{"id":24070,"date":"2015-04-08T12:38:02","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/?p=24070"},"modified":"2015-04-08T12:38:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T17:38:02","slug":"van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Halen – Tokyo Dome VH in Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vanhalenlivetokyocd\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Van Halen<\/strong>
\n Tokyo Dome VH in Concert<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

I watched the Jimmy Kimmel show performances before I heard a lick of this album and I\u2019m 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\u2019s certainly a showman on stage. Anyone who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

On the Jimmy Kimmel show and probably at this show at the Tokyo Dome, he\u2019s doing his best Bono imitation. And we all know there\u2019s only one Bono. Well, I take that back, there are two Bono\u2019s. Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. does a great Bono impersonation. I\u2019m not talking his singing voice. I\u2019m 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\u2019t get the video side of the event. We just end up losing the vocals being front and center. Whether he\u2019s walking, running, laughing or pausing, it\u2019s kind of a giant drop-out of the overall musical experience. Something is lost in translation.<\/p>\n

Dave has left the building.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But after slogging forward and spinning the album for the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth times, now I\u2019m getting more of the picture. I kinda threw up in my mouth a little on the first listen, but now I\u2019m coming back for extra helpings. Van Halen has grown on me again.<\/p>\n

The first big reason, I think, is the setlist. It\u2019s the songs. It\u2019s 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 \u201cWomen in Love\u201d stand up and shout, much like hearing the lively and energetic \u201cFor Your Life\u201d on Zeppelin\u2019s Celebration Day<\/em> album. This song is great and captures and reflects the whole Van Halen package \u2013 great melodies that\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m not sure, but I\u2019m guessing that dear old dad does some BGV\u2019s, too. I bet you $100 that Anthony\u2019s absence is why \u201cJamie\u2019s Cryin\u2019\u201d is missing from the set.<\/p>\n

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 (\u201cRunnin\u2019 With The Devil,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m The One,\u201d complete with some fun \u201cBop-badda-shoobie-do-wah\u2019s\u201d and \u201cYou Really Got Me,\u201d \u201cEruption\u201d and the best VH song ever \u2013 \u201cAin\u2019t Talkin\u2019 Bout Love\u201d) and that\u2019s good. It\u2019s too bad \u201cIce Cream Man\u201d 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 (\u201cSomebody Get Me A Doctor,\u201d \u201cDance the Night Away,\u201d \u201cAnd the Cradle Will Rock\u2026\u201d \u201cRomeo Delight,\u201d \u201cWomen in Love,\u201d \u201cBeautiful Girls\u201d and \u201cEverybody Wants Some!\u201d) and the under-appreciated fourth album, Fair Warning<\/em>, make a healthy appearance (\u201cUnchained\u201d starts off the album, \u201cHear About it Later\u201d and \u201cMean Street\u201d) and even a tune from Diver Down<\/em> (\u201c(Oh) Pretty Woman\u201d) is represented. Of course, \u201cJump\u201d is the big encore from the 1984<\/em> album (as well as \u201cHot For Teacher\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll Wait\u201d and \u201cPanama\u201d). Of the three new tunes off A Different Kind of Truth<\/em> (\u201cincluding \u201cChina Town\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s the Woman\u201d), \u201cTattoo\u201d sounds the best.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not complaining, but next time add in \u201cIn A Simple Rhyme,\u201d \u201cSo This is Love,\u201d \u201cJamie\u2019s Cryin\u2019\u201d and \u201cAtomic Punk\u201d and I\u2019ll be even happier. I\u2019ll even let \u2018em keep \u201cIce Cream Man\u201d on there.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s loose, it\u2019s loud (thankfully, Eddie Van Halen\u2019s masterful licks are all mixed way at the top) and it\u2019s full of energy. It\u2019s better than the Van Halen bootleg concert recordings I used to have and it\u2019s up to par with every time I\u2019ve seen \u2018em in concert, so it\u2019s not a bad album, just kind of a less-than-great idea. [Warner Bros.] Doug Van Pelt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t forget Gary Cherone (Van Halen 3 album) and the Michael Anthony\/Wolfgang Van Halen and other topics. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,23],"tags":[3849,3381,3848],"class_list":["post-24070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-blog","category-reviews","tag-randy-passenon","tag-van-halen","tag-van-pelt","cat-26-id","cat-17-id","cat-23-id"],"yoast_head":"\nVan Halen - Tokyo Dome VH in Concert - The Original Heaven's Metal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Van Pelt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/\",\"name\":\"Van Halen - Tokyo Dome VH in Concert - The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/vanhalen2012tour_638.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-08T17:38:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#\/schema\/person\/b155afeb7086c8182b3bb3b435e68c4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/vanhalen2012tour_638.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/vanhalen2012tour_638.jpg\",\"width\":625,\"height\":417},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/van-halen-tokyo-dome-vh-in-concert\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Van Halen – Tokyo Dome VH in Concert\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\",\"name\":\"The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"description\":\"Former Editor-in-Chief. 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