VAN HALEN NEWS DESK

Cabo Wabo Cantina’s 20th Anniversary Party (April 2010)

January 25, 2010 37 Comments

sam_ed_cabo_90 Sammy Hagar posted the following message today.

The PHOTO & VIDEOS are from the Grand Opening of the Cabo Wabo Cantina in 1990.

Cantina Anniversary!!

Redheads,
Sure, I love my birthday, and you know I love the Birthday Bash, but this year let’s celebrate the Cantina’s birthday! That’s right, twenty years of the Cabo Wabo Cantina!

On April 22,23,24 we are having a 20th Anniversary Party in Cabo!! Come on down and party with me and my friends! I’m inviting everyone who has ever been there once to be there twice and make this the most fun we’ve ever had in Cabo!! That’s the why, where, when, so come on down and let’s Wabo!!

Peace, Sammy

Filed Under: Cabo Wabo, Sammy Hagar

john

back when ed was playing with more authority
Steve

I absolutely love the tone of Ed’s guitar in this show! I wish they would release a pro shot which I know exists because MTV premiered pieces of them jamming back then. I love the Cabo Wabo version which was just blistering with the “brown sound” instead of that murkly toney sound on OU812. Totally wicked in this performance!!!
http://youtube.com/esalutti Erico Salutti

Back when ed was playing with more authority (2)
scowboy

The only thing I want more than another Chickenfoot album is to see Ed be like that again and see those two getting on like the brothers they should be. Totally fucked that they can’t. Really a bummer. Congratulations to Sammy, you have worked hard and deserve it. Love Cabo.
Simon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVH !
Simon

yes, i know his Birthday is on the 26th, but we here in Europe HAVE the 26 of January !
Dooley

Sammy said:

“I’m inviting everyone who has ever been there once to be there twice and make this the most fun we’ve ever had in Cabo!!”

Eddie & Alex should R.S.V.P.
http://wax.fm/vinyl-records-by-artist/Van_Halen.html Rob Lambert

Man, those videos are great. I really miss this era of VH, everyone seemed so happy!
RickieVanWhalen

Happy B-day EVH!

Summer nights is a great tune. The solo on this performance was killer. Too bad the guy who filmed it had his head up ass because he pointed the camera at the lights and not on the greatest set of fingers to ever grace a fretboard.
http://www.bellapop.com Bran Halen

Man, just a year before the EVH Music Man guitar came out, but Eddie with that old Kramer through the Soldano has the real tone!!
Patrick

Ed’s tone on that Soldano….godlike.
VHIII_1998_

that was cool
Jim

Great memories.
The time period from 5150, 0U812, FUCK… Awesome. You never knew what kind of shit they’d come up with. Evident by some of these songs. That era kind of ended when Balance came out. Wasn’t the same. Ran its course.

It would be cool if they could have arranged something where they’d alternate with Roth and Sammy… like every 8-10 years. Do 3-4 records with Roth, Then the same with Sammy.
Wishfull thinking though.
TK

Nice camera work on Hot Summer Nights. Sheesh, have another beer.
Atomic Pete

I’ve been to the Cabo Wabo but would have killed to see
VH play there. Sammy or Dave.
Keith

Holy Shit Batman !!! Thanks VHND for the coolest post in quite some time. How awesome ! they’re rockin, smiling, drinking, toking, VH style at the one of the best places on Earth. Any yeah, you know that’s a Soldano. Best frigin amp. Period.
phil

it’s amazing to see and hear how great VH sounds when they are all happy and getting along. same goes for VH and DLR in the ’81 oakland videos which was amazing also!
Sweet William Now

Ed was on his game. The breakdown in AFU sounds heavy as shit! Dimebag-esque chuggin’—guess Ed did all that standard metal stuff well before the masses…damn he was good! Happy Birthday ED!
http://twitter.com/johnnybeane johnny beane

i watched/taped mtv all day the day they had “viva van halen saturday” in 1990! still have it all on a vhs tape somewhere.
http://twitter.com/johnnybeane johnny beane

kip winger was there that day and i met him a year later and asked him what the club was like and he said “it was ok”.
Joe

