Credit: Mark Weiss
Save the women and children first! Van Halen is about to invade Baltimore!
On this night in 1980 Van Halen rocked the Baltimore Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland while on the second North American leg of the World Invasion Tour – dubbed by the band as the “Party ’til You Die Tour”. The trek, which began on March 19th, 1980 in Canada (Victoria, BC), was in support of Van Halen’s third studio album Women and Children First.
This Van Halen tour would be the first to include keyboards on stage but it wasn’t Eddie Van Halen who was behind the keys. That job was given to bassist Michael Anthony, who played the keyboard parts on the WACF track “And the Cradle WIll Rock…”. Another interesting addition to this tour was the band’s cover of a 1961 blues song originally recorded by Jimmy Reed called “Bright Lights, Big City”.
Along with the easily identifiable standout moments comes a hidden gem. Listen closely to Eddie’s guitar solo which begins at the 34:19 mark of the video below. In it is just a brief portion of Eddie’s unreleased 1984 instrumental titled “Ripley”, which would later be used on the track “Blood & Fire” from Van Halen’s 2012 album A Different Kind Of Truth. Those with a pair of well-experienced Van Halen ears should be able to pick it out of Eddie’s usual brilliant, mind melting solo. Just another day (or night) at the office for King Edward.
As for David Lee Roth, he was in full “Diamond Dave” mode that night. At one point he addressed his recent arrest during Van Halen’s April 24th concert at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum. The Cincinnati Police arrested 177 people, mostly on alcohol and drug charges, while Roth was brought up on charges of complicity to violate the fire code due to repeatedly “inciting” the audience to light up.
“Ya know…July 28th, I think it’s like, this Monday, I gotta go to trial man,” Roth said to the crowd. “I gotta go to court ‘cuz I got busted for creating a disturbance during one of the shows when we were in Cincinnati here. [crowd cheers] I’d just like to say…before we go any further….Baltimore…you make goddamned TWICE as much noise!” [crowd cheers]
Some of that Baltimore show was uploaded to YouTube by VH Village along with a rare 1980 radio interview with Roth. This video includes the songs “Romeo Delight”, “Runnin’ With The Devil”, “Take Your Whiskey Home”, “Bright Lights, Big City”, “And The Cradle Will Rock…”, “On Fire”, Eddie’s solo (“Spanish Fly/”Mean Street” intro/”Eruption”) and “Ice Cream Man”.
Rock on Baltimore…
Listen To Van Halen Live In Baltimore, MD (7/22/80) [w/ DLR Radio Interview]
Complete Setlist
- Romeo Delight
- Bottoms Up!
- Drum Solo
- Runnin’ With the Devil
- Tora! Tora! / Loss of Control
- Take Your Whiskey Home
- Dance the Night Away
- Women in Love…
- Jamie’s Cryin’
- Bright Lights, Big City
- Everybody Wants Some!!
- And the Cradle Will Rock…
- On Fire
- Guitar Solo
- Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love
- Encore: Ice Cream Man
- Encore: You Really Got Me