2007 tour Van Halen Seattle setlist and review |
Missed most of the opening reggae band before Van Halen last night at the Key Arena in Seattle. We spent a lot of the opening band time waiting in line to buy a sweater ($70) and T-shirt ($35, pictured below).
They had a remote control black Van Halen blimp roving around just above fans heads as they piled into their seats. The Key was about half full at 8:30pm when the lights went dark. By 8:45pm the Key was filled and the place was rocking from the minute Eddie started jamming.
Complete setlist in order played
1. You Really Got Me
2. I’m The One
3. Runnin’ With the Devil - Wolfgang went to the top of the riser and slung the bass high with spotlight on him at the beginning. One of only three songs he was featured to any degree during the concert.
4. Romeo Delight with Magic Bus by The Who interlude
5. Somebody Get Me A Doctor
6. Beautiful Girls
7. Dance the Night Away
8. Atomic Punk
9. Everybody Wants Some
10. So this is Love? - Spotlight on Wolf for a nice bass intro that he handled well. I was impressed with how little Wolf looked at the frets. He has the bass down well.
11. Mean Street
12. Pretty Woman - I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t do the Intruder intro. It’s not that long and has some great guitar effects bouncing off the drums. They transitioned immediately from Mean Street.
13. Drum solo
14. Unchained
15. I’ll Wait
16. And The Cradle Will Rock
17. Hot For Teacher
18. Little Dreamer - this is one of my favorites from VH 1 but was the worst performed song of the night. Guitar tuning was off, too low and vocals were drowned out.
19. Little Guitars
20. Jamie’s Cryin’
21. Ice Cream Man - this was the only time David Lee Roth talked to the crowd at length. He told the story behind the Ice Cream Man and then played the opening on acoustic guitar. DLR is a pretty good guitar player in his own right.
22. Panama
23. Guitar solo featuring: Spanish Fly, Cathedral and Eruption
24. Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
End of the regular show, begin encore:
25. 1984/Jump - DLR swung a large red flag at the top of the riser and in the closing of the song performed some other fancy twirling moves. Eddie’s guitar was in tune and sounded good. As mentioned yesterday, would rather have seen somebody playing the keyboards than having them piped in, it worked.
Summary and grade
Wolfgang performed admirably in both the bass and vocals parts. I wish there had been a bass solo too as he can shred on the bass. He’s not as good as Michael Anthony but it seemed awkward that everybody else got solos except for Wolf. I’m sure he didn’t mind, what a rush being 16 and playing with one of the greatest rock and roll bands in history. And as for his relationship with his dad on stage? There was one sweet father son moment where they both were on their knees facing each other during a solo and Eddie leaned over and kissed Wolf on the head.
David Lee Roth sounded better on vocals — when I could hear him — than when we saw him at the Emerald Queen last year. On some songs he was mixed well and you could hear his vocals well, but on too many songs he was drowned.
Alex Van Halen can still pound the skins with the best of them. Surprisingly he was mixed down a bit too. Would have liked to have heard him mixed a little louder. His solo was incredible. My son said this was one of his favorite parts of the concert.
Where to begin with Eddie? First, I was a bit surprised — and happy — to see him wearing his wedding ring. Maybe he and Valerie are getting back together? Maybe they still are? (Update 2:18pm PST: Thanks to ROB in the comments I was pressed to research Janie Liszewski who is both Eddie’s girlfriend and spokesperson since 2006 when she had to “leave” her association with the adult business.) Second, if Eddie isn’t the best living rock and roll guitarist, who is? Malmsteen might be faster, but technically? No contest. Just one example of Eddie’s wizardy was during his solo he took one of Alex’s drum sticks and used it as a pick to pluck out his solo. Most of the solos were either close or dead on and his improvisations were spontaneous and eye opening. Several Eddie just did what? type moments with sounds generated from his guitar and EVH branded amps.
