What a deal!
I Love All Access is refunding a major portion of the Van Halen ticket price because there was no sound check. Enough to where it might be enough money to drive and see them in Omaha (with a regular ticket). Very tempting!!!
Also, I forgot to mention that I got an Eddie guitar pick at the concert. I will put it with my Neal Schon pick from years past. Speaking of, check this out: Classic rock cruise. That would be worth it just to hang out with Neal. Awesome.
07.26.04 @ 03:53 PM CDT [link]{{STOPcommentslink}}
Van Hagar report
Attended historic Van Halen concert last night, welcoming the Van Hagar version to St. Paul. Huna attended with his "Five Star All Access" ticket experience, which included a backstage tour, dinner buffet and drinks, a lame t-shirt and cheapo hat, and a ticket "somewhere in rows 1-10."
The backstage tour was ok. We saw Michael Anthony's basses and gear, but none of Eddie's stuff. OFF-LIMITS, I'm sure. For food I had four little meatballs, two chicken strips, four grapes, one bite of this weird-ass melon, and a Sprite. Fine dining indeed! Inquiring minds wanted to know, so now you do!
Now the bad news. The band was held up in Chicago with bad weather, so they never made it for a soundcheck. That pissed of a lot of slightly drunk Van Halen fans who paid way too much for this ancient hard rock crap. They drew names for a lot of signed posters to compensate, but only about half of the group got those. Plus one dude had already won a baseball jersey ($125 retail value) and then complained that he should still be eligible for a poster, so then he got a poster, too. But no poster for the Huna.
More bad news. My lame t-shirt and hat were stolen from our reception room. So the host dude felt sorry for me and got me a new shirt, an actual nice t-shirt instead of a lame one, which was nice of him.
Now some good news. My ticket was 2nd row center, a little bit to the right. Eddie hung out within 10-15 feet of me for much of the show. For most of his solo (10 minutes?) he was about 10 feet from me. These seats were even better than the "Golden Ring" seats (inside the stage setup), because those folks saw the back of him most of the time. I was very glad I was on the center. A bit to the right would've been ok, too, but the left would've sucked. No offense to Michael Anthony, but I didn't want him to be the focal point of my Van Halen experience.
There was one dude in the right Golden Ring that held up a tiny U.S. flag the whole time. He had this look on his face like he was going to go all "Michael Douglas in Falling Down" any second. Sammy ("Best Teeth in Rock") always walks around and signs stuff during shows, so he reached down the grab the flag. The dude pulled it away and made and angry face at Sammy. Sammy was all, "what the heck is this?? is he joking??" and tried again. Then the dude made another face and waved Sammy away. Like you're shooing a dog away from the dinner table or something! From then on during the show, this dude held the flag high above his head, except when Sammy came by, at which time he would pull the flag down to his chest. I heard that some lady near him called into KQRS this morning and basically told the same story. What a freakshow this dude was.
I got on the jumbo screen five times! Three times because "cameraman dude who covers center stage and also is responsible for finding the hot chicks" kept the camera on the girl next to me three different times. And I was on two other times because the girls on the other side of me made some banners and needed help holding them up.
It was an energetic and fun show. I was so close that the main P.A. speaker banks were straight above, so I only needed earplugs about half the time. The disadvantage of that is that the mix in that spot was crap, due to the output of the stage cabinets.
Eddie's playing was a bit sloppy. I don't know if his skills have deteriorated a bit, or if he's just so loose and wild live that he's always been that way. I haven't seen him live for a LONG time, so I sure don't remember. Plus the way Eddie would occasionally try to get the crowd going with scream and fist pump was a little odd. But hey, hey's an odd duck, so what. People aren't fans because of his charm and charisma.
07.23.04 @ 10:21 AM CDT [link]{{STOPcommentslink}}
Suit coats and ties? Oh my!
Some trashy dressing women over at Target HQ ruined life for all the rest of the people over there. There is now a new dress code that requires dudes to wear a sport coat and/or tie. If you just have a sport coat and no tie, you need to have the sport coat on whenever you leave your desk. GENIUS!
So some dude wrote a letter to the Strib -- I couldn't have said it better myself (scroll down a bit to find "Playing dress up"): Letters to the editor, 7/17/2004
07.23.04 @ 09:39 AM CDT [link]{{STOPcommentslink}}