The 3/4 Van Halen tour kicked off last night at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena in North Carolina. See a cool then and now slideshow at charlotte.com.

The fan reviews are starting to trickle in, most are positive from what I’m reading thus far:

Reza: “I’m back to my hotel from the Charlotte concert (drove over 500 miles from Florida to see this!) and let me tell you one thing: it was the best Van Halen concert I have ever seen!!! I have seen every VH tour since 1985 (with Sammy , Cherone and Dave solo) and this was by far the best!”
George M: “Wolfie sounded good. A la the rehearsal reviews, he does a pretty good job on the background vocals as well. He seemed relieved when the show was over, but also not that nervous as people say he was at the LA rehearsal.”
Halleen: “It was a nostalgia show, they are old, they made mistakes. Hopefully they’ll get better as the show goes on, I’m seeing them in LA in two months.”
Hiphopaddict: “I have to say that it was one of the most amazing concerts I’ve seen in my life. The energy was spectacular. Dave and Eddie seemed to jive off of each other very well. I thought Wolfie did a great job as well.”
jimmyw: “I saw one guy after the show, walking by me and he was shaking his head. I looked at him and said “That was great, wasn’t it?” He replied “I can’t even describe how good that was.”"
smashism: “[Wolfgang] absolutely RUINED “Unchained” — which WOULD HAVE BEEN the highlight of the night, except that when it got to the “come on Dave, gimme a break” line Wolfgang stepped to the microphone and in a cracky 16 year old’s voice said “Come on Dave, uh, give whoever you’re talking to a break.” Serious WHAT THE F**K epic fail moment. It was as if the entire stadium all looked around at each other with a look of “HUH?”"
pacfanweb: “With [Wolfgang] and Eddie singing, the backing vocals sounded good. You can definitely tell Mikey isn’t there, though. Wolf can hit a lot of the same notes, but not with the same power…and let’s face it, lots of people can hit the same notes, but everyone has their own tone. The backing vocals are just fine.”

The “Unchained” Wolfie quote is bizarre but overall it seems fans were pleased. Be sure to read the whole thread, those are just a few quotes I pulled that stuck out to me. The setlist — warning: spoiler — can be found at the end of the post here. Sounds like 26 nostalgic tracks, all from the pre Van Hagar days as rehearsed.

Our VH ticket situation
Ticketmaster sold out of two seats together for both the Seattle and Portland shows right away, so as of this writing we’re still ticketless for the upcoming Dec 3 show in Seattle. Vancouver BC (about 3 hours north) goes on sale tomorrow. If we don’t get tickets there, we could be hitting the secondary market and paying a premium. I was hoping not to have to pay more than $100 a ticket — and maybe still won’t — but because of the volatility of Eddie and David Lee Roth this could be the last opportunity to ever see these guys playing together.

As many others are saying, I hope they find some way to include Michael Anthony. And for those who want a taste of the concert, I’m sure videos of the first show will be there soon, if they aren’t already.

Van Hailstorm on Sirius Buzzsaw 19
Note to fellow Sirius subscribers (thanks Blabbermouth): every night at 10pm EST on Buzzsaw channel 19, Ian Christe, author of the VH biography Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (pictured, above right) is playing a few tracks, including some rarities, and telling VH stories. You can also enter for a chance to win Van Halen concert tickets. I entered, you never know.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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