The Van Halen concert

Just sayin... frickin' awesome. It's like the last 20 years never existed. I wondered how they would handle the "Sammy years". They didn't. They just ignored them.

So, we got to Staples Center, and pulled into the shiny new underground parking garage. We paid our *choke* $25 for parking, and were inside on the floor, in our seats in less than 10 minutes. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Especially considering Mary J Blige was also playing at the adjoining Nokia Theater on the same night.


The show? Fan-frickin-fabulous. And can I say? Dave and Eddie? Both pretty ripped for old farts. (Whaaaat? I can say that, being as I'm an old fart, too!). The guys looked like they were having the time of their lives, and it was so fun. We couldn't help but wonder if Eddie had that kind of fun with Sammy onstage. Dave is still as vaudevillian as ever. And Eddie still rocks like anything on the guitar. Steve was completely enthralled with Alex's drumming, especially the drum solo. He dug it. Jeff just stared at Eddie's hands the whole night with this bemused look on his face. Kind of a matched set of bookends with his dad, LOL.

Here's the lineup of songs - not a Sammy Hagar song among them:
You Really Got Me
I'm the One
Runnin' With the Devil
Romeo Delight
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
Beautiful Girls
Dance the Night Away
Atomic Punk
Everybody Wants Some
So This Is Love?
Mean Street
Pretty Woman
Drum Solo
Unchained
I'll Wait
And the Cradle Will Rock
Hot for Teacher
Little Dreamer
Little Guitars
Jamie's Cryin'
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Guitar Solo (incl. "Women in Love" intro, "Cathedral", "Eruption")
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Encore:
1984
Jump

So, the boys knew about half the songs. Bob & I never thought we'd hear Somebody Get Me a Doctor in concert ever again, or Atomic Punk. We were stoked!

Poor Steve, though. About halfway through, he started complaining of feeling nauseous. We think it had something to do with the aroma in the air, if you get my drift. Then he laid down and promptly fell asleep (read: passed out). Luckily, he had gotten his souvenier T-Shirt before the show began. We felt so badly for him. At least he got to see the drum solo, but he completely missed Eruption. Poor baby. Jeff, of course, looked disdainfully down at him and said "What a child. Who could fall asleep at a concert?" Ummm....me? I raised my hand. (Side note: I didn't tell him it was because I was in the middle of 3 people and the joint was being passed back and forth, so for each hit the end folks took, I got 2. Needless to say, I missed about half of the Boston concert. Luckily, it was the entire 3rd album start to finish I slept through. Who's to say I wouldn't have slept anyway? What a snoozer that album was!... End side note). The concert was well worth the $150 per ticket we paid. God love MasterCard.

One last note about Wolfie. He totally rocked. He's really a fabulous bassist. And he did beautifully on the backup vocals. We hardly missed Michael Anthony. And Eddie obviously loved having him up there. But he's 16 years old. And in a very awkward stage. Eddie and Dave are looking very studly. He's ... a bit... chunky? Definitely taking after Valerie. Don't get me wrong - I love her! I always identified with her in One Day at a Time. But still. Poor kid.