Tokyo Dome CD Reviews

wjamflan:

The worst part of all of this is listening to people take the Eddie Trunk approach and say that Dave never could sing, especially live. That’s completely a bogus rewriting of history in my estimation. DLR from ’78 – ’84 sang the shit out the VH catalog live. Did he have his drunken moments or fried voice moments? Sure. All singers have those. The difference was that even when that was the case, Dave got a pass b/c he was so cool to watch and listen to. Now he’s just creepy to watch (uncool) and the vocal shortcomings are in your face and hard to take. They sound like someone trying too hard, not mailing it in. I can’t deny that anymore, but I refuse to agree that Dave wasn’t a great singer for VH back in the day. He did kick ass in his time.

Agree 100% with this.. Dave sang like no one else back in the day.. the delivery, the screams – just pure fire and awesome.

wjamflan:

What then of Tokyo Dome? I think it’s Dave’s swan song in VH. The band plays the songs well. Wolf and Ed sound fine singing the backgrounds, but Dave is horrible. The Kimmel/Ellen shows are just proof that TD wasn’t some lingering health issue (from 2012) or momentary voice issue. DLR is officially done as a great rock singer. He only does damage to his reputation by not changing his approach or quitting. The conspiracy theorists who thought Ed was trying to out him by releasing this don’t have a leg to stand on now that we know that it was Dave who chose the damn show for release. The whole thing is just sad from this CVH fan’s perspective.

99% with you here.. Ed, and the other guys, had to OK the release. That is a head scratcher to me.. Part of me believes Ed knows it’s not great and is OK with it as long as his parts are great.

wjamflan: I’ve been trying so hard not to comment on the TD set, so I’ll keep it as brief as possible. The above quote makes me sad because so many people are saying it, including my own wife and kids who all like VH.

It started the other night when I was re-watching the Kimmel shows while I waited for my family to do what we had planned for the night. My middle son sat next to me (15 yo) and said, “Dad, they need to do what Journey did and find a new singer.” I suddenly felt like I was watching a funeral on tv. Granted, none of them have liked when I’ve watched the 2012-13 shows either – same reason, Dave’s singing – but, they never said anything about replacing Dave. The sad part is that I don’t think Dave is mailing it in. I think he’s doing the best he can now, and it’s not good.

The clincher came when I then showed them clips of Ralph Saenz doing VH inthe Atomic Punks and Steel Panther and they all were stunned. To a person they thought Ralph did Dave better than Dave does Dave at this point. The final nail in the coffin was when my daughter said that Ralph didn’t move as weird or awkwardly as Dave does now. I never thought I’d see the day when DLR wasn’t cool, but he’s not cool at all anymore. I understand that detractors might say he was never really cool, or that he hasn’t been cool in a long time. Either way, I can’t escape that reality now and it’s so depressing.

The worst part of all of this is listening to people take the Eddie Trunk approach and say that Dave never could sing, especially live. That’s completely a bogus rewriting of history in my estimation. DLR from ’78 – ’84 sang the shit out the VH catalog live. Did he have his drunken moments or fried voice moments? Sure. All singers have those. The difference was that even when that was the case, Dave got a pass b/c he was so cool to watch and listen to. Now he’s just creepy to watch (uncool) and the vocal shortcomings are in your face and hard to take. They sound like someone trying too hard, not mailing it in. I can’t deny that anymore, but I refuse to agree that Dave wasn’t a great singer for VH back in the day. He did kick ass in his time.

What then of Tokyo Dome? I think it’s Dave’s swan song in VH. The band plays the songs well. Wolf and Ed sound fine singing the backgrounds, but Dave is horrible. The Kimmel/Ellen shows are just proof that TD wasn’t some lingering health issue (from 2012) or momentary voice issue. DLR is officially done as a great rock singer. He only does damage to his reputation by not changing his approach or quitting. The conspiracy theorists who thought Ed was trying to out him by releasing this don’t have a leg to stand on now that we know that it was Dave who chose the damn show for release. The whole thing is just sad from this CVH fan’s perspective.

