Van Halen!

Van Halen is literally my fucking name you grape https://t.co/ceuP5axF1x

— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) March 21, 2023

Which reminds me, Van Halen obviously played for years before the first album came out. Has anyone ever come across any first-hand accounts, in contemporaneous reviews or anything like that, of when EVH showed off his tapping and other sci-fi techniques? I've heard some party band boots of the group doing covers and stuff, but EVH's playing, while good, still sounds pretty conventional. But I assume there's a clear point at which he started doing his trademark stuff live before the release of the first album, right?

Greg Renoff's Van Halen Rising documents it.

Thanks!

That book was great, thanks again. Very interesting and informative.

Meanwhile, found this rippin' performance of "Hot for Teacher" that focuses on Michael for most of the solo, then a bit of the fans, then, finally, EVH ... from the chest up. Weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaPlKTFnXz4

They were a really fun live band back in the day. Very positive energy.

Always shocking how high Anthony’s voice is

It's the pants.

That's probably why you didn't get a closeup of Eddie below the belt.

video shot by charter president of Moms for Michael

that video rules, thanks

I've thought about bands I'd want to see if someone invents time travel and peak Van Halen would probably be in the top five

I saw them in 1979, still one of my favorite shows ever.

goddamn I bet

Old library coworker of mine grew up in Pasadena and very much attended a number of those famed backyard shows in the early-mid 70s. Says it was a real experience.

I saw my guitar teacher's tribute band do a sold out Van Halen show last night, and if the crowd of old people now is any indication, it really must have been nuts back then. people were crazy.

Nailing that HFT tapping riff in the intro…man

Good read. There was another one I read online around time Ed died that was awesome story from the kids that went to the back yard and early shows that I could not find the link.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-10-15/eddie-van-halen-david-lee-roth-pasadena-high-school

There is also a really low budget documentary about Quiet Riot (VH’s rival band) that had some good info on that same era and scene.

Randy Rhoads was guitarist in some of that early Quiet Riot FYI. I know Chris Holmes from WASP is in that documentary and he knew all of them as a teenager.

https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Metal-Pioneers-L/dp/B0797BSFMS?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=c196e9b2-17c8-40da-9a98-e5dd083b2273

this is an amazing no budget doc about the pre hair metal LA scene that goes very in depth

This is the QR doc.

https://www.amazon.com/Randy-Rhoads-Reflections-Guitar-Icon/dp/B09Z2RFS2D/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=2H022YSRG4XSQ&keywords=quiet+riot+documentary&qid=1681607314&sprefix=quiet+riot+doc%2Caps%2C937&sr=8-2

Drop Dead Legs has great rhythm … all those unrealized ghost notes are wonderful

That live Hot for Teacher is the best medicine rn

I've thought about bands I'd want to see if someone invents time travel and peak Van Halen would probably be in the top five

i have this exact thought very often. well, almost. i don't have a ranking.

This is peak Van Halen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn8APTMyKsg

That's peak anybody. Who's out there delivering that kind of live energy now?

Michael Anthony is 98% energy, 2% bass playing.

lol

though I will say I think a busier bassist would have been totally wrong for VH

Michael Anthony is pure, concentrated joy. Someone should bottle his essence and sling it as an antidepressant.

That's peak anybody.

concur.

Watching the ‘84 Montreal show…right at the beginning when EVH starts Unchained, lone spotlight and then the band kicks in and DLR does the splits off the riser….I got goosebumps just watching the grainy YT footage, can’t imagine what the front row was like

Paraphrasing what someone said in the comments but if I was 13,14 with a ticket DLR would have been some kind of comic book superhero shit to me

though I will say I think a busier bassist would have been totally wrong for VH

I'm listening to the albums on Tidal and I feel like they might have been remixed slightly during the last round of remasters, because I can hear a lot more of Anthony now and on some songs, like "Everybody Wants Some," he plays his ass off and has a really disgusting-in-a-good-way tone.

pretty sure if i had been at that oakland coliseum show it would be the single best show i've ever seen.

my first gig was Van Hagar at the nassau coliseum in... 1994? was i in the right place at the wrong time or what

listened to 1984 in full yesterday, it's as thrilling as rock music gets

Hell yeah
I saw them in NY on the ou812 tour

Quiet Riot (VH’s rival band)

This is news to me.

QR was Randy Rhoades original band, and iirc along with Ratt had kind of been humping it out in LA for years (like VH) until the success of VH opened the door.

I don't remember Quiet Riot having anywhere close to Van Halen levels of success. I can definitely see the potential for a Randy Rhoads/Eddie Van Halen rivalry, but of course the former's life and career were sadly cut short.

Metal Health sold 6 million!

https://www.amazon.com/N%C3%B6thin-But-Good-Time-Uncensored/dp/1250195756?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=8a5eb27e-7659-4772-aad9-774c298d7ace

good overview of the development of the LA scene

xp And I saw them at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo at the height of their success lol

Per Van Halen Rising, one of the reasons it took them forever to get signed is that everyone thought metal (or what passed the metal) was dead. VH jumpstarted its "comeback" just in time for MTV. That part of the story is where that hair metal oral history picks up.

I remember buying the first album when it came out because Dave looked like Robert Plant. I put it on and realized I'd never heard anything quite like it before. It didn't sound like metal, but it also didn't sound like much else.

I would have loved to see them open up for (and mop the floor with) Sabbath.

Yeah they had the attack of metal but not the viscosity. it's like they freed it from the sludge.

They were just so much fun, none of that vein of evil that many (most?) metal bands had running through them. They formed as a party band and stayed that way.

DLR doing mad dash big expressionistic brush strokes, all those breathless exultations, meaning beyond language,

The weirdest aspect of the Van Halen saga, from start to (first) finish, is all the people shit talking DLR as a terrible singer. Like, by what standard? By the standard of all the silly operatic metal castrati? Sammy is a great singer, but he is proof positive that that means next to nothing compared to what Roth brought.

Like, live, sure, I can imagine his relative limitations might have been more apparent, and of course he made up for it with all his energy. But it's not like you can hear him doing the splits in the studio, and all those records still rule.

Diamond Dave was one of the great front men of the era. I completely lost interest when Hagar replaced him. I still can't listen to those albums.

They're extra dire when you consider Sammy was largely brought on to give their songwriting a boost.