Appearing for the first time on national television… the original line-up of Van Halen recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Eternal ham David Lee Roth made it about 20 seconds on stage before his buffoonery resulted in slicing his nose open.
Dave has always tried to be the center of attention at all costs, but sometimes the mugging over-steps the reason he is on stage to begin with.
To sing.
He was one of the premiere hard rock vocalists in their prime. That’s not to say he’s lost it completely… as much as he gets distracted by his own schtick. Witness this out of time, struggling to stay in sync version of ‘Panama’.
To be fair, the original attempt was better… but Roth had to go get taped up. Here is the first take where he messed up his face…
He missed an awesome metal moment. He should have let that blood flow and just screamed Panama with streaks of red running down into and out of his mouth. Kids would have freaked and parents would have been appalled. It would have been the most metal thing to have happened on live TV since Janet Jackson decided to slip a nip.
Here is the original take with the pause for Dave to go get fixed up like a little girl. The upside is the spontaneous jam to fill the space that took place between guitarist Eddie Van Halen and son Wolfgang on bass.
The band sounded great, although it’s too bad they can’t get Michael Anthony on bass where he should be.
“Running with the Devil” came off somewhat better, as did, “Dance The Night Away”.
The boys will be on tour this summer 2015 supporting their live album, “Tokyo Dome Live in Concert” that hits March 31, 2015. This will be the first time the band has toured North America in three years.
Van Halen 2015 Tour Dates:
07/05 – Seattle, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
07/07 – Portland, OR @ Amphitheater Northwest
07/09 – Concord, CA @ Concord Pavilion
07/11 – San Bernardino, CA @ San Manuel Amphitheater
07/14 – Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
07/16 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
07/18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre
07/20 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
07/22 – Kansas City, MO @ Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
07/24 – Chicago, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
07/26 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
07/28 – Pittsburgh, PA @ First Niagara Pavilion
07/30 – Bangor, ME @ Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion
08/01 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center
08/03 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
08/05 – London, ON @ Western Fair District
08/07 – Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
08/09 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
08/11 – Hartford, CT @ Xfinity Center
08/13 – Wantagh, NY @ Nikon At Jones Beach Theater
08/23 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Park
08/25 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
08/27 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
08/29 – Washington, DC @ Jiffy Lube Live
08/31 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
09/02 – Indianapolis, IN @ Klipsch Music Center
09/04 – Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
09/06 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
09/09 – Raleigh, NC @ Walnut Creek Amphitheater
09/11 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
09/13 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
09/15 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Coral Sky Amphitheatre
09/17 – Birmingham, AL @ Oak Mountain Amphitheatre
09/21 – Austin, TX @ Austin360 Amphitheater
09/23 – Dallas, TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
09/25 – Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
09/28 – Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion
09/30 – San Diego, CA @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre
10/02 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
Remember… this band used to be hard rock and fairly ‘dangerous’. The first time I ever heard the “F” word was on an Van Halen album. It was all down hill from there.
Beyond cool.