Van Halen
Tokyo Dome VH in Concert
Hearing the announcement of another Van Halen world tour and the release of this double-disc live album caught me by surprise. Like everyone, I have my opinion between Dave, Sammy and don’t forget Gary Cherone (Van Halen 3 album) and the Michael Anthony/Wolfgang Van Halen and other topics. But, at the end of the day, I just wanna hear some good jams.
I watched the Jimmy Kimmel show performances before I heard a lick of this album and I’m not sure that helped very much, but it certainly gave me a visual and an update on what the band sounded like today. Like the show, my first impression was part nostalgia and part disappointment. My first listen or two gave me that deflating feeling of dashed hopes. David Lee Roth sounded like an out-of-breath frontman. He’s certainly a showman on stage. Anyone who’s seen Van Halen during his heyday knows that. Or maybe you saw him on a giant surfboard floating over the audience with his Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan accompanied solo years. The dude knows how to entertain an audience.
On the Jimmy Kimmel show and probably at this show at the Tokyo Dome, he’s doing his best Bono imitation. And we all know there’s only one Bono. Well, I take that back, there are two Bono’s. Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. does a great Bono impersonation. I’m not talking his singing voice. I’m talking about being the center of attention and bringing an audience member into the spotlight with him for a dance or a hug. He travels out into the crowd and becomes one with them and makes a mammoth-sized audience feel like a small club. On this live album, though, we don’t get the video side of the event. We just end up losing the vocals being front and center. Whether he’s walking, running, laughing or pausing, it’s kind of a giant drop-out of the overall musical experience. Something is lost in translation.
Dave has left the building.
But after slogging forward and spinning the album for the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth times, now I’m getting more of the picture. I kinda threw up in my mouth a little on the first listen, but now I’m coming back for extra helpings. Van Halen has grown on me again.
The first big reason, I think, is the setlist. It’s the songs. It’s hard to go wrong when pulling from such a vast catalog (Dave-only material, of course). The magic we have, though, is also due to the adroit song selection. Deep cut gems like “Women in Love” stand up and shout, much like hearing the lively and energetic “For Your Life” on Zeppelin’s Celebration Day album. This song is great and captures and reflects the whole Van Halen package – great melodies that’ll force you to sing along by the sheer power of the hook, guitar leads and fills to die for, and a solid rhythm section driving the whole thing along.
Background vocalist extraordinaire Michael Anthony is sorely missed from the current lineup, but nepotism-be-damned current bassist Wolfgang Van Halen does an ample job in that department. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that dear old dad does some BGV’s, too. I bet you $100 that Anthony’s absence is why “Jamie’s Cryin’” is missing from the set.
The songs that do show up, however, are the strong suit of this double-disc album. Most of the strongest songs from the mighty debut album are here (“Runnin’ With The Devil,” “I’m The One,” complete with some fun “Bop-badda-shoobie-do-wah’s” and “You Really Got Me,” “Eruption” and the best VH song ever – “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”) and that’s good. It’s too bad “Ice Cream Man” had to show his silly little head, but a little goofiness is always fun at a big rock show. The second and third albums have a good showing (“Somebody Get Me A Doctor,” “Dance the Night Away,” “And the Cradle Will Rock…” “Romeo Delight,” “Women in Love,” “Beautiful Girls” and “Everybody Wants Some!”) and the under-appreciated fourth album, Fair Warning, make a healthy appearance (“Unchained” starts off the album, “Hear About it Later” and “Mean Street”) and even a tune from Diver Down (“(Oh) Pretty Woman”) is represented. Of course, “Jump” is the big encore from the 1984 album (as well as “Hot For Teacher” “I’ll Wait” and “Panama”). Of the three new tunes off A Different Kind of Truth (“including “China Town” and “She’s the Woman”), “Tattoo” sounds the best.
I’m not complaining, but next time add in “In A Simple Rhyme,” “So This is Love,” “Jamie’s Cryin’” and “Atomic Punk” and I’ll be even happier. I’ll even let ‘em keep “Ice Cream Man” on there.
Van Halen is a best dish served up in the studio, where David Lee Roth can control his vocals better, but the songs are thankfully strong enough to stand up in this rough format. It’s loose, it’s loud (thankfully, Eddie Van Halen’s masterful licks are all mixed way at the top) and it’s full of energy. It’s better than the Van Halen bootleg concert recordings I used to have and it’s up to par with every time I’ve seen ‘em in concert, so it’s not a bad album, just kind of a less-than-great idea. [Warner Bros.] Doug Van Pelt
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