People asked me who I was going to see in Saratoga Springs Monday Night. I had trouble answering the question.
The history books will call it a “Sammy Hagar” concert.
It wasn’t quite right to say “I am going to see Sammy Hagar”… to me that conjures up the beach party rock Cabo Wabo thing. The word “Cabo” was not spoken a single time during the show, that I can recall. The show was predominantly Van Halen material.
Calling it “the Van Halen tribute tour” also seems wrong because, well, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, the only active and surviving members of classic Van Halen, were half of the band for this show.
Calling it “Van Halen” is also wrong because neither Van Halen brother took part, and I was fortunate enough to see the living, breathing, 5150 lineup of Van Halen. We don't want to pull a Pantera now, do we?
So I guess it was exactly as Sammy put it… a celebration.
The show was billed as Sammy Hagar's "Best of All Worlds" with Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham, and Joe Satriani. A late addition of Rai Thistlethwayte rounded out the band on keys, vox, and a little rhythm guitar, but he would be considered a sideman for marketing purposes.
Loverboy was support and they played a short 8-song set including their two hits, Workin’ For The Weekend and Turn Me Loose. Not a band I am big into but they were just fine.
The Best of All Worlds headline show started off with a bang… right into “Good Enough”, the opener from 5150. I would argue that the album 5150, which is right up there with VH1 and 1984 on my favorite VH albums list, was most neglected during both Van Halen’s run as a band and Sammy’s solo career, likely due to the brutal difficulty of the music. Fortunately, with Satriani on guitar, they flawlessly played 5 of the 9 songs from 5150, including the title track, “Good Enough”, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Summer Nights”, and “Best of Both Worlds”.
Hearing “5150”, “Summer Nights”, and “Good Enough” performed live by living members of Van Halen is something I would have said would never happen if you asked me 20 years ago. The addition of “The Seventh Seal” from Balance, which I didn’t get to hear when I saw the actual Van Halen, was incredibly welcome. One of the darker tracks from their catalog, but one of my all-time favorites. Other songs from the Hagar—era VH catalog performed that night included “Right Now”, “When It’s Love”, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Poundcake”, “Judgment Day”, “Runaround”, and “Top of the World”.
One of the tells that this was NOT a Sammy Hagar solo show was the inclusion of more Roth-era VH tunes. I am not aware of any other time since Van Halen that Sammy sang “Jump” and “Panama”, and frankly they both sounded great, reminiscent of the “Right Here Right Now” live album cuts. To hear them performed in this context felt different than it did 20 years ago. There was no one forcing those songs on the setlist. No one tells Sammy Hagar what to do anymore. They did those songs because they were an important part of this celebration… and of course, many of us were happy to hear them.
Rounding out the Roth-era was a Michael Anthony-fronted rendition of “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”.
Sammy’s solo tune “Eagles Fly” was played with the full band as arranged on rather than the typical acoustic solo Sammy fashion. The bassline, originally recorded by Eddie Van Halen, was played by Michael Anthony, of course. (Don’t worry, TalkBass, I am gonna say more about Mikey)…
Sammy’s “I Can’t Drive 55”, “There’s Only One Way To Rock”, “Mas Tequila”, and “