By Meanie Beanie (Trev Morson)

Let me start off by stating, I was 21 when the first VH album was released in 1978 and I have been studying (especially Eddie) and enjoying Van Halen ever since. I have seen many Van Halen concerts over the years. In addition, I play lead guitar in my classic rock band and we cover at least 8 Van Halen tunes in our 50 song set list. My band (Wolfs Crossing) introduced ‘Mean Street’ (not an easy song) into our own set list this year. I have been playing in rock bands for close to 45 years now. Enough about me!

In a lot of the Van Halen tour reviews, it seems the opening band, “Kenny Wayne Shepherd” (KWS), is often overlooked. This was my first time seeing KWS and I only know of them through the ‘Blue on Black’ hit. This band is astounding!!.. it’s like Hendrix, Frank Marino and SRV all reincarnated together plus TEN!

KWS play a lot of Blues/Rock stuff (and I thought he was a country guy), and KWS himself is a very accomplished guitarist. KWS’s guitar solo’s are simply amazing and along with the original drummer from SRV, they fully entertained and did not disappoint. KWS closed the set list with an incredible long rendition of Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile’. They were so good I will be buying a KWS album this week. KWS himself plays and beats the crap out of his guitars, so much so, I think he played a different guitar for each song in his set list. Great band!! The approx. 30,000 crowd absolutely adored them.

Ok, so onto The Mighty Van Halen themselves.

I was one of those upset with DLR’s vocals on the TV appearances earlier this year and on some tracks on the Tokyo CD. I made the tough decision not to go see them this year because of this, (because of DLR himself). However, call it fate and/or destiny, I was given free tickets to go see them 10 rows from the front on Eddie’s side. I could not refuse and jumped at the opportunity, mainly based on previous fan reviews from the tour thus far.

Clearly in my mind, this tour should be named “The True VH Fan Tour” and thanks to Wolfie, who has been pretty much running the VH show since 2007, we get to hear some of the VH deep cuts never or rarely played on tour before. Wolfie is up with the times, listening to us (our wants and needs) and participating a lot on the internet.

The Chicago venue (Tinley Park amphitheater), was an hour drive away. I was so excited and pumped, we left early and arrived 90 minutes before the parking lots opened. Show was to start at 7.30pm, the parking lots opened at 5.30pm. However, to my dismay, once parked, the gates do not open until 6.30pm. What an idiotic way to treat fans when they could have been in the facility collecting revenue from the food, drink and concert gear stalls much earlier. So, my wife and I stood for an hour near the front of the big gates. But, we did get to hear the sound check from outside. About 5 songs were played and the one that stood out the most for me, was ‘DDL’, everyone outside was cheering! I have never seen so many people wearing Van Halen t-shirts before, and, all ages, from 10 years old upwards.

Gates finally opened, Standard VH T-Shirts were $40, 16oz Bud Light was $11 and a double Bacardi/Diet Coke was $17 (in a standard solo cup). Weather was high 80’s, hot & humid!

Van Halen opened with “Light Up the Sky”, I think by now, everyone knows the set list that is played which is about two hours’ worth of tunes. So.. what can I say?

Let’s start with Dave Lee Roth (DLR), since he is the one that generates much discussion on a tour. Am I actually typing this? — his vocals were spot on, on pitch, on melody, in time and no words forgotten, he even did a few of his older high pitchy screams, he didn’t rap through ‘Unchained’ or ‘Panama’, for instance, he sang every VH tune just as they are when they were recorded, or at least as close to it as one can at his age. I was shocked!!

DLR was amazing for a number of other reasons too, he wasn’t prancing around like a cheer leader or twirling the mic stand or sliding on the floor or performing twirls or silly dance moves, instead he commanded the stage as a front man should, walking and moving around singing his god damn heart out. He wasn’t chatty between songs either, though he did make a reference of himself now, compared to how he was in the 80’s, almost asking the crowd for understanding and support. Overall, a very mellow DLR, which I believe in this day and age, for the most part, is what VH fans want.

This all got me to thinking about the Eddie Billboard interview and how many of us were disappointed in that. In hindsight, it may have been a blessing in disguise, almost as though because of that interview, Eddie finally tamed the Lion in DLR. Van Halen at this show, was a “band” with the four members all contributing equally, no more DLR show antics with a backing band behind him. Reports are that DLR was not feeling 100%, perhaps a cold or flu, he did cough a few times in between songs. His comradery with Eddie was a site to see, often hugging and laughing with each other.

