The Trouble With Never: Another Post About the Return of Van Halen

They've still got it.

I've now seen Van Halen four times, and between age, all of the lead singer changes, the contentious history of the band with whomever is their singer at the time, and Eddie Van Halen's health scares, I'm always afraid each tour will be their last and also a little worried about how they'll sound live.

No reason to worry. I went to the Van Halen concert* on Monday at the CoreStates FirstUnion Wachovia Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, and from the opening chords of "Unchained", one of my favorites, to final notes of "Jump" two hours later, when David Lee Roth signaled the end of the show by waving a giant checkered flag as massive amounts of ticker tape rained down on the stage, they sounded awesome.

I'd last seen Van Halen on their 2007 reunion tour. Five years later, time has taken a bit of a toll on Roth. He doesn't look as youthful, and maybe has last a just a bit of his vocal range. Most of the time he still sounds fine, like himself, and more importantly, he just is himself. I became a Van Halen fan during the Sammy Hagar years. I like Sammy; I've seen the band with Sammy; I would just as gladly go see them again with Sammy -- but David Lee Roth is a better performer and I just think a VH concert is more fun with him in the lineup. His energy level and stage presence are just unmatched. It sounds like Dave's antics are quite a bit restrained compared to his 1970s and early 80s heyday with Van Halen, but he still puts on a great show.

I'm not even sure what needs to be said about the Van Halen brothers that others haven't said much better than I. They've been great in every show in which I've seen them, but I think Eddie's guitar solo, a 10-minute mix of "Eruption" and "Cathedral", was the longest and best I've ever heard from him in those four concerts. His "jump", after a hip replacement, is just a little hop now, but he looks healthy and sounds great. Eddie's solos are the best thing about seeing the band live, the thing you miss by not seeing them, and he gets most of the attention, but Alex never disappoints, either.

The most obvious difference between the 2007 and 2012 tours is the growth of Wolfgang Van Van Halen. He was technically excellent in 2007, but he didn't yet seem comfortable in his role. He stood in one place, played his part, very softly sang his background vocals. Now, he's a rock star in his own right He's the most mobile of the Van Halens, being 20 years old, and he understandably moved around the stage much more than Eddie. It's a bit funny to see, three aging 1970s rock stars and a normal-looking 20-year old, but it like Wolfgang was having fun out there.

The only bad thing you can say about Wolfgang is only that he's not Michael Anthony -- it's just odd to hear a different voice singing the background vocals on songs I've listened to thousands of times.

I reconnected with an old friend, the person who got me hooked on Van Halen many years ago, to go to the show, and we both felt like interaction between Roth and Wolfgang was interesting. They share a mic quite often, and DLR seems like he's trying to make Wolf laugh, while the young bassist endures Dave's antics with mild amusement. It's easy to speculate that Dave likes Wolf more than the other members of the band -- he's the only Van Halen who hasn't kicked Dave out of Van Halen...yet.

The set list was mostly 1970s and 80s -- Roth (or the band with Roth) refused to play any Hagar-era stuff. They opened with "Unchained", closed with "Jump", and hit the highlights of the era in between, with some selections that I didn't hear on the last Roth tour. I am a fan of the new album, and so I was glad to hear some of the new stuff: "Tattoo", "She's the Woman", "Chinatown", and "The Trouble With Never". Eddie and Alex both had solos, and Dave's solo was to narrate some video about his sheep and cattle-herding dogs. It's a funny story, if only to picture as Dave says, "a bunch of famers and him" -- normal guys and sequenced-pant wearing David Lee Roth -- sitting behind their pickups watching whose dog can herd the best. He then takes his acoustic guitar and sings the beginning of "Ice Cream Man" before the Van Halens return and Dave's guitar is a decoration again.

Here's the setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/van-halen/2012/wells-fargo-center-philadelphia-pa-23dee04f.html

My only criticism, as a fan of both eras of Van Halen, is that a DLR show ignores a big portion of the band's history, where a lot of hits were made. I understand why Dave doesn't want to sing Hagar stuff, and I've read that Sammy didn't want to sing Roth stuff, but couldn't not sing some of the band's pre-Hagar hits. I wish somehow everyone could get along well enough that they could tour with both Sammy and Dave and we'd get to hear the hits from both eras performed by the original singers. That will never happen and I'm grateful to have gotten the chance to see them with both Dave and Sammy**.

Of course, on several different occasions I never thought I'd see another Van Halen tour, either.

(Van Halen as seen from low Earth orbit. I'd unfortunately forgotten to bring a real camera. Rats.)

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*I also wanted to mention that the opening act, Kool and the Gang, was a lot of fun, but it seemed to not fit anywhere above and I didn't want to rewrite the whole blog post. Our plan was to stop and get some food before the concert, and we knew our timing might not get us there in time for the opening act and were fine with that. I'm glad we saw most of their set. They got everyone in a good, retro mood that was perfect for seeing Van Halen. Kool and the Gang would probably be more fun in a small venue than from the very top row of the CoreStates FirstUnion Wachovia Wells Fargo Center, but it was still an inspired choice for an opening act.

