As I mentioned last night, I saw Van Halen and it was just fricking great! Seriously, awesome show! My brother in law scored tix the day they went on sale ($100 a pop! I'll get back to that) and since then we'd been anxiously awaiting the show like two school kids waiting for Christmas break. Finally, the day arrived and I managed to secure us a ride to the show (my wife) and somehow coerced my sister to pick us up. You know what that means...beer! And lots of it.
We left a little too early and decided to get dinner at the Pyramid Ale House in Berkeley. Their Snow Cap is my favorite winter beer so we had some of that and as usual there, some substandard food. Yet before parking the car, we saw a sign that said the BART station was nearby and taking BART to the show (BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit...it's a subway) we could miss all the traffic and my wife could have an easier trip. So, we took BART. Across from us was this guy:
I'm not sure if he was a pimp or a minister, it's hard to tell. But he had that red pinstriped suit on, a sweet white hat and matching red leather shoes. Next to him on the seat was a fur coat. It was pretty kickass! If you look at the reflection in the window, you can see my taking his photo and trying to be sly. BART took us to the show and we got there just in time to miss another one Bob Marley's less talented progeny do some crappy reggae act. All I heard was a lackluster version of "I Shot the Sheriff." Laaaame. Also lame was the fact the "large" beers were $11.00! EACH!! Frigging criminals.
So we got some beers and headed off to our $100 seats which my bro-in-law was convinced were pretty good. The section we were in was just in front of the stage, to the side so that was a good start. Then we started looking for row 19. That would be....the last row. Yup, nose bleeders for $100! Again, frigging criminals. But then again, it's Van Halen with David Lee Roth back at the helm and I didn't really care. Although I felt ripped off a little. Those are $50 seats, people. Here's a photo from our seats from when the show started. The top is blocked off because that's the ceiling at the Oakland Coliseum!!
Grrr.
Before the show started though, i started missing my buddy Lance who is the biggest VH fan there is. I think he and I saw VH with Sammy about 6 times one summer. He lives in Reno now and had his kids this weekend so he couldn't come along. But I texted him and then continued to text him the setlist which was smart because I would have forgot it. Here it is in all it's glory:
You Really Got Me
Show Your Love
Running with the Devil
**A song I didn't know and neither did my bro-in-law**
Somebody get me a Doctor (and I went to get more beer)
Beautiful Girls
Dance the Night Away
Atomic Punk (this was a great surprise)
Everybody Wants Some (and I wanted more beer so I missed it)
So This is Love
Cathedral (part of it anyways) into...
Mean Streets
Pretty Woman
Drum Solo!! I hate to say it, but of the 4 unattractive men up there, Alex Van Halen looked the worst. He looks half dead but dude can still play the drums!
Unchained
I'll Wait (which seemed odd since it was written about and for Valerie Bertinelli...who Eddie divorced....but their kid was playing bass.)
Cradle Will Rock
**last beers**
Hot For teacher
Little Dreamer
Little Guitars (probably my favorite song of the night...Unchained is my favorite song ever but I couldn't hear it very well from our nose bleeders)
Janies Crying
Ice Cream Man (with that same story from the other blog posting I did)
Panama
Eddie guitar solo...which was great! You know, people always focus on Diamond Dave's antics and Alex's giant drum set and 15 foot high gong, and they forget just how innovative and amazing Eddie is. Dude's still got it even if his fingers look like wrinkled dolmas.
Aint Talkin' 'Bout Love
and
Jump
Jump was pretty "gay" as there was a huge inflatable microphone that plopped down from somewhere and Dave started like...riding it around. Not cool. But overall, man....I couldn't ask for much more. I'm not one of those people who needs to hear obscure songs from a band and VH covered the classics. Plus, they were selling shirts that had designs culled from all the old David Lee Roth tours and that was super sweet!! I had a great time until I got home to dogs on crack. I think this is the best reunion tour ever. No frills, just rock.
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