Van Halen’s performance last night was electric. There were a few weak spots where the mixing was off, and I docked points in the grade for this, but it was well worth the secondary ticket prices we paid (over $200 for both tickets + $105 for shirt and sweater + gas = nearly $350 total spent). I’d put this concert in my top five ever seen category and it was the most money ever spent.
How magical was the evening? When leaving the concert a guy walking near us commented that he’d been going to concerts for 30+ years and hadn’t seen crowd energy at this level before. I hope VH can hold it together and cut a new album. If VH is coming anywhere near you and it’s in the budget, go see this tour. Grade: A-
Did this post make you go hmm?
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Great article!!!!Ed is not back with val!!!Janie Liewenski is his long time relationship, she does all Van Halen public relations!!!Maybe a little more research!!!1
Comment by ROB — December 4, 2007 @ 1:57 pm PST
ROB!!! Source!!! for!!! This!!! Information!!!?
Comment by TDavid — December 4, 2007 @ 2:11 pm PST
Here’s one article that calls Janie Liszewski Eddie’s new girlfriend (from 2006):
http://www.livedaily.com/news/Eddie_Van_Halens_son_is_new_Van_Halen_bassist-11009.html
Interesting that Ms. Liszewski used to be associated with the adult business and had to “leave it” in order to become Eddie’s spokesperson. This explains why Eddie did the soundtrack for that porn gig. Looks like I learned something new today, ROB, thanks
Comment by TDavid — December 4, 2007 @ 2:18 pm PST
I saw the concert too, If you put this in your top 5, you haven’t been to many concerts! This past few years I have seen, The Police (8/10), Rush (7/10), Steve Miller (9/10), Velvet Revolver (7/10), Willie Nelson (7/10), Tom Petty (6/10), Black Sabbath (8/10), The Rolling Stones (9/10), Drive by Truckers (9/10), The Black Crowes (7/10), I feel that every one of those concerts was better that the Van Halen performance last night.
Even though Van Halen is one of my favorite bands, I would give it a 4 or 5/10 last night, mixing was horrible, vocals were completely mixed out until Romeo Delight (I was sitting center stage). David Lee missed at least a few lines and was late with his verse on nearly every song. Wolfgang played well but has ZERO stage presence, please call Michael Anthony right away.
This is the third time I have seen Van Halen (1978/79 & 1984) and it was by far the worst performance I have seen by them. I give Eddy and Alex credit, when you could hear them through the sophomoric mixing, they were solid. I would have rather heard a couple more songs off “Diver Down” than the 20 minute guitar solo but the vintage Eddy guitar was 100% there. The drum solo was great and just the right length, Alex was looking a little worse for wear but did not miss a beat. The band members, with the exception of Wolfgang, looked to be in pretty good physical shape. The adults in the band looked to be pretty much clean and sober, although Diamond Dave may have pre-functioned with a few JD & Cokes.
I don’t know what the heck is up with David Lee, in the past he owned the stage and the audience, last night he strutted around like a peacock in his dorky lounge coats and waved his arms in the air like the Karate Kid! David Lee reminds me of a lounge singer in a cheesy Vegas hotel were the well drinks are $2 and the traveling businessmen are trying to pick up trashy locals.
All that being said, it was Van Halen and the set list was great, Ice Cream Man stole the show and Alex jammed into it like a possessed man, Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, was vintage Eddie & DD; it rocked the house. Overall there are a lot of places to spend $150 and I don’t regret paying that much for the show, I just wish that one of the biggest band in history could get a good mixing team.
Comment by William Jorgensen — December 4, 2007 @ 3:50 pm PST
Hi William - thanks for offering your opinion.
I’ve been to a few dozen concerts in my life (didn’t stop to count), so the top five isn’t impossibly difficult to get into, but we’ll have to agree to disagree on your low rating (4.5/5 out of 10? Sorry, no way) versus my higher A- grade. Maybe we could agree on something in the middle, after some more mixing. You do have two other Van Halen concerts to draw as a frame of comparison where I don’t.
