Sammy Hagar thinks people will miss the Van Hagar era on the current tour |
Sammy Hagar should probably be taking the high road on commenting on the 3/4 Van Halen reunion but instead he’s taking up for the ousted Michael Anthony and sounds a little bitter in a recent interview at classicrockrevisited.com:
They’re doing the Dave thing. This is Dave’s trip. Dave has got to be the happiest guy on the planet. And the Dave era fans are probably happy too. I think that at the end of the night you’re going to go, “I heard a bunch of great songs, but I wish I had heard ‘Poundcake’ or ‘When It’s Love’ or ‘Dreams’ or ‘Right Now.’ You’re going to miss those songs, but anyways, those are the songs we’ll play with The Other Half, the Van Hagar era, that Mikey and I and Vic and my drummer play and we do a good job. When you hear my voice and Mike’s singing together, Mike’s bass guitar… All of that is original and when you hear that, it’s going to sound a little more like the original than if Dave was trying to sing my songs, which wouldn’t sound so good.
Seem a bit harsh? Or do you agree with Sammy?
After listening to this rendition of Jump live with a horribly out of tune guitar, maybe Sammy has a point. This show in Greensboro, North Carolina for this song at least is missing a guitar tech who could keep Eddie in tune. I kept waiting for some dude to jump onto the stage and hand Edward a new axe to grind — it doesn’t happen.
Where are Eddie’s guitar techs? This is beyond bad. Eddie, what gives? He should have set the guitar on fire after this performance. Dave’s guitar comparatively doing Ice Cream Man from the same show sounds OK. You can skip to 4:30 in the video if you don’t want to hear Dave telling a story.
For balance, many of the people commenting who were actually at the Greensboro show are reporting it was great. I saw one commenter say it was the best concert h/she (?) had ever seen, so might want to blame the subpar audio on YouTube … or not.
Did this post make you go hmm?
(Hmm, no ratings yet)
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I wouldn’t blame the sound on YouTube… Remember, the majority of those concert goers were probably “tailgating” for a loooong time before the show so ANYTHING would have sounded great so long as it was LOUD…
Comment by FranciscoIV — October 2, 2007 @ 6:58 am PST
It’s true a lot of drinking and/or drugging could blur the senses. Also, when the volume is cranked it can hide some things … not when it’s as bad as above though.
Comment by TDavid — October 2, 2007 @ 7:09 am PST
I’m a casual Van Halen fan and want to see them in concert since Dave is back.
I honestly have no clue what the first three songs mentioned by Hagar even sound like
and only know “Right Now” because it was so overplayed that everyone knows it.
Comment by Wayne — October 2, 2007 @ 12:53 pm PST
When it’s Love and Dreams were mellow hits that I’m sure you’d recognize, Wayne, if you heard the first few bars, Poundcake more of a cult Van Hagar track but it’s alright. It’s on their only live CD as well as For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge along with the more well known Right Now.
Comment by TDavid — October 2, 2007 @ 1:07 pm PST
The Greensboro show was awesome…as to what Whiny Hagar and his bitch friend Mikey have to say…good riddance…I am so glad the Van Hagar era is OVER…I bought best of both worlds CD in 04 and downloaded the Dave tunes not Sammys…so go be with the other half…
Comment by roy rice — October 28, 2007 @ 3:33 pm PST
I saw the VH tour in Worcester, Ma Dave forgot the words to one song and told the crowd this.
I miss Mike, not a bad show but not the best VH show I’ve seen.
Comment by Rich — November 7, 2007 @ 7:05 pm PST
Wow … at some point, he should have just stopped playing and done a quick fix, at least move the strings up half a note so it doesn’t sound that bad. Seems like they’ve been away from touring for too long … or just too drunk to really notice …
Comment by Kevin — December 4, 2007 @ 4:22 am PST
Sammy Hagar IS NOT Van Halen. I hated when Dave left and Van Halen should have changed their name during the “Hagar” years - it just was not the same Van Halen and he is not missed by real fans of the REAL group.
Comment by Moonchild — January 9, 2008 @ 5:52 pm PST
Give the guy a break, he’s been seriously ill.
Comment by LaMotta — August 2, 2008 @ 6:41 am PST