Van Halen
I meant to write this review yesterday, but I didn't have time in the morning, and yesterday afternoon/evening were all one big blur of pain and painkillers.
So, Van Halen Thursday night. It was really great to watch Dave and Eddie perform live, especially since they both are in phenomenal shape, not just for their age, but for men of pretty much any age. It was very cool to watch Dave run around the stage, doing all sorts of kicks and jumps. And you can see that Wolfgang is a very good bass player.
Except, my high school band director used to say that the worst insult you can give a musician is to tell them how good they look. There were some major sound issues at the show, so their sound guy needs to be fired. It's not the venue, because I've seen several other concerts there before, and hearing hasn't been a problem. And it wasn't that our seats were in a strange spot for the acoustics of the room, because we could hear the opening act just fine. (I don't know who they were. Some local college band, I think. They were ok- I didn't like them at first, then they started to grow on me, and then their last song was atrocious.)
Van Halen's sound problem is kind of hard to describe. Basically, they were so loud that you couldn't hear them. There was a lot of reverberation and just noise, so you couldn't actually pick out the melody of the songs, which is unfortunate, because I think that a lot of Van Halen songs have great melodies. Sometimes you couldn't really hear the words, and a few times it was so bad that I couldn't actually tell what song it was. I noticed that if you plugged your ears, you could hear better, but who wants to be a loser at a rock concert, plugging her ears? Then there was also quite a bit of mic feedback. When you've got a lead singer who you know is going to be moving around on stage a lot, that shouldn't be a problem.
Because I wasn't enjoying it as much as I would have liked to, and because I was in a lot of pain, we left early. I decided at one point that we would stay until 10:30, or until they played "Hot for Teacher," whichever came first. They played "Hot for Teacher" just after 10, and we left after that. A coworker also went to the concert, and he said it was after 11 when it ended. I know I wouldn't have made it that long.
I'm a little nervous because we have tickets for a couple of concerts in the next couple of months, so I need to figure out pain management before then. We're seeing Rush in two weeks, and Kathy Griffin the week after that. Although since she's a comedian, there won't be any standing during the show. Then we're also seeing B.B. King, but I don't remember when that show is. They'd better have the sound figured out for Rush, though, because they are not a pretty band to look at, so I definitely want to be able to hear them.
So, Van Halen Thursday night. It was really great to watch Dave and Eddie perform live, especially since they both are in phenomenal shape, not just for their age, but for men of pretty much any age. It was very cool to watch Dave run around the stage, doing all sorts of kicks and jumps. And you can see that Wolfgang is a very good bass player.
Except, my high school band director used to say that the worst insult you can give a musician is to tell them how good they look. There were some major sound issues at the show, so their sound guy needs to be fired. It's not the venue, because I've seen several other concerts there before, and hearing hasn't been a problem. And it wasn't that our seats were in a strange spot for the acoustics of the room, because we could hear the opening act just fine. (I don't know who they were. Some local college band, I think. They were ok- I didn't like them at first, then they started to grow on me, and then their last song was atrocious.)
Van Halen's sound problem is kind of hard to describe. Basically, they were so loud that you couldn't hear them. There was a lot of reverberation and just noise, so you couldn't actually pick out the melody of the songs, which is unfortunate, because I think that a lot of Van Halen songs have great melodies. Sometimes you couldn't really hear the words, and a few times it was so bad that I couldn't actually tell what song it was. I noticed that if you plugged your ears, you could hear better, but who wants to be a loser at a rock concert, plugging her ears? Then there was also quite a bit of mic feedback. When you've got a lead singer who you know is going to be moving around on stage a lot, that shouldn't be a problem.
Because I wasn't enjoying it as much as I would have liked to, and because I was in a lot of pain, we left early. I decided at one point that we would stay until 10:30, or until they played "Hot for Teacher," whichever came first. They played "Hot for Teacher" just after 10, and we left after that. A coworker also went to the concert, and he said it was after 11 when it ended. I know I wouldn't have made it that long.
I'm a little nervous because we have tickets for a couple of concerts in the next couple of months, so I need to figure out pain management before then. We're seeing Rush in two weeks, and Kathy Griffin the week after that. Although since she's a comedian, there won't be any standing during the show. Then we're also seeing B.B. King, but I don't remember when that show is. They'd better have the sound figured out for Rush, though, because they are not a pretty band to look at, so I definitely want to be able to hear them.