van halen

Last night I had the pleasure of witnessing the best concert I've ever seen before in my life. Van Halen more than put on a show, they ran a clinic. From Eddie's fantastic guitar to DLR's wild outfits to Wolfgang's youthful antics - this concert found the proper balance between showmanship and music. What made it even better was that the whole band just let loose, goofed around and looked like they were having an amazing time. It was exactly what I had pictured. That's how bands are supposed to perform. This was, quite honestly, the first concert I've seen where each member of the band was there to perform first, have fun second and just cut loose. Each member had a pretty good idea as to what the other was thinking / going to do next, but not because of rehearsal. You could tell that the obvious bond they all shared was driving the show more than mere camaraderie. They didn't pause frequently to tell meaningless, made-up stories and try to force feed us bad comedy. (Although, the two tales that DLR told were hilarious.)

The biggest part of the night, at least for me, was when they played Panama. If you know me well, you'll know that during "Crock's Bullshit Minute" (a part of the Crock & Murph in the Morning podcast) I play Panama in the background to let you know I mean business. Well, last night, EVH and company too meant business. They brought down the house by jumping straight from the already incredible Panama to a wild guitar solo by Eddie that led directly into Ain't Talkin' Bout Love. The order of these songs couldn't have been more perfect for my crew as (obviously) I was there to hear Panama and Rollo was there to hear Ain't Talkin' Bout Love.

Yeah man, it was an incredible night.

I'll get around to recapping April eventually (I think), but until I do - go wild with the very Spanish, very loco, Cinco-de-Mayo blog headliner!