I agree with you Bill. My family says the same thing about the last tour. “Why are you still watching these videos, Dave sounds horrible.” I still like them and watch the videos because of Eddie. He is playing great! I really enjoy the songs that aren’t hits the most. Songs like WIL, and HAIL. Dave was an incredible frontman back in the day. He had such a cool timbre to his voice and his stage presence was awesome. Unfortunately, those days have past. He does come off just creepy and uncool. I also don’t think he’s phoning it in. He’s spent. It is sad. Oh well, we’ll see how this tour comes off. I’m wondering how ticket sales will be after all of this.

guitard: The most devastating thing to me about the 2015 version of DLR is that crown on the back of his head.At first, I thought he might have found religion and started wearing a yarmulke.But no … it’s a motherfuckin’ bald spot.I think that bald spot is so much on his mind (both literally and figuratively) that it has totally screwed up his rock star psyche and he simply can’t sing anymore.I bet a dollar if he went to the Bosley Clinic and got that taken care of, not only would his singing improve – he’d be able to remember the lyrics again.

Are you joking???

I am 90% sure Dave had hair transplant surgery back around 2003 or 2004. I saw a boot from that time, and it appeared he had new hair plugs. Dave has been battling hair loss since the late 80′s.

All I know is – I’m going to go to the shows and enjoy them just like all the other VH shows I’ve ever been to. I literally won’t even notice that Dave can’t sing for shit anymore. It’s Van Halen. It’ll be a party. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.

Dave: I think it was always the real thing – he’s just been covering it up with schtick for years. When he said, “I forgot the f***ing words,” I think he really did forget them at least once a show!

Dave did that gag in damn near every show on that tour.

The problem is, even when he couldn’t sing for shit in the 80s (and he couldn’t really “sing”) he could hit a note or find the key and then hit a scream and make it all fall into place. Now, he’s trying to do this weird high harmony, but out of key, squealing and screaming and it’s just awful. I’ve said it a million times. If he sticks to what he does best and talk his way through the melodies and stick to the songs as he recorded them, he would sound SO MUCH BETTER! A prime example is “Dance the Night Away” where they do the “Oooo, baby baby” and he’s doing that weird, “You gotta look my WAY!” all monotone and high pitched. If he sang the melody and let Wolf and Ed do the high parts, it would be fine. There are so many instances where he would sound good if he stuck to the melody and stayed in his range, but he thinks he can hit these high notes that aren’t even a harmony or in pitch. You see him struggling when he’s always pushing on his in ear monitor or in some cases, he just takes it out all together. It’s just strange to me that he would even attempt to try these improvisational vocal theatrics when it’s obvious he can’t do it.

As far as his stage antics, he was cooler in 2002 when he was touring and looking like the Cryptkeeper with hair plugs and the puffy spandex. I think he sounded better vocally then as well even though it was obvious his voice was on it’s last legs. All of the reviews reiterate the same thing over and over. The band is smokin’ and Dave is sucking. I agree that it is a LIVE album and that is what you get with a live album. I just don’t think Dave is a “live album” kind of guy. They should have released another new album and toured, in my opinion, but it is what it is. Bring on Red Rocks!

If you’re a big Dave fan…. and I am. I have all his solo records, and as many bootlegs as I could get.

Dave’s voice started to change on A Little Ain’t Enough. He couldn’t do the screams anymore…. but his vocal tone and pitch was fine. Your Filthy Little Mouth was a completely different Dave vocally, and at first I didn’t like that album.

I think during the ’07-’08 tour Dave’s voice sounded similar to his voice from ’91… which I thought was pretty amazing. Something obviously changed in his voice from the time of recording ADKOT, and the 2012 tour.

Watch any show from the ’07-’08 tour and you will see, or hear a big difference in Dave’s voice.

I’m with Guitard on this, too. I’m pretty excited for this tour – I’ve got the best seats I’ve ever had for a VH show (with Dave), I’m taking my wife and two kids and I believe the live-in-person VH experience can’t be beat.

Lately, for me, Dave LOOKS like I FEEL when I listen to Van Halen. Big smile ’cause the music is so fun and rockin’, goofy dancing and strutting around ’cause you can’t stand still to driving rhythms and shouting along at the top of your lungs, even if you don’t know all the words.

Basically, Dave has morphed into ME, and I love it.