Van Halen
Rock Am Ring
Nurburgring, DE
May 31, 1998
Review by Steve
Nurburgring (Rock Am Ring) was a three day outdoor festival that featured many well-known bands. Van Halen played on the final day in the third to last time slot (they were followed by Rammstein, a popular German band, and Ozzy Osbourne).
This was my first time attending a multiple-band festival so my comments may reflect that inexperience. The set was quite short (1 hour), but this was the standard time for most of the bands. Given the short time period, the band did not play a good portion of the material mentioned in other set lists.
Overall, the sound was quite good though there were a few times when it was difficult to hear Gary's vocals clearly. The band showed similar enthusiasm as mentioned in previous reviews. Most of the songs were nearly identical to the album versions. All songs were played well particularly "Why Can't This Be Love", "Right Now" and "I'm The One." Only two songs were played from the latest album ("Without You" and "Fire In The Hole").
Perhaps the only downside was the short set which did not allow for much, for lack of a better word, "non- album" material. There were no accoustic sets. Edward's solo was limited to just "Eruption" (3 to 4 minutes). There was no drum solo and only one song for an encore (Dreams). Though as mentioned before, perhaps this is natural for a multi-group event.