Where have all the good times gone?

Well, last night they were in Dallas. I went to the Van Halen concert at the American Airlines arena and it was great. Really good show. I almost bought a shirt. I didn't, but if I had school today I would have (don't tell me you didn't do that).

Funny thing is last time I saw Van Halen (the original group) was in Dallas in 1984. Ah, the good old days. It so happened that was the LAST TIME the band played together before their recent reunion (minus a few failed attempts over the years). BTW, this was of course not the "complete" original group. Bassist Michael Anthony is not on the tour. There are still hard feelings between him and Eddie regarding Sammy. So, Eddie's teenage son Wolfgang is playing in Michael's place. And he did a nice job. Kinda weird to think he wasn't even born when the band played in Dallas last.

It was very cool to hear all the favorites like "Jamie's Crying", "Dancing In The Street", "Atomic Punk", "Beautiful Girls", "Pretty Woman", etc., etc. They ONLY played David Lee Roth era songs. And they actually played a lot of deep cuts and B-side kinda stuff. Heard a rumor Eddie had to re-learn some of the songs! They even did "Ice Cream Man", which I don't recall seeing before - and it's one of the only songs Roth actually plays guitar on (he's good too).

A couple very cool things in this show that you very rarely see in today's newer bands are the presence of a Guitar Solo and Drum Solo. These are pretty much lost arts today. Now don't get me wrong. I love music from "modern" bands. And really as most folks know Nirvana was the band that killed the guitar solo - and since then (the early 90s) most bands don't do that. Which isn't a bad thing either. It's just nice to see an act that is SO focused on the lead guitar. And it's nice to be at a show that does the old routine of having a drum solo and then a guitar solo so the other guys can go take a piss and do a line of coke. Well, maybe not coke anymore for these guys. More like drink a coca-cola or a glass of ice tea.

But that's a good thing. The band seems like they're in a great place.

Eddie and Dave are definitely fit - for any age - but especially for being 53. Last night was actually Eddie's birthday and David got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to him. That was fun. Eddie looks better now (since rehab) than he did 15 years ago.

One video-related thing I can share is they had a huge screen behind the stage that was basically just a projected image of the show (in HD). It was great though because otherwise we'd never been able to see much. Why? Well, we were in the nose bleed seats big time. I'd never sat that high up (can you say VERTIGO?). I don't want to sit there again either. You can't see. Heat rises, so it was real hot. And all the pot smoke rises, so it was hard to breathe at some points (especially when some dude fired up some skunk weed and then a cigar!).

In the end I had a blast and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in another 24 years. Talk about nostalgia (though, they're actually coming back to Dallas on March 3rd, so I might just go then).

But I think first I WILL get that shirt so I can show all my friends I went to the show last night. Of course today you don't have to actually go to the show to get a shirt. You can just buy it online. And while you're at it you can see the bootleg video of the show too, on YouTube.

I kinda miss 1984.

-Blake

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