Van Halen announce 2012 Tour

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Rolling Stone:

Van Halen may still be cagey about whether they will release a new album on Interscope sometime in 2012, but they have announced plans to tour through the year with original frontman David Lee Roth.

Van Halen with David Lee Roth was one of the best bands of all time.


  • Anonymous

    Sponsored by Bengay…

  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    Did you actually see any of the 2007 shows? Perfunctory note-for-note replays of the original songs, including an almost move-for-move recreation of “Jump” with the really, really bizarre visual of eddie hiding on stage during the opening synth bits, even though he wasn’t playing.

    The vocal tracks with Michael Anthony’s backup singing were particularly lame, especially when they failed, and you got to hear unedited Eddie and Wolfgang. Shades of Linda McCartney. (If you’re going to kick someone out of the band, have some fucking balls and stop using their voice for your background. )

    It was honestly dull. No one stood up, (well, except for the opening of “Beautiful Girls”) the band ignored everyone in the venue who wasn’t in the pit in front of the stage. But, Eddie did get to masturbate on a fretboard for 90 or so minutes, and that appeared to be his only reason for playing. “I’m EDDIE VAN HALEN, SUPER SHREDDER”. Yes Eddie. We know. We know who you are. Now, can you set your no-longer-cute insecurities aside, put your dick back in your pants and be “Eddie Van Halen, awesome musician when he’s not obsessing over everyone else’s opinion of his dick.”

    as a counterpoint, Sammy and Michael Anthony played in KC one week later. Blew. VH’s. Concert. Away. The crowd was on fire, they were playing well, people were screaming and on their feet the entire time, and Sammy actually showed that he was still amazed that people show up and listen to him. When his bass player tried to not sign an autograph for a fan of her other band, Sammy scolded her, saying: “You always sign autographs. These people here, they’re why we get to do this. They’re why we get to do what we love in places like this and have all this fun, and even get paid.” 

    The funny part was when they did some of Sammy’s VH stuff, rearranged in some cases, (the solo acoustic version of “Dreams” was far more powerful than the original). It was a bit of a wink towards Eddies continual temper tantrum because Sammy won’t kiss VH brother ass appropriately. And Gary Cherrone is just an unperson at this point.

    As I told Dave Hamilton on Twitter: The real problem with VH was never their lead singer, it’s always been Eddie. 

    • Anonymous

      The 80′s are definitely over.

  • Anonymous

    The first Van Halen album is still my go-to music for hot summer nights with the windows rolled down and the highway streaming by at maximum speed.

  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    I always thought that Eddie’s real genius wasn’t in solo pyrotechnics, but riffs. (In that, he’s much like Jimmy Page). “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, “Running with the Devil”, his version of “You Really Got Me Now”, “Source of Infection”, “Sucker in a 3 Piece”, “Cabo Wabo”, on and on, Eddie’s riffs are amazing. 

    But he acts as though solo speed and the rest are all anyone cares about him for, and I think that’s sad. I still hope, vainly, that one day, he’ll not be so worried about his status as the Soloist Supreme, and think about his music more. I’d love to see what might happen if he took a new approach to some of his songs. Might not work, might be amazing.