Twenty nine years ago tonight (May 14th, 1992) Van Halen performed the first of two shows at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California. They would go on to make up the band’s very first live album – 1993’s “Live: Right Here, Right Now”.
The audio of the concerts, mixed by Eddie and Alex Van Halen along with engineer Jon Ostrin at 5150, were first heard courtesy of the Westwood One radio network, who aired the recordings nationwide for a radio special on August 20th, 1992. The songs would eventually become an official Van Halen release on February 23rd, 1993 when “Live: Right Here, Right Now” was issued as a double live album. It reached number five on Billboard. It was certified gold and platinum on 5/4/93 and double platinum on 9/20/93, and would go on to sell over 2.5 million copies in the U.S.
Disc 1 Track Listing:
- Poundcake
- Judgement Day
- When It’s Love
- Spanked
- Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
- In ‘n’ Out
- Dreams
- Man on a Mission
- Ultra Bass (Bass Solo)
- Pleasure Dome/Drum Solo
- Panama
- Love Walks In
- Runaround
Disc 2 Track Listing:
- Right Now
- One Way To Rock
- Why Can’t This Be Love
- Give To Live
- Finish What Ya Started
- Best of Both Worlds
- 316
- You Really Got Me/Cabo Wabo
- Won’t Get Fooled Again
- Jump
- Top of The World
The home video version of “Live: Right Here, Right Now” was released on VHS and laserdisc the same day as the audio version. The DVD version was later released on June 8th, 1999. The two-hour video contains 15 of the 27 songs from the double-CD album, plus 2 songs which weren’t on the album: “Eagles Fly” and “The Dream Is Over.”
Video Track Listing
1. Poundcake
2. Judgement Day
3. Man On A Mission
4. When It’s Love
5. In ‘n’ Out
6. Right Now
7. Ultra Bass
7. Pleasure Dome/Drum Solo
8. Spanked
9. Runaround
10. Finish What Ya Started
11. Eagles Fly
12. 316
13. You Really Got Me/Cabo Wabo
14. The Dream Is Over
15. Jump
16. Top of the World
“Live: Right Here, Right Now” captured a typical Sammy-era live set in its prime. Included among 27 tracks running well over two hours were four David Lee Roth-era songs (“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Panama”, “You Really Got Me”, and “Jump”), the band member’s individual solo spots, a crowd-pleasing cover of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” with Eddie playing the keyboard part on guitar, and Sammy’s personal contribution of “Give To Live” and “One Way To Rock.”
Many years later the “Live” in “Live: Right Here, Right Now” was put into question after Hagar released his 2011 autobiography Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock. In it he stated the band re-recorded almost the entire live album.
“They re-recorded almost the entire live album, because Eddie was out of tune, or Al had sped up or slowed down,” said Hagar. “They fixed everything. Only now that Eddie was playing in tune, my singing’s off-key. And where Al sped up in ‘Runaround’, now I’m singing ahead of the beat. Now I had to go back in the studio and redo all my vocals.”