Van Halen Screw-Up

[Tarnisher]

Rather than derail the thread I saw this video posted in, I thought I'd start a new thread. Thanks to ScottJPatrick for posting it first.



I don't get it. How could they just keep playing? It sounds awful! Did they not have any monitors? Are they all just playing by rote? Did they think they were soldiering on and being professional?

The comments on YouTube have many theories, with lots of disagreement about whether Eddie was drunk, had a guitar tuned to a different key, or the keyboard track was messed up.

If Eddie was sober and did notice the problem, why didn't he just improvise a new part in key?

If that wasn't possible, why didn't they stop, admit their mistake, fix the problem, and start again, or go to a different song? I'm sorry, there's nothing professional about this.

[Slow Reflexes]

Heh - I remember a thread with some rabid Eddie fan who was just apoplectic at the suggestion that Eddie wasn't playing the right notes (whether it was the guitar's fault or not). He was ABSOLUTELY dead set that the synth was off.

So I downloaded recordings from that show and the one from another gig, put one in the left ear and one in the right. The synth was exactly the same, and the guitar was different.

NCvsCT.mp3

He was still sure that everyone in the world was at fault other than Eddie and/or the guitar.

[TheGoodTexan]

That video is over 4 years old now - not from their current tour. Not that it matters I guess, I've just heard the discussion ad nauseum.

[Just-Jim]

Sorry to hear they even keep that song in their set list.

[backalleyblues]

Sounds like a broken or string unwound... I've had that happen on floating trem guitars, and there's not a thing you can do other than change guitars...I admire Eddie's chutzpah in trying to play through it, but where the h**l is his guitar tech with another guitar?!!?!?!?

Franc Robert

[DoodlySquat]

Originally Posted by Just-Jim

Sorry to hear they even keep that song in their set list.

? That's one of my favorites.

[trailboss]

I always thought Eddie (and Mick Mars) had the trems decked? Tigh springs and "down only" direction is the only way to go with a Floyd IMHO.

[diffeecult]

He obviously didn't have a clue. He's probably deaf as a door knob from playing at those volume levels all these years. It looked like the bass player, is that his son?, leaned in and said something right at the end.
As far as what to do in my opinion coming to a dead stop and starting over should be the last resort. That only draws attention to the screw up. If you can recover and keep going most of the time the crowd will not notice. It didn't seem like those folks noticed anything was wrong.

[Delta Blues]

Way to necro that ancient footage op.

[Tarnisher]

Slow, that's how it sounded to me.

Tex, sorry if you've heard this one. I'm not posting it as news. Since the policy on this forum is that it's better to start a new thread than to revive a very old one, that's what I did. I didn't see it the first time around, and I'm probably not alone.

Frank, I guess one man's chutzpah is another man's refusal to admit a mistake. I think he should have stopped playing if he couldn't make it sound better than that. (Or at least go back to his bedroom to practice where no one needs to hear it!)

One of the reasons this interests me is that I'm a very improvisational player. I have no where near Eddie's technical chops, but I would have sounded a hell of a lot better than that if I'd been dropped on that stage with that guitar because I would have recognized that what I'd rehearsed wasn't working and played something else.

[bossaholic]

Egad...that was a train wreck...

Makes you wonder if his hearing is gone too...

[Just-Jim]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Just-Jim
Sorry to hear they even keep that song in their set list.

? That's one of my favorites.

Nothing personal. I just never really cared for the keyboards in VH music. I have always have appreciated the guitar work though.

[Tarnisher]

Originally Posted by diffeecult

As far as what to do in my opinion coming to a dead stop and starting over should be the last resort. That only draws attention to the screw up. If you can recover and keep going most of the time the crowd will not notice. It didn't seem like those folks noticed anything was wrong.

How could they not notice something was wrong?

This was not some little goof up, and it's not something that only another guitar player would notice. It was like nails on a chalkboard. At least he should have stopped playing, even if the band went on, they would have sounded better without him.

[caferacer]

[czgibson]

Originally Posted by backalleyblues

Sounds like a broken or string unwound... I've had that happen on floating trem guitars, and there's not a thing you can do other than change guitars...I admire Eddie's chutzpah in trying to play through it, but where the h**l is his guitar tech with another guitar?!!?!?!?

Franc Robert

^ This

It sounds terrible, but the folks at the front seemed to love it. Just goes to show, you can make some hideous mistakes on stage and many people won't notice at all.

[DoodlySquat]

Originally Posted by czgibson

^ This

It sounds terrible, but the folks at the front seemed to love it. Just goes to show, you can make some hideous mistakes on stage and many people won't notice at all.

Yeah and it makes some people look nuts. That is the people that are all worried about if the audience can tell between tube and solid state and if they will care blah blah blah.

[Tdub]

How hard is it to hire a keyboard player for a couple of tunes? That's what they get for using sequenced crap.

.

[diffeecult]

Originally Posted by Tarnisher

How could they not notice something was wrong?

This was not some little goof up, and it's not something that only another guitar player would notice. It was like nails on a chalkboard. At least he should have stopped playing, even if the band went on, they would have sounded better without him.

I agree it would have sounded better without him which is what makes me think he just can't hear. If he could hear what we're hearing it wouldn't have taken but a second to change keys if that was the problem or a couple more to swap the guitar for another one if it was something mechanical.

Originally Posted by DoodlySquat

Yeah and it makes some people look nuts. That is the people that are all worried about if the audience can tell between tube and solid state and if they will care blah blah blah.

Makes you wonder don't it?

[Mjark]

Wow. I can't think of any excuse for that. Did he play the entire song in the wrong key? I could only listen to about 30 seconds.

[tazzboy]

Yeah that was a few year back if I remember correctly.