Van Halen -- New York, NY -- February 28th, 2012

[BloodoftheKings]

I arrived at the garden in the middle of Kool and the Gang's set. It didn't make much sense to me why they were opening (I have a strong feeling DLR chose them) but they put on a great show. Most of the guys were old but they had these 2 younger singers in the group. You couldn't see some of them but once they were done playing and bowed to the crowd you could see there was about 10 guys. My dad seemed to think Kool would get bad reception from the VH crowd but the crowd seemed pretty into it. They also jammed on most of the songs for quite a bit which was pretty cool.

Kool and the Gang:

Fresh
Tonight
Emergency
Too Hot
Hollywood Swingin'
Jungle Boogie
Ladies' Night
Get Down On It
Celebration

After an intermission that lasted roughly 45 minutes the lights when out, the stage lit up, and Alex and Eddie were letting loose on the intro to You Really Got Me. Diamond Dave came out twirling around this silver rod and right off the bat he started fucking up the song. DLR was using a head set mic for the first half of the set and I would have preferred he use a more conventional one. On the first song he was skipping words, his voice wasn't too clear, and the crowd seemed to be taken out of it a little. Luckily, it got better. The next few songs he was improving and was in full force by the middle of the set. During China Town he yelled "FUCK IT I FORGOT THE WORDS LETS GO TO THE CHORUS". Aside from Dave's occasional fuck ups the band as a whole was tight. I was pretty impressed with how well Wolfgang handles the backing vocals. Eddie and Alex were spot on the whole night. Overall it was pretty great show.

Van Halen:

You Really Got Me
Runnin' With the Devil
She's The Woman
Romeo Delight
Tattoo
Everybody Wants Some!!
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
China Town
Hear About It Later
Oh, Pretty Woman
Drum Solo
Unchained
The Trouble with Never
Dance The Night Away
I'll Wait
Hot For Teacher
Women In Love
Girl Gone Bad
Beautiful Girls
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Guitar Solo (which included Eruption and Cathedral)
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
--encore--
Jump

[TonyD]

Looks like they've stuck with Girl Gone Bad since the second night, but they've been rotating Unchained with Hear About It Later. If I could make one change to the selections of new songs, I'd pick As Is instead of The Trouble With Never.

[Onioner]

Originally Posted by TonyD

Looks like they've stuck with Girl Gone Bad since the second night, but they've been rotating Unchained with Hear About It Later. If I could make one change to the selections of new songs, I'd pick As Is instead of The Trouble With Never.

They've been rotating Mean Street with Hear About It Later, that's a tough loss, but Hear About It Later is such a cool deep cut that it's worth it. And I absolutely agree about replacing The Trouble With Never with As Is. That song seriously rips shit up.

[MetalIsArt]

Kool & The Gang is extremely silly as opener, now matter how good Van Halen is.

[IrritatedTrout]

Originally Posted by BloodoftheKings

During China Town he yelled "FUCK IT I FORGOT THE WORDS LETS GO TO THE CHORUS".

[Maideneer]

Originally Posted by IrritatedTrout

I think it might be shtick at this point, I saw the dress rehearsal in LA and he did the same exact thing.

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Onioner

They've been rotating Mean Street with Hear About It Later, that's a tough loss, but Hear About It Later is such a cool deep cut that it's worth it. And I absolutely agree about replacing The Trouble With Never with As Is. That song seriously rips shit up.

That's what I meant, my bad.

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Maideneer

I think it might be shtick at this point, I saw the dress rehearsal in LA and he did the same exact thing.

I thought they were just putting out this album because they really wanted to get their message across, not to promote a tour they're going to make millions of dollars on.

[Thrasher-NY]

Going on Thursday night

I think Kool and the Gang and Van Halen share the same management. to be honest.....that's a pretty good (different but works) warm up act choice.

[bobbie solo]

Originally Posted by Maideneer

I think it might be shtick at this point, I saw the dress rehearsal in LA and he did the same exact thing.

he's been doing that for years. total schtick, not authentic at all.