Just before a perfect ‘Ice Cream Man” rendition, DLR, sat on a white chair, told a story of the most expensive ‘Chili Dog’ he ever bought in his early VH touring days, apparently making the plane stop on tour because he was hungry and having to pay $20,000 for an emergency charter flight to make a show. We all listened intently and laughed afterwards.

Alex was on fire (who would expect anything else from him), his drum solo much better than the previous tour in 2012, it wasn’t the Latin/Santana style solo at all (heard on the Tokyo CD), but a much better techno type drum solo that had a touch a keyboards played throughout. Not sure if Alex has aged a lot or if it was the lighting rig that often made his face look skeleton like (think of those skeletons from Grateful Dead), either way, Alex was on fire and the same old gleaming smile between he and Eddie throughout the show.

Wolfgang as we know is a better bass player than Michael Anthony, playing at least a hundreds more notes per song that MA did and often, Wolfie would play bass chords to compliment his dad, a full rhythm section is provided by he and Alex for sure and much more so than previous tours. His stage presence was much the same as previous tours, he seems instead, to want to play 100% perfect and not prance about the stage and he accomplished that. The only time I saw him and Eddie stand together was during the tapping intro of ‘China Town’. Wolfie used his grey and black striped bass guitar for the most part picking up the Bumblebee bass for a couple of songs. Behind him to the side, he did have some red/white/black striped frankenstrat bass’s that he never used. Wolfie is an accomplished fast bass player with a good thumping bass tone!

And last but not least, Eddie!… Ed is primarily using an EVH Wolfgang that was relic’ed by Chip Ellis from his TN shop and given to Eddie just before the tour. Ebony Fret board, and my guess is, that it’s still the Black Stealth with a thin coat of vintage white sprayed on it. Everything else on it is Eddie standard, D-Tuna, Kill switch etc. Ed also used his ‘Unchained’ EVH ‘circles’ guitar for ‘I’ll Wait’ and then a mini sized sunburst Wolfgang for ‘Little Guitars’. His tone changed a little on this tour and perhaps for the better, channel 1 had a cleaner sound, channel 2 had more gain and was then crunchy sounding when the EVH Wolfgang volume knob was turned down (quiet part in ‘Hot For Teacher’). Channel 3 is much like channel 2 now (as it should be) but with more volume and a tad more sustain. Key to his tone this tour, I believe, is he’s using more ‘resonance’ which is a key upgrade on the new EVH Stealth 111i series amplifiers. I know he had modified his normal EVH III amp’s on the previous tour which I believe spawned this new series of EVH Stealth amps he is using.

Ed’s solo was his usual, starting with the ‘Little Guitars’ instrumental (though I wish he would revert back to starting with ‘316’). Ed added the entire intro to ‘Mean Street’ since this tune is not part of the set list any longer. “Cathedral” is followed by the whammy bar dives on the thick E string using his ‘Octavia’ pedal. If you don’t have an ‘Octavia’ pedal, you could emulate this exactly by playing a simple E-minor chord and strumming upward on the E, A ,D strings, dive the whammy exactly to a Db and you got it exactly. Right before ‘Eruption’ Ed has added a new piece into his solo, its nothing exuberant but it’s different nonetheless. Not a note out of place yet he seems to get faster and faster every tour and much faster than his recordings. His roadies are fast, he switches guitars and you never notice it.

My favorite songs of the show were ‘DDL’, ‘Someone Get me a Doctor’ and ‘Little Guitars’ (and of course the Eddie solo).

Something strange happened on two songs. DLR didn’t rap the words as much during “Hot For Teacher” and then during “Ain’t Talkin Bout Love”, Dave went across to Eddie and discussed something, almost as if DLR said ‘I am done, I quit”, DLR didn’t sing all of the ‘Hey-Hey-Hey’ stuff at the end ,(the crowd did loudly), Ed hit him on the back smiling as if to say “get on with it” but it did somewhat put Eddie off because I swear Ed played a C chord at the end of “Ain’t Talkin Bout Love” when it should have been an E chord.

I thought the ‘excellent’ harmonies from Ed and Wolfie were a tad louder on the chorus’s of songs almost drowning DLR out, but then I realized toward the end of the show that the crowd also sings these too. So for those of you missing Michael Anthony’s high harmonies, let it be known here, that VH fans is the replacement

I came away from this show astounded and blessed, Van Halen blew everyone away, I was blessed that I just witnessed the best VH show EVER! They played and acted like a seasoned professional outstanding band which we all know Van Halen are and they proved it this time, ‘live’. The venue was packed to the brim, I believe to capacity, (28,000) and no, nobody left the show early.

Van Halen in 2015 provided an ecstatic experience for all who attended!

Backup dudes!

Aren’t they cute!