** I've also seen them with Gary Cherone in 1998. Honestly, while Van Halen III, the album they put out with Gary, just doesn't sound like Van Halen to me, I thought he did a good job performing in concert with the band.

A Different Kind of Truth

"We now return to our regularly-scheduled program. If Van Halen ever puts out a new album, I'll review it. Please don't hold your breath..."

-- Brian, July 18 2011

I never thought I'd be writing this post. After going off-topic for a review of the long-awaited Blink-182 album, I promised another music review only if the oft-feuding monsters of rock that had been my favorite band since 1988 put out some new material. With nary a peep since their 2007 tour with David Lee Roth on vocals and Eddie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang, filling in for the venerable Michael Anthony on bass, I postulated that the DLR had been de facto kicked out of the band again and that we'd seen the last of them.

I don't need to recount the whole sordid history of Van Halen and its rotating lead singers, but let's back up just a little.

Of course, everyone knew "Jump", "Panama", "Hot for Teacher", and other Van Halen hits, but I would say that I really became a Van Halen fan back in 1988, when my friend Brian played OU812 while we were playing Nintendo in my (parents') basement. From ominous opening strains of "Mine All Mine", a rather obscure song that remains my favorite Van Halen tune, I was hooked.

In 1991, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was released. "Right Now" is the super hit off that record, but "Judgement Day" and "The Dream is Over" are excellent too. Balance, released in 1994, when I was high-school senior, was playing almost every day as I drove to school. I loved the older stuff, with David Lee Roth on lead vocals, but Eddie (Van Halen), Alex (Van Halen), Sammy (Hagar), and Mike (Anthony) was the lineup I first really got to know. I give you all that background just to explain that while somr Van Halen purists will insist that Van Halen with Roth is the only Van Halen, I don't have the strong antipathy toward one of them that I think most participants in a "Sammy or Dave" debate probably have. Instead, I just lament what might have been had the Van Halen brothers been able to get along with one of the two lead singers.

The Van Halen brothers kicked Sammy out of the band in 1996 to briefly re-unite with Dave, after recording some new songs with him for their "best of" album, only to almost immediately kick Dave right back out of the band. I saw them on tour in 1998 with Gary Cherone, but let's pretend I didn't, and was lucky enough to catch them in '04 when they re-united with Sammy, who they subsequently kicked out of the band for a second time. In '07, they improbably reunited with Dave, and put on a great show (during which they played not a single "Hagar" song), but after years of silence I didn't think we'd ever see another Van Halen album.

Then a few weeks ago...out of nowhere, Van Halen is touring with Dave again. (I know it's not really out of nowhere, just that I missed it.) I skeptically suggested that they must be trying to make a quick buck one last time (which may still be true), and then wham! learn there's an album on the way, entitled A Different Kind of Truth, which I downloaded today.

Ok, Brian. You like Van Halen. You never thought they'd put album out. Great. Terrific. What's it sound like?

(Drumroll...)

I like it. There's no "Jump" on here. No "Running with the Devil", "Panama", or "Unchained". I'm not sure there's any "greatest hits" on this, but it sounds like a David Lee Roth-era Van Halen album...which it should, since many of the songs are based on demos written in the '70s. It's really loud, mostly fast, features excellent guitar solos, and is definitely fun. If you're looking for lyrical genius, look elsewhere. With no disrespect meant to Wolfgang Van Halen, Michael Anthony's backing vocals are missed. I think most of the songs have a similar sound, which in my opinion makes "Blood and Fire", my favorite song on the album, stand out. I think "The Trouble With Never" has the best chance of being a hit, which probably dooms it to an existence without radio airplay. "Stay Frosty" is my least favorite song on the album, but it's not as bad as I feared when I heard the preview on the band's facebook page. It does get loud, the preview just didn't last long enough.

If you like DLR-era Van Halen, I think you'll like it. And I might have to re-appropriate "Blood and Fire" (which sounds like it's really Dave talking about his return to the band and their comeback) as the anthem of my return to the roads. I'm still skeptical that the Van Halen reunion is a long-term one, and maybe that's for the best, but this is fun. I just hope that they don't kick Dave out of the band again until after March 6, when I've got a ticket to see them in Philadelphia.

You can preview the songs on the album on iTunes or the band's facebook, or espn.com, for reasons I can't determine, has six full songs, including all of the ones I've mentioned.

http://espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/feature/video/_/page/van-halen/different-kind-truth

Hopefully, as my break from running draws to a close, you enjoyed this little departure from boring race recaps and complaining. We'll now return to our regular subject matter. If the original lineup of Guns 'n' Roses ever gets back together, then I'll write another music review.

Your move, Axl.

Up All Night

I'm not planning on running again until Wednesday night, so I'm going way off-topic here.

(Up All Night digital single artwork by David Choe -- from the Blink-182 facebook page.)

