VAN HALEN NEWS DESK ... Because Too Much Van Halen Is Never Enough.

Posts Comments

Extreme performs “Mean Street”

August 11, 2009 83 Comments

August 8th: Extreme wrapped up their Summer 2009 tour at the House Of Blues in Boston. The band was in perfect form, ripping it up for the hometown crowd (over 200 family and friends were on the guest list!). Their incredible two-hour-plus set closed with a blazing rendition of Van Halen’s “Mean Street.” The show was filmed for an in-concert DVD that Gary Cherone tells us will be released later this year.

Here’s more EXTREME from July 28th; Ripping it up on “Get The Funk Out” and Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’:”

Congrats to Gary Cherone, Nuno Bettencourt, Pat Badger, and Kevin Figueiredo for the exceptional album Saudades de Rock and an amazing tour!

You may also like:

Filed Under: Gary Cherone, Van Halen
← Older Comments
  • Kevin Malone

    I love Extreme, saw em’ last year in Atlanta. Nuno just killed!

    I have been wondering; now that CF is back in the states and the road test (CF album, Bad Moterscooter, Highway Star) is over I assume they have added some tunes to the setlist.

    I’m seeing them in Atlanta on 8/30 and hoping for a VH song or two, Satch solo, Sammy solo (Eagles Fly)!!!!!!!!

    Does anyone know what the current setlist is?

    TY

  • DiamondDLR

    Ducky / Dirty Duck says:
    The first EXTREME album I bought was “EXTREME: III Sides To Every Story” back in 1991 i think. Yes, I’m not gonna lie…LOL…i bought it for “More Than Words”.

    …

    Duck – More Than Words is on Extreme’s second album, Pornograffitti (1990). III Sides (1992) was the follow up.

  • http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

    DiamondDLR

    Shit brother….your right!

    Whoops!

    Must have bought the “cassette single”…..remember them?

    Thanks for the mention of error!

  • kayser sozay

    BTD… speaking of covers of Won’t Get Fooled Again, have y’all seen this gem?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nPvwmk-F7A

    Man, VH needs to put out some music right quick.

  • Erick

    Man, that Michael Jackson song rocked !!!

  • Mark Sachs

    I saw Van Halen twice on the III tour and the live show was excellent. They did Mean Street on that tour and it really rocked! I actually have a bootleg of the show that I saw in Hershey Park, Pennsylvania that I still listen to on a regular basis. The fact that III only sold 500,000 copies was not entirely Gary’s fault!

    As someone mentioned earlier there was a follow up album with Gary that was never released. I read an interview where someone asked Alex if that album would ever see the light of day? Alex replied “that’s highly doubtful” I really think that, that is a real shame because Gary is judged off of the III album.

    Even though he may not have been the best fit for Van Halen it doesn’t mean that he sucks as a singer or front man. In fact he is an excellent front man and singer! Plus, every report you hear about the guy attests to the fact that he is a genuinely good fellow! Which is actually refreshing when it comes to rock stars.

    Finally, Extreme really rocks and they deserve to get all the props that they have been getting on the VHND and other places.

  • Izzy

    Kevin-
    From what I hear chickenfoot’s current set is the same as the road test except they changed up the order and removed runnin out. I was hoping for something extra too.

  • BTD

    Kayser,

    Hey thanks for the link I had never seen the clip….awesome. I wish Ed would release more 5150 footage.

  • Kevin Malone

    Izzy-

    So they are only doing 13 songs in their current show?

    CF album -1 = 11 + Bad Moterscooter + Highway Star = 13

    I hope that’s not it!

    Who has seen them since they came back from Europe? Please post a setlist.

  • Izzy

    Kevin-
    Everything you’ve added up is accurate. From what I can tell Bitten by the Wolf is still in the set too. I haven’t seen any set lists posted. If I do I’ll let ya know.

  • BTD

    Izzy, Kev,

    Just saw the Foot in Minneapolis Monday night. Same show I saw in Chicago during the “Roadtrip” phase. Great, great show. They take extended liberty’s on most of the songs so each tune cuts loose. But it is true thirteen or so songs no VH at all Highway Star & Bad Mooter Scooter for the encore. The gig reminded me of a Cheap Trick gig …90 minutes on stage and gone no SPringsteen 3 1/2 hour jam happening hear. I loved the show but it could have been longer.

  • pushtoshove

    This is proof that whoever you are it is all about chemistry and Gary and Nuno have it,,,,,cant wait to see what the new Wolf-Roth-Halen brews up.

  • Troy Con

    Mark Sachs, we were at the same show in Hershey back in ’98.

    Talked to a stage hand up by the stage prior to the show in a pathetic attempt to try and get to meet Eddie, didn’t work. Still though, it was a great concert and I was close enough to the stage to see the color of VH’s eyes. Very cool.

    As for comparing “Fair Warning” to VH3, that’s not even realistic. Totally different time periods. If you listen to the music of VH3, it’s purely authentic and incredible.

    Extreme deserves a lot more credit than they ever received. Gary is probably the best vocalist since Freddie M. for rock music. Though Freddie is and likely always will be the best ever.

  • JK47

    Of course VHIII does not compare to “the holy six pack”.All the people making those comparisons are preaching to the choir.But,it was a good record with more high points than lows.The tour was awesome.Ed sounded amazing,Gary sang great and we were treated to an incredible mix of Dave and Sammy era gems.

