June 2, 2004






Tuesday June 1, 2004 the Van Halen News Desk was privileged to behold something that the world has not seen in nine years: Edward, Sammy, Alex, and Mike blowing out a full-length set of the music that made them legends. The final dress rehearsal of the most anticipated tour of the year was held before only a couple of hundred people under the strictest security at a closed Sony Studio in Southern California. The staging was spectacular. The band was tight and looked like they enjoyed everything about the experience.

Ed spent most of the evening with his orangeburst Peavey featuring a refinement on the cord management device seen throughout the III tour but broke out his 5150 Kramer during Humans Being to wild audience response. The biggest surprise of all was watching Eddie sit down on the stage during his solo, recline flat onto his back as he played 316, and then listening to the music continue to fill the auditorium even as his hands fell from the guitar. The mystery was solved when his only son, the child for whom the piece is named, Wolfgang Van Halen strode into the spotlight playing it on a striped guitar! Dad then jumped back in to solo over the rhythm Wolfie was laying down. When they finished, Eddie held up Wolfie's hand and declared "This is the future!"





The setlist as performed:

Jump
Runaround
Humans Being (With Ed on his 5150 Kramer!)
Up For Breakfast (new tune described as hard rocking fun)
Bass Solo
Somebody Get Me a Doctor (Mike on lead vocals)
Poundcake
It's About Time
Drum Solo
Top Of The World
Unchained
Why Can't This Be Love
Eagles Fly (Sammy Solo Acoustic)
Deeper Kinda Love (Sammy Solo Acoustic)
Learning To See (new tune described as Hard rocking and dark)
Best of Both Worlds
Guitar Solo (Featuring Wolfgang Van Halen)
Dreams
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Right Now
You Really Got Me
When It's Love

The setlist as played varied a little bit from the written setlist. Additionally, we hear that the band plans on playing at least a couple songs on the tour that were NOT played last night so watch for more surprises! You Really Got Me was planned as the final tune but Sammy didn't want the night to end and declared that they may as well rehearse in front of them and then broke out When It's Love.





[EDITOR'S NOTE: This review was originally incorrectly attributed to another fan. Apologies to Chad Gervich]

Superfan (and Super Lucky Fan) Chad Gervich has posted to the United Lists of Van Halen and VHFORUMS:

"First of all, let me say... I thought it was AWESOME. Definitely more Hagar-heavy than Roth (come on, what do you expect?), but I have no problem with that, and Sam sounded great on Unchained. They also played Somebody Get Me A Doctor, although that was sung mostly by Michael and Ed.

Anyway, here's how the night panned out...

The rehearsal was held on a sound stage at Sony Studios. I had talked earlier in the day to an exec at Warner Brothers who'd said VH wouldn't be doing a full set; they'd probably only play about half-hour or forty-five minutes. When I got to Sony, I ran into another friend, a talent agent who's friends with Irving Azoff, and he said yeah-- Irving said they'd only be playing half-hour or so.

Well, as you already know, they changed their mind somewhere along the line.

I donít think itís quite accurate to say there were only 200 people. Iíd say it was closer to 400, but still very small. There were three sets of bleachers set up - Val[erie Bertinelli] sat back there - and then the floor.

I was right up front in the center; there was basically one row of people between me and the stage. I may have been right behind one of the contest winners; I thought I heard a guy in a T & T hat say heís won his way in. Anyway...

The show opened in darkness with Sammy's "Hello, baby," and they launched right into Jump, followed by Runaround. Behind them was a huge VH banner-- not a logo per se, just a big black drop with "Van Halen" written in white. Their third song was "Humans Being," and at the end of the song the banner fell away, revealing the actual set. It was a huge bomb or land mine, with the front exploded out and a giant screen in the middle. There were also some steps and a walkway up in front of the screen, so Sam went up there once or twice. It was simple, but cool, and I'm assuming this is the set for the actual tour.

Some interesting highlights of the show:

They played all three new songs! My favorite was "Up For Breakfast", which rocks. As curious as the title is, it is in classic VH fashion a double entendre. The chorus goes something like "She puts the cream in my coffee, hot butter on biscuit, berries with my banana".

"Learning to See" was hard to get a grasp on. The lyrics werenít always intelligible, although there was lot of Biblical stuff. And the video images were lots of crosses and graveyards. Very dark, but still melodic. I liked it, I just couldnít quite get my head around it.

Another interesting highlight was during Edís solo. He came and sat on the edge of the stage to play 316, then laid back. He wasnít playing, but you could still hear the music, so there was a brief moment of *Huh? Where the hell is that coming from?* And then you saw Wolfgang comes out from backstage! The two of them played together for 5-10 minutes, which was pretty cool. Wolfie did a good job, although I hear heís an even better drummer. Apparently his school had some kind of fundraiser or talent show recently, and he and Ed jammed-Wolfie on the drums and Ed on the guitar. Wouldíve loved to have seen that.

Ed also played some new stuff during the solo. Not really complete solos per se, but just kind of witty little riffs that were fun. I say that they were new, but to be honest, maybe itís been so long since seeing him live I just donít remember. But Iím pretty sure they were new, and after playing one funny little bit Ed leaned into the microphone and said, "Well, at least someoneís laughing."

A million people have already posted the set list, so I wonít rehash that, but I did think it was the strongest set Iíve heard. Not only did they play almost everything you wouldíve wanted to hear, but they sounded PHENOMENAL. Would I have liked more Roth songs? I dunno - maybe - but only in retrospect. At the time, it was two great hours of music that I will NEVER forget (and no other VH concert will probably ever surpass).

Other details collected from various fan accounts of the event:

• Alex is playing a natural finish Ludwig kit which consists of three bass drums, two rack toms, two floor toms, various configurations of clear octaban-style drums on his left and right side, etc.
• The stage is constructed as an enormous VH ring logo in front of a giant video screen with the band performing primarily on the V and H, with spaces on either side of the letters inside the rings for about a dozen fans to stand.
• These in-ring spots are reportedly not related in any way to regular, ticketed seats and will not be available for purchase via TicketMaster, Tickets.com, or iloveallaccess.com. They will apparently be distributed via contests, promotions, and possibly charity events.
• No neck braces were seen on any band members
• KTLA is hosting a streaming video report on last night's rehearsal gig for your viewing pleasure. Just click the preceeding link and select "Music" and then "Van Halen"

No photos were allowed during the rehearsal. However, there were several fans there with cameras, and one of them emailed us these pictures. These were not taken by the VHND, Dave Brandon, nor by Chad Gervich, the fan who wrote the review we quoted.

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