Blink-182 has been part of my life since May 1999. I still remember the day I walked into the record store at the West Manchester Mall with a $20 in my pocket, likely a graduation gift, and not only no idea what to buy, but no idea of where I what I was doing in life. "What's My Age Again?" was playing in the store, and it just seemed right.

Let's flash back. Job prospects were looking sketchy, to see the least. I hadn't been offered either of the jobs that I thought were my best chances coming out of college and other than a single interview the Monday after graduation, I wasn't getting any bites.

I spent a lot of time on AOL on the computer in the spare bedroom of my parents' house, looking for jobs on this new Internet thingy and instant messaging with my other equally unlucky friends.

It wasn't all bad. When I wasn't looking for gainful employment, I had plenty of time to spend my days sleeping till noon and shooting hoops at a court near my house in the afternoon, and spending my nights going out to the dive bars of York and Harrisburg with said friends. When I did find a job, in Philadelphia, I was an underutilized (paid) intern with lots of free time to sit in my basement cubicle and chat with my underutilized intern colleagues about the Eagles, the glory days of college, and where he'd go for lunch or happy hour.

Enema of the State was the soundtrack of that Summer, and "What's My Age Again?" was its anthem. For me, it was the beginning of a shift in my musical tastes that continues to this day...not that I don't still love Van Halen and occasionally blast the Crue, Poison, and their big haired ilk.

Since then, I've purchased a previous Blink-182 album, Dude Ranch, as well as the two follow-ups to Enema, the cleverly-named Take off Your Pants and Jacket and the last record before rising tensions in the band led them to go on "indefinite hiatus" in 2005, the self-titled Blink-182. They've all been on heavy rotation on my CD players and later MP3 players since and have been a gateway drug to other punk rock bands for me. (I'm not going to get into any arguments about what's punk and what isn't. I really don't care. It's all opinion. Nor am I claiming any expertise whatsoever of that subject matter.)

In the meantime, it seemed like we'd heard the last new music from Blink-182. I enjoyed Tom DeLonge's new band, "Angels & Airwaves", and Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker in "+44", but it just wasn't the same. Two friends and I did a very strong air-guitar rendition of "What's My Age Again?", complete with inflatable guitars at one of the friend's weddings, but we were no substitute for the real thing.

Unfortunately, it took the near-death of drummer Travis Barker in a 2008 plane crash to get the three arguing band members back together, but once the three of them were back in a room together, it seemed that they quickly decided to put aside their differences and get the band back together. They made their announcement as they presented at the 2009 Emmys, when they appeared in public together for the first time in four years, and quickly confirmed it on the band's website:

Hi. We're Blink-182. This past week there've been a lot of questions about the current status of the band, and we wanted you to hear it straight from us. To put it simply, We're back. We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy. Summer 2009. Thanks and get ready.

After their bitter breakup, would it last? So far, yes. The reunited Blink-182 indeed went on tour in Summer 2009; I had a great time seeing them live for the first time on a rainy August night at Hersheypark Stadium, and now they've finally put out their first new material since 2003.

You can listen to their new single, "Up All Night" here (from the band's official YouTube site):



I like it. It took a few listens, but I really, really like it.

The main criticism of it that I've read is that it sounds more like Angels & Airwaves than Blink-182. At first listen, I agreed. However, while it's never going to be mistaken for "What's My Age Again?" or "Dammit", or even the more serious "Adam's Song" or the more positive "All the Small Things", I do think it's the continuing evolution of what they sounded like on the last Blink-182 album. The seamless back-and-forth between the two singers is what makes it sound like Blink-182 to me, and Travis Barker is excellent on drums, as always. It grew on me as I listened to it a few times; the same was true of Blink-182.

As Blink-182 got older, their sound changed and their lyrics matured as well. Sophomoric humor and lyrics about high-school parties, breaking up with girlfriends, or the lack of such, and even an infatuation with Princess Leia comprise Dude Ranch and Enema of the State. The band was in their 20s and their listeners were high-school and college students. These themes are less common on Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (except for, of course, the album title) and largely absent from Blink-182. But even so, this is pretty dark stuff for Blink:

Everyone wants to call it all around our life with a better name.
Everyone falls and spins and gets up again with a friend who does the same.
Everyone lies and cheats their wants and needs and still believes their heart.
And everyone gets the chills, the kind that kills when the pain begins to start.

Let me get this straight, do you want me here?
As I struggle through each and every year.
And all these demons, they keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.

Everyone's cross to bears the crown they wear on endless holiday.
Everyone raises kids in a world that changes life to a bitter game.
Everyone works and fights, stays up all night to celebrate the day.
And everyone lives to tell the tale of how we die alone some day.

Let me get this straight, do you want me here?
As I struggle through each and every year.
And all these demons, they keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.
They keep me up all night.

They're older. Their listeners are older. The world seems more serious than it did in May of 1999. This isn't quite the Blink-182 of old. But 12 years later, it just seems right.

We now return to our regularly-scheduled program. If Van Halen ever puts out a new album, I'll review it. Please don't hold your breath.