Van Halen Kicks Off Japan Tour in Nagoya! (Videos, Photos & Setlist)

Updated with the two pre-show Eddie photos below:

Today (June 18th) Van Halen kicked off their Japan 2013 tour at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan! (Showtime was 7PM in Japan, which was 3AM Pacific time)

This morning, Wolf tweeted, “Show day in Nagoya”, followed by “We’re almost ready for ya, Nagoya. Just gotta tune up real quick… ” with the goofy photo above.

As far as the setlist, there were no huge surprises, but we are impressed that they beefed it up to a whopping 27 songs (including the drum and guitar solos) and that they added “Atomic Punk“, “Jamie’s Cryin’“and the must-have “Mean Street.” Also included were “Hear About It Later” and “The Trouble With Never”, which were not usually played last year. Of course, we would have loved it if they included alternate songs from A Different Kind Of Truth (check out our fan poll for the fan’s favorite songs from the new album…many of which haven’t been played), as well as alternate deep tracks like “Light Up The Sky” or “Drop Dead Legs”, both of which they soundchecked during last year’s North American tour. But we’re sure the fans in Japan were quite satisfied, as the show clocked in at two hours, twenty mintes(!), which is possibly the longest show the band has ever performed!

As an added bonus, Nagoya got treated to a viewing of Roth’s short film, “Tokyo Story” as the lead-in to “Ice Cream Man” instead of the “Dog World” video.

Setlist:

Up next for Van Halen:

June 21 – Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Dome
June 24 – Osaka, Japan, City Central Gymnasium
June 26 – Osaka, Japan, City Central Gymnasium
July 20 – Oshkosh, Wis., Ford Festival Park (Rock USA)
July 24 – Paso Robles, Calif., Grandstand @ California Mid-State Fair