DAVID LEE ROTH: 'VAN HALEN Is Finished'

What does that even mean?

CJS4715 said:

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Uhhh, this was news about 30+ years ago.

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Except for the fact that they had their 2nd straight #1 album at the time and would go on to have two more.

I can't believe 4 idiots blue started that ignorance.

Redstone said:

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Please star

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How many stars do you have right now?

Seeing 2 at present.

Appreciated.

edit - back to 1 shortly after this post
edit2 - blue quickly, thank you all

Eddie... also responsible for their sound & greatness.

Bummer about the band. If these older rockers play their cards right, they never need to retire. The vocals will go downhill, but that can be managed.

ZZ Top, Rolling Stones, and Guns n Roses are proof it can be done. Even Sammy still puts on a great show.

At least EVH was around long enough to give everybody a chance to see him. He's a legend in spite of being a huge chode.

A top 5 band for me, Chrap Trick, kept its core intact because, like the Young brothers, Zander and Nielsen stayed humble and worked through the inevitable issues with good cheer and a genuine appreciation for the fans.

Eddie doesn't care about the fans, which is especially painful because we can handle it - if, like Gene and Paul, they are upfront and cynical about that.

It's probably for the best. The best music we are going to get out of Van Halen has long already come out. Has new music from these legacy bands from the 70's really moved the needle for any of them as a band? Are there any modern albums from these bands you are listening to on the regular? The new album is an excuse to tour and the crowd energy plummets when they play anything off it live.

As far as concerts go maybe if all goes well you'll get a fun show that compensates for the deteriorated vocals but it's clear that the guys hearts aren't in it. If they tour now its just going to be a cash grab and you'll be left annoyed you paid a small fortune for a half assed show.

Van Halen had a great run and will go down as one of the greatest bands of all time. But it's probably for the best for your last impression of them be whatever it is now and not what it would be on a final tour, assuming it doesn't fall apart before it comes to your town.

Electrical_Ag said:

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What if EVH just wants to be retired? I enjoy their music, but am no superfan. Can't he just call it quits? Honest question.

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Then fine, be retired. But they keep trying to plan these big tours, word leaks out & gets everyone excited, and then nothing happens because of Eddie. That's what upsets people.

Junkhead said:

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Electrical_Ag said:

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What if EVH just wants to be retired? I enjoy their music, but am no superfan. Can't he just call it quits? Honest question.

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Then fine, be retired. But they keep trying to plan these big tours, word leaks out & gets everyone excited, and then nothing happens because of Eddie. That's what upsets people.

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And also, just come out and say it, "I'm retired. Thank you to all the fans for years of support.". I'm totally fine with that, in light of rumored health issues. But he's not doing that, or is he doing anything else with their vault. Jimmy Page is semi-retired, and is always working on Zep projects, working to keep their name out front and legacy intact. Not (entirely) for the money, I'm sure. EVH could do all this from the comfort of his house and 5150.

Fans feel slighted because every other band of their stature has done something like this, but not VH. And BTW, Eddie is actually a really good guy. It's possible he's getting bad advice from Janie or his mgmt, I guess.

I think Eddie probably has good intentions but he has a world of health problems.

Junkhead said:

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Electrical_Ag said:

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What if EVH just wants to be retired? I enjoy their music, but am no superfan. Can't he just call it quits? Honest question.

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Then fine, be retired. But they keep trying to plan these big tours, word leaks out & gets everyone excited, and then nothing happens because of Eddie. That's what upsets people.

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I see. That makes sense for people to be upset then. Just call it a career already and be done with it.

Jasomania said:

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It's probably for the best. The best music we are going to get out of Van Halen has long already come out. Has new music from these legacy bands from the 70's really moved the needle for any of them as a band? Are there any modern albums from these bands you are listening to on the regular? The new album is an excuse to tour and the crowd energy plummets when they play anything off it live.

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Not quite as old.. but damn near it.. Metallica.

Album out in 2016, 30+ years after their critical peak, and it's #1 all over the world, and fans are very eager to hear the new songs live on the supporting tour.

But Metallica is the exception to every rule it seems.

62strat said:

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Jasomania said:

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It's probably for the best. The best music we are going to get out of Van Halen has long already come out. Has new music from these legacy bands from the 70's really moved the needle for any of them as a band? Are there any modern albums from these bands you are listening to on the regular? The new album is an excuse to tour and the crowd energy plummets when they play anything off it live.

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Not quite as old.. but damn near it.. Metallica.

Album out in 2016, 30+ years after their critical peak, and it's #1 all over the world, and fans are very eager to hear the new songs live on the supporting tour.

But Metallica is the exception to every rule it seems.

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That's not really an exception, though. AC/DCs 2008 album was #1 all across the world and it was 30+ years after their critical peak and a decade after their last album. In neither case did concert goers want to hear the new stuff.

Let me preface this by saying I'm a Metallica fan who saw them twice on the Worldwired Tour and I actually liked Hardwired the album.

But when we look back at Metallica on the whole, Hardwired will be completely forgotten. Hell, we aren't even going to think about it by the time they put out a new album. On the Worldwired Tour most dates they didn't play anything off Death Magnetic or St. Anger and if they did it was at most one song. The majority of their setlists are from their first five albums and everything after that gets maybe 1 song each if anything (with the touring album getting the most). There isn't a lot of sitting during a Metallica show but you can bet when the Hardwired songs came on is when people took a pee or got a beer.

They are an exception as far as these guys are still putting on a great show and sound as good. They are making it a priority and limiting the amount of dates they tour and giving themselves days off between each show. Hopefully we'll get a couple more tours out of them but they are staring down 60 and I think they will call it quits before the quality starts falling off.

But let's be honest, Metallica is a legacy band and besides the 4 new songs from the tour album you are going to get a similar "greatest hits" concert every time you see them. The setlist from the tour I saw them on in 2003 was pretty much the same as the setlist from 2019 with the Hardwired songs being swapped for St. Anger songs.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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62strat said:

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Jasomania said:

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It's probably for the best. The best music we are going to get out of Van Halen has long already come out. Has new music from these legacy bands from the 70's really moved the needle for any of them as a band? Are there any modern albums from these bands you are listening to on the regular? The new album is an excuse to tour and the crowd energy plummets when they play anything off it live.

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Not quite as old.. but damn near it.. Metallica.

Album out in 2016, 30+ years after their critical peak, and it's #1 all over the world, and fans are very eager to hear the new songs live on the supporting tour.

But Metallica is the exception to every rule it seems.

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That's not really an exception, though. AC/DCs 2008 album was #1 all across the world and it was 30+ years after their critical peak and a decade after their last album. In neither case did concert goers want to hear the new stuff.

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Metallica is anexception since fans were very eager to hear new stuff. The anticipation of the debut of spit out the bone on the metallica forums was very high. Then the metallica youtube upload of it got 4m views pretty quickly. But, to further justify, their album in 2016 wasn't just a one-off success later in their career.
They'd had a #1 multiplatinum album EVERY time since their commercial peak of the black album almost 30 years ago.

But yeh ac/dc is a good one.. not many bands can pull off a #1 album around the world decades after their peak. U2 has done it. DMB has done it. I'm sure there are others. DMB may be another exception of the rule that fans just want to hear their old hits. DMB is a touring band and made it known early on they play all corners of their catalog, not just hits.

ahh I forgot about Tool.

They do not follow the rules. 13 years since last album and ridiculous anticipation, 25+ years since first album, and their concerts are a mix of every song off every album. You still hear 10,000 days and lateralus stuff today as well as 90s. Actually, you don't hear much off undertow which is what put them on the map with sober.

22 - very solid.

Thank you all.

I have seen VH a couple of times, once with each lead singer. I prefer Roth with VH, and Sammy solo. Like them both in their own way.

That said, The Atomic Punks, the #1 VH tribute band in the country, is playing at Boot Fest in Victoria Friday night. I will check it out and remember the good times. It will be fun.

It's a shame they didn't go back out one last time with the original lineup. When it comes to fan service, no major band does less than Van Halen.

Junkhead said:

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Electrical_Ag said:

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What if EVH just wants to be retired? I enjoy their music, but am no superfan. Can't he just call it quits? Honest question.

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Then fine, be retired. But they keep trying to plan these big tours, word leaks out & gets everyone excited, and then nothing happens because of Eddie. That's what upsets people.

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Not really sure why. Admittedly, I'm not a big concert goer and never have been. I was around during the VH heyday. My recollection of concert goers then (at least those in HS or just out) is that they went for (mostly) one of 2 reasons: drug acquisition and to get a t-shirt to wear to school the next day. Now, you're talking about an event that costs maybe 3x (in real dollars) what it costs then to see guys who's musical and entertainment skills have no doubt deteriorated. That's fine if you want to, but honestly, it shouldn't bother too many people at all.

VH's best musical days, like it or not, were with Haggar. So if you're going to hear good music, that won't happen. Plus, Eddie can still rip the guitar to shreds but otherwise he can't physically put on a show. Even if I loved concerts, and I've always liked VH -- the band I played in for a while did some VH stuff, though the guitar was obviously lacking -- I'd pass.

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My recollection of concert goers then (at least those in HS or just out) is that they went for (mostly) one of 2 reasons: drug acquisition and to get a t-shirt to wear to school the next day.

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You knew a lot of people who went to concerts to buy drugs?

expresswrittenconsent said:

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Quote:

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My recollection of concert goers then (at least those in HS or just out) is that they went for (mostly) one of 2 reasons: drug acquisition and to get a t-shirt to wear to school the next day.

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You knew a lot of people who went to concerts to buy drugs?

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Right. I went for neither.

I was listening to a 2006 interview of Eddie on Howard Stern and it bummed me out. He was busy making snide remarks about Roth, Hagar, and Michael Anthony while saying in the next breath that he doesn't have a problem with any of them. That's also when he claimed to have cured cancer but he couldn't talk about it because the method used is illegal in the US. Oh, he was also promoting the two new songs he wrote for a porno that was filmed at his house.