Just a quick thought. Gents, (Ed and Al) Please just show up down there for 1 night. How cool would it be for ALL of the VH’ers to see a one off show that would include Ed, Al, Sam, Dave AND Mike all on one stage….Heck, make it one song…just for the fans. No one has to get along, but this would be a special treat for ALL the fans that have supported ALL the work that ANY version of Van Halen produced. Hell, get Gary up there.
Just once, for the fans. Everyone that has been in VH on one stage. It’s for the Cabo….The Cabo basically was built out of VH anyway.
HideYourSheep

Great era for VH. Too bad Ed took such bad business and personal advice and scared away good talent and friends. I love all versions of VH, but the Sammy era was special.
http://vhnd.com surfthis!!

been there twice.

in 1995 and 2006.
drove from denver to cabo in 2006!

the city is a bit touristy but the place still is nice.
Tony

??”Summer Nights and my radio, that’s all we need baby, don’t ya know!” ?? HELL YEAH! That kicks ass. I agree with everyone that this period of Halen was pure fun. And seeing Ed sing beside Mikey again is priceless. They sound great – Ed’s guitar work was incredible AND they all look like they’re having a good time.
CARMINE-HOBOKEN

happy bday ED!!!!!
D.O.A.

Spot on, Dooley! It would be great to see that whole mess put in the rear view mirror.
swingin’ sinner

Just noticed at around 2:45 on naturally wired Ed’s headstock has a little modification on it is that some sort of hip shot?
http://none chickenfoothater

swingin’sinner-no.The tuner had split the headstock in it’s original posistion and came out due to years of abuse.Ed had the tuner relocated to the bottom for a quick fix to do the show.Ed’s tone is exactly how he wants it right now.It may not be what someone else wants ed’s tone to be but ed has changed.Also many folks have played thru a soldano but never sounded close to what ed’s gettin’ right here imo.
Patrick

@ swingin’ sinner

The headstock broke on the 5150 a couple months before the event, Ed glued it back together and added a new tuner before the break in the headstock.
RA 8 1 2

Ed and Al would show up before Dave would ever consider! Besides im sure Ed is bitter about selling his shares in Cabo Wabo before it really took off. They will never show up there again. If Ed goes on vacation in Mexico, it will never be Cabo again!
http://vhnd.com surfthis!!

ed refuses to go to mexico
that is the whole point
Joe

RA 8 1 2, I agree with you, unfortunately. But how BIG would that be? Can’t people put their petty differences aside for 1 INCREDIBLE day?
Pete

It’s a beautiful thing…good memories.

Someone mentioned Ed’s tone on these tunes…I have to agree. It sounds so raw and brown…I’ve like most of his tones throughout the years, except for some of his Wolfgang stuff.

Another thing that struck me was that old chestnut – Al’s snare sound. It too changed and evolved over the years, but I always liked it.

I loved that band. The fact they’re not together anymore doesn’t make me love it any less either. As I’ve said a million times, everyone’s in the band they want to be in, and that’s good enough for me.

Cheers…and here’s a shot of Cabo for y’all…
Oscar

Wow! What a fun looking and great sounding band. Sammy and the boyz were very tight back in those days, on and off the stage. These videos put a smile on my face, like looking at some nude photos of an old girlfriend.
Van Halen Rocks!!!
Jor-L5150

i remember paying TOO much for sh*tty bootleg VHS tape off of ebay for this show! LOL.

great show- these clips are good quality.

btw- sammy hagar and val kilmer were seperated at birth.
Mike B.

Great show! Thanks for posting these precious videos!! – also bittersweet to see/hear Brad Delp from Boston (RIP) on Wild Thing. He was considered at one point to front VH, I heard. Amazing singer!

…and YES – great Soldano tone!
Panama Red

“I’ll grab a line, you grab MY pole.” lol.
That one guy in the vid looks like the wrestler Mick Foley.

Jor-L5150 – That’s really funny that you said that about Val Kilmer because I’ve thought that for a while now. If you look at a pic of both of their faces close-up they have a lot of the same features. Eyes, nose, cheeks,…weird. What’s really weird, if it’s true is that I heard awhile back that a Motley Crue movie was in the making and that Val Kilmer was going to make a cameo as David Lee Roth. I thought that was a really weird coincidence, him playing Roth when he looks so much like Sammy Hagar. But that whole story was probably B.S. because its been awhile since I heard that and I haven’t heard about the movie coming out at all.