What I do have to draw from experience are: a couple Ozzfests, caught Armored Saint, Metallica and WASP in the 80s when WASP was the headlining band, Quiet Riot, Kiss, Judas Priest a couple times, Ozzy on the Ultimate Sin and numerous concerts here locally the last fews years like David Lee Roth, Loverboy, Rick Springfield and others.
I enjoyed Metallica the first concert better than the second one I saw in Key Arena 15+ years later.
My #1 favorite concert of all time blows away last night’s concert (Deep Purple outside in the 80s was incredible). We weren’t as close to the action as you, more up in the nosebleed 200 section, so maybe you were getting a different sound? I wouldn’t rate Key Arena as the best sounding concert venue and would put it near the bottom of the ones I’ve been to.
Comment by TDavid — December 4, 2007 @ 4:09 pm PST
It’s 5:10am…
Can’t sleep…
Van Halen in less than 15 hrs…
I shall write my review here tomorrow…
I have seen over 1000 concert’s in the past 25 years.
This will be my 1st time seeing VH!
Comment by Robdog — December 5, 2007 @ 5:15 am PST
The reporter from the Seattle PI liked the show too:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/342253_halen05q.html
Comment by TDavid — December 5, 2007 @ 7:16 am PST
William -
I’ve seen the tour twice, and am planning to catch it at least one more time in 2008. Sounds like ya’ll might have gotten a bad night in the mixing department, and that’s a shame.
I’ve seen close to 100 shows this year, and went into VH not expecting much because of the lack of Michael Anthony, the unknown factor with Eddie, and the fact that when I saw DLR on the Sam and Dave tour a few years back, he sounded horrible…with the guitar player from the number one VH tribute band backing him up no less. That being said, they blew me away that first time, and made the 2nd show a month later, a must see.
This show is definitely top 5 for me this year, and ranks very high on the all-time list. I saw the Police tour (great), Rush (it was Rush….a good show, but very consistent with what you expect from Rush - no surprises), Tom Petty (awesome), ZZ Top (again, much like VH, unexpectedly good.) and many other shows this year. I knew The Police show was going to be awesome, and VH and The Police are definitely two of my top favorite shows for the year.
BTW - on the subject of Velvet Revolver - I saw them this year touring for the new album, and it was the second time I have seen Velvet Revolver in the past few years. The first time, it was great to see the band, despite the fact that I felt like the songs were kind of weak. Second time around, the novelty had worn off, and you’re left in my opinion, with mediocre material delivered by rock legends. They were the band I was most excited to see that day, and in the end, ZZ Top blew em away.
TDavid - glad you went!
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — December 5, 2007 @ 8:31 am PST
I caught VH the other night at the Key. I sat dead center up in the middle of the 200 level, so not the greatest seats for watching the show, but overall I’d give the sound from up there an 8/10. It sounded awesome. Louder than hell. It did take a couple of songs to get the mix right, but once it clicked, I had no problems. I guess $62 tickets are the way to go at the Key.
Comment by Chris Martin — December 5, 2007 @ 5:12 pm PST
Well, based on the TDavid review I just picked up a ticket to the Sunrise show in Feb. I saw VH first opening for the Stones in the Citrus Bowl years ago. Never saw the Sammy Hagar version. I did see the Gary Scharone version here locally and it was like paying to see a VH covers band. I have higher hopes for this show.
Fred
Comment by Fred Beiderbecke — December 8, 2007 @ 7:19 am PST
Saw the show last night at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise. The sound mix was poor, you could barely hear Dave. Not sure if it was where I was sitting (right of stage back a section, first row off the floor), my 51 year old ears (still ringing) or the actual mix.
Dave seemed to be a movie of Dave where Dave was played by Peter Scolari. Strange.
I did get a kick out of Wolfgang.
They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
For the opening act, the women next to me asked “Is that Bob Marley?” - “No, he’s dead”. They were playing Roots, Rock, Reggae. A minute or two later - “That’s Bob Marley” - “No, he’s been dead for many years”. Oh well, what can you do.
Bummed about the sound, probably would have been a very good show.
Comment by Fred Beiderbecke — February 13, 2008 @ 7:51 am PST