This one is about my experiences seeing Van Halen live.

Three was NOT a charm.

Some say I never actually saw Van Halen, because all the shows I saw were with Sammy Hagar. I kind of agree, actually. Van Halen was sort of long in the tooth by the time I was old enough to attend a concert, and they were deep into Sammy territory, so the edge and “show” were sort of gone. But I loved 67% of the shows I saw.

The first time I saw VH was May 1, 1992 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Literally two days into the LAPD/Rodney King riots. I was living in San Diego and my mom drove down with my brothers from Bakersfield. My poor mother – she drove around LA to the east just for safety. They got a hotel and we hung out and acted like idiots, so excited about the show.

So we go to the arena and it was just a mass of people. Sold out show. I think it was the first time we all four brothers ever went and did something like this together (if I recall correctly, Mom just stayed at the hotel – I may be misremembering). We lined up to get in, then we found our seats, which were way up in the back, but with a good, central view, even though we were kind of far away. Baby Animals was the opening act (fronted by Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme’s now-ex-wife Suze) They were unremarkable and to be honest, just not my thing. Not the type of band you’d expect to open for Van Halen. Plus they sounded like shit. Not sure if that was just the headliner crapping on the opener with a bad mix or their sound engineer’s fault in some way. It was kind of a crappy-sounding arena. Most are, actually. Outdoor shows ALWAYS sound better. My brothers and I had a great time, though, despite everything and the climate of Southern California at the time.

I think about seven or eight days later I got drunk for the first time in my life in Tijuana. Seems appropriate.

The second time I saw Van Halen was during the Right Here Right Now tour in July 11, 1993 at Jones Beach Theater in New York. My Aunt Eileen made it happen. We drove up to New York and stayed with our family there. It was SO MUCH FUN. Got a T-shirt. Ate food. It was kind of hot but the sea breeze kept us cool. Vince Neil’s solo band opened the show, and they were better than you would expect. Steve Stevens was his guitarist – and he RULED. Van Halen was ON, too. It was an amazing show. They played “Unchained”, which I don’t think I’d ever heard Sammy do. We all had a truly great time, and I was inspired. This was peak EVH love for me – I had seen my hero, and he had been amazing.

The third and final time I saw Van Halen was during the shitty 2004 reunion tour on my birthday – September 16, 2004 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. I say that to put this in context. Eddie was buried under his addiction on this tour. He was FUCKED UP during this show – probably drunk and completely gacked out on coke. He and Sam were NOT getting along, and you could feel that with their interactions. This was the tour where they made Michael Anthony take a major pay cut just to participate. I already was a little annoyed at Van Halen, but I thought going to see them on my birthday might be a cool experience.

I was wrong.

First, we got into the show kind of late and missed the opening act, local Jax favorites Shinedown. I personally didn’t care all that much, to be honest. They were a butt rock band and I just wasn’t into that stuff. I think we caught the last two songs. They did sound great live. I’ll give them that. Brent Smith is a truly great singer.

Then the “mighty” VH hits the stage. The quotes reveal the irony. Sam came out strutting and he sounded great but looked stupid in a really bright yellow shirt. Alex looked like he was in physical pain behind the drums pretty much the whole show, but was managing. Mikey sounded great as usual – giving his standard excellent performance. Ed was a MESS. Playing songs wrong, missing changes, clams (wrong notes) everywhere. He looked homeless. He had his hair pulled up in a top ponytail and he had on overalls with no shirt. His tone was terrible. He didn’t seem to be meshing with anyone, including his brother, which is insane. Then we get most of the way through the show and hit the guitar solo. And it was EMBARRASSING. His guitar was out of tune the whole solo. He ham-handed his way through all his signature stuff like a drunk at Guitar Center, and let the guitar feed back like he was trying to punish us rather than do something cool. The set list was good, most of the crowd liked it (they did two encores) but the show was very upsetting for me.

I didn’t buy any merch. I walked away so disappointed. And kind of bored. And Van Halen had never really bored me, other than the 1998 album they made with Gary Cherone (Van Halen III) . I was sad about the shell they’d become. And annoyed that the show tickets cost as much as the first two combined. I was kind of done.

A few years later they announced the reunion with David Lee Roth, and when they announced that Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen would be replacing Mike on the tour, there was no way I would go. He turned out to be a quick study and is a good musician, so he wasn’t a bad choice, but I just couldn’t support it. I do look forward to hearing Wolf’s music once it comes out (release was delayed by the pandemic). But what they did here was the last straw. All evidence points to Michael Anthony being a good human and the sweetest person, and the Van Halen brothers screwed him over every chance they had. Mike found out about the tour through the media. No one called him. No one bothered. The nice guy finished last because the insecure egomaniac bullies needed to have their way.

So I never did go see them again. I tried to get free tickets for the 2015 tour through my radio contacts, simply because I wanted to see them one more time because I figured this would be it (and sadly, I was right). It didn’t happen. And I’m pretty okay with it. the 1992 and 1993 shows were fantastic. Those are the memories of Van Halen live that I will hold forever.

A little side story – in 1984 when I was living in Fremont, California, my best friend Joel’s big brother went to the Van Halen concert at the Cow Palace and I happened to be sleeping over that night, so I was awake when he came home – it was the first time I’d seen anyone partied out. He was so happy, though. I remember he had this awesome headband that I still think about to this day (the middle one).

Take care, all! Thanks for coming on this little journey.

Rest in peace, Ed. Rest in peace, Van Halen. Thanks for all the great music.

Wash your hands. Physically distance. Call your friends. Vote for sanity and respect. Black lives matter.

Peace be the journey!

TMS