Van Halen
Budokan
Tokyo, JP
October 29, 1998

Review by K.Yamaguchi - kio_note@tka.att.ne.jp

It was like High school class reunion to me, because, the guy left next to me was business man in formal suits, and right was older guy with dark bear. In the front seat there was a office lady around 30's. Funs are getting older obviously. Most impressive about tonight's concert was Gary. He sings surprisingly very well, almost every song from the past to present. Bass player Michael also sings very well. So did Eddie.

Ticket 8000 yen(about 100 bucks) was worth it. I still can't cool down from the excitement of this event. Thanks God and Van Halen for the greatest night of this year.

To me, seeing Van Halen live is more of a virtual experience than an actual physical one. So the fact that the sound wasn't up to par where I was sitting or I should say jumping around didn't matter.

When they hit the stage with "Unchained" it gave me goose bumps. They played many songs from Dave era - my favourite was "Mean Street" with Eddie going off with the tapping/harmonics intro.

I've seen Gary Cherone live with Extreme and knew what he was capable of so he didn't present me any surprises. Gary sang Dave and Sammy songs adequate enough but I felt that he was much more comfortable and competent with the songs from III (which is expected). The acoustic version of "Josephina" was a moving experience.

Overall I'd honestly have to say the show didn't blow me away but it was good to see Eddie running and jumping around the stage like a teenager. Mike seemed a little subdued and I didn't really feel the energy from Alex's drumming. Maybe an off night for them or just bad sound mix.

Not your typical all-hail-Van-Halen review but like I wrote in the beginning, just literally seeing Van Halen live was good enough for me. Can't wait till the next album and tour.