda after a while the songs became hit or miss. And the sound was got blurrier. And I really didn't need 'Pretty Woman'. Nor an 10-min Alex drum solo.

Through it all though I gotta admit the whole thing put me in a good mood. Because quirks and problems or whatever. They put on a totally respectable show. It was amazing watching Eddie play on the big sreen. But mainly, I liked looking at the crowd. Dudes soooo relieved that they could finally put this band to bed. Yelling out the songs word for word and all that.  Jay-mee's Cry--ying!! Psyched their favorite band didn't go out in some sort of clunky terribleness with a velvet boxed set and some stray single amidst rumors that Eddie Van Halen was going to hire a female lead singer or Sebastian Bach.

Anyway, here's Hot for Teacher. This song actually was one of the 'off' ones of the night (sounds a little garbage cans falling down stairs) but my battery light was flashing and I had limited space on my camera- so I just had to commit to it.

So here tis:

ok bye!

tOdd