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Van Halen Tour

February 18, 2012 by · Comments Off on Van Halen Tour 

Van Halen Tour, In the winter of 1978, the heads of teenage boys began exploding nationwide because of something called the “brown sound.” You can look it up. The guilty party was Eddie Van Halen, who happily confessed and then blew up some more.

The weapon was Eddie’s guitar, delivered via “Van Halen,” his band’s debut album. No one had heard anything like it before and, arguably, since. It was a game-changing moment for rock guitar, up there with Jimi Hendrix making feedback do whatever he wanted and Jeff Beck reinventing the wheel.

“I’ll never forget sitting down with ‘Van Halen’ and how huge his sound was,” said guitarist Mark Maxwell of Louisville Crashers. “It was mind-blowing to hear him play. He’s a freak of nature.”

My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel, selected by Rolling Stone as one of today’s finest guitarists, used to play “Van Halen” and “1984” incessantly. “The essence of Eddie Van Halen is the same thing I love about all my favorite guitar players, and it’s that they’ve mastered the guitar but it also seems like they could have played anything,” he said. “He’s just an incredible musician.”

Eddie didn’t outright invent anything he’ll be doing Saturday, when Van Halen’s tour opens at the KFC Yum! Center.

The tapping technique for which he is best known, where he taps on the fretboard using his right hand as he continues to play with his left, is a centuries-old technique that had been used by a handful of players on rock and blues records since the late 1960s. The fact is, however, that no one can do it like Eddie, who also utilized a long list of mechanical changes to his guitars, pickups and amplifiers.

But the most important thing that Eddie brought to the table is his basic technique, the strength in his hands that gave his playing an insane aggression even as he could turn on a dime to toss off a subtle aside. In the band’s early days, Eddie used to play some solos with his back to the audience, both to increase the mystique and to not give away any secrets.

There was no need. One could learn every solo down to the last intonation, use the same equipment down to the last vintage tube, and still not sound like Eddie or come anywhere near sounding brown. No one has yet. When Rolling Stone put together a list of the 100 greatest guitarists, Eddie came in eighth, and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready spoke to that specific point.

Van Halen Tour

December 28, 2011 by · Comments Off on Van Halen Tour 

Van Halen TourVan Halen Tour, American hard rock band Van Halen will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2012 by returning for a reunion tour. The band announced their plans to tour in 2012 on Tuesday on their website Van-Halen.com.

The Van Halen reunion tour will feature David Lee Roth, who previously left the group in 1985. He had since been replaced by Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone as lead singer. Roth, however, joined the group for an MTV Video Music Awards performance in 1996 and then returned for a brief tour in 1997. In 2007 and 2009, Roth also joined the group for a reunion tour.

In addition to David Lee Roth, the reunion tour will feature guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Wolfgang Van Halen.

To announce their plans to tour, Van Halen released new black and white videos on their website with the caption: Van Halen on Tour 2012. The videos were set to clips of “Jump,” “Hot For Teacher” and “Panama.”

Tickets for the Van Halen reunion tour will be sold beginning on Jan. 10, 2012.

Van Halen also recently signed a new deal with Interscope Records and they are rumored to release a new album with Roth singing since 1984.

To commemorate Van Halen’s 2012 reunion tour, here are their top five best live performances. Watch the videos below.

Eddie Van Halen’s Live Guitar Solo:

Van Halen “Dance the Night Away:”

Van Halen “Jump:”

Van Halen “Hot For Teacher:”

Van Halen “Panama:”

Van Halen

December 27, 2011 by · Comments Off on Van Halen 

Van HalenVan Halen, Next year with represent the 40th anniversary of the founding of Van Halen, and what better way to celebrate four decades of strumming and strutting than with another tour and a new album?

Such is the case for the four men of Van Halen: Guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, and singer/dancer/bon vivant David Lee Roth. The band last hit the road in 2007, which was the first time the Van Halen brothers had teamed up with Roth since the ill-fated (and extremely short-lived) reunion in 1996. The return of the band’s original (and best) singer remains tempered by the absence of bassist Michael Anthony, whose backing vocals and wild-eyed personality were sorely missed on the last tour (he was always a remarkably great foil for Roth on stage; Wolfgang, Eddie’s son, always looked like he was in Van Halen against his will).

The band’s 2012 trek, which was announced via their official website this morning, doesn’t have any specific dates yet, though the first batch of tickets will go on sale on January 10. The year promises to be a busy one, as the band is close to completing a new album, its first since 1998?s awful Van Halen III (with Extreme singer Gary Cherone on the microphone) and also the first with Roth since 1984 (though Roth did contribute vocals to two new songs on 1996?s Best Of Volume I).

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