  • Erick

    Would be great to see Extreme support VH on next years tour.

  • MICAL VEE

    I have to say i didnt catch the VH III tour because i didnt like the cd.But after seeing some songs on you tube i wished i had!!! They RIPPED thru UNCHAINED and ROMEO DELIGHT!!!

  • DiamondDLR

    Duck –

    Cassingles! There’s a great Onion article about them.

    Man, you’re missing out on one of the all time great rock and roll songs, Extreme’s “HE-MAN WOMAN HATER.” :)

    You can listen to it (complete with Nuno’s Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee solo) via youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxrhRitq_zU

    Crank it to “11″

  • http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

    Thanks DiamondDLR!!!

    Yes cassingles! LOL! I remember spending , I think, about $2.00 a piece for em’ back in the day. Man….I had a shit load!

    Thanks for the link….I’ll check it out!

    “Crank it to “11″ ”

    Funny you mention that! I watched “Spinal Tap” last night!
    I can never get enough of that film! :)

    You’ve heard of “The decline of western civilization part II?
    Cant wait for that to be released on DVD by the end of the year. Have you seen it? Remember the scene with chris holmes from W.A.S.P? Maaaaan….

  • Christopher

    Inspired. Sounds better with this band than VHIII. Eddie’s sound back then…well now. Something ain’t right. Nuno has always had a very meaty, 3 dimensional sound that was pleasing to the ears.

  • DLRnut

    Great cover, Nuno and Gary are amazing. Often the bassist and the drummer get overshadowed by the presence of Cherone & Bettencourt, but Saudades de Rock is simply a 100% solid album and Badger and Figuerido sound great on it. The new drummer for Extreme is a huge talent.

    Extreme rocks!

  • Karl

    Am I the only one who thinks Gary has one of the flattest, tuneless, textureless voices in rock? Still, Nuno is one of the best there is so at least there’s something to listen to.

  • http://vhnd the man the myth

    Karl Cherome has a killer voice I think. That can’t be denied in my book!

  • http://vhnd the man the myth

    Nuno is spectastic on on guitar!!!! ( I picked that new word from watching Bizarre foods where they combine Fantastic with Spectacular).

  • Todd

    Extreme is probably the better overall band now than Van Halen is today. They reunited and quickly recorded a killer no filler album in SDR. Van Halen is the better overall band history wise, but I really am glad that Extreme is back and making music again.

    They are to return to the studio and followup “Saudades de Rock”, so hopefully if Van Halen records a new CD with Roth, we can have an Extreme/Van Halen tour. That would rock.

  • Skutch

    BTD, I’m not disagreeing. If you dig it, that’s cool. I guess there are two ways of looking at it. When The Cardigans cover Sabbath tunes, Sabbath fans for the most part didn’t like it, but their fans loved it. I love Sabbath and I loved what they did. They did it because they LOVE Sabbath, but the whole point of doing it was because it was such an unlikely choice since Nina is a female obviously.

    Here’s an example.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XngxPR6-e7w&feature=PlayList&p=E80E22BBC79AB551&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=56

    You might not dig it, but at least it shows what I’m talking about.

  • Jaxxe

    I love Extreme. Nuno is incredible. However Gary in Van Halen was never a good match except live. Unlike some Van Halen fans I look at the “3″ album as an attempt to try something different, it failed but I don’t fault the band for trying. The album has some solid tracks, but the mix was bad and they should have gotten Nuno or someone else to produce the album over Mike Post (not kidding, Nuno is an amazing producer).

    Gary belongs in Extreme, his songwriting skills didn’t mesh with the party band attitude of Van Halen.

    All 5 Extreme albums (Extreme 1, Pornograffitti, III Sides, Waiting For The Punchline, Saudades de Rock) are really great albums.

    Loved Nuno’s work as a singer and guitar player to. However the Cherone/Bettencourt combo with Badger and the new drummer Kfigg has revived this band and if they hang in there in a few years they could be major players in the music biz again. Taking 13 years off means they have lots of work to do with their fan base and more new Extreme albums.

  • Phil

    Holy crap there are a lot of comments on this. Yeah, that wasn’t bad at all. It’s cool that they would bust that out after the whole VH3 debacle.

  • wooten

    I also loved VH III.

  • RickieVanWhalen

    I love ya Karl

    The answer is yes!

  • Roth is king!

    quote=Karl wrote: “Am I the only one who thinks Gary has one of the flattest, tuneless, textureless voices in rock?”

    So Eddie is deaf than right? Just your opinion man. I listen to Van Halen 3 along with all the VH classics. I agree with Jaxxe, Cherone didn’t mesh well with the party feel good attitude of Van Halen.

    I will forever look at “3″ as Van Halen meets Extreme. So it was interesting while it lasted. I like some Extreme songs and there are song I like on “3″.

    Gary Cherone has a great voice, unique.

  • Jacob

    I actually hear alot of Paul Stanley in Gary Cherone’s vocals after listening to “Saudades de Rock”, great fucking album.

  • Phil in Minneapolis

    You know, if they would have put this on III instead, perhaps Josephina wouldn’t have been so ill received.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0WQUCZ70Ks

  • http://rattrocker.wordpress.com Rattrocker

    Man I always knew Gary performed the DLR songs well and the Hagar songs well. Too bad he is now gone from Van Halen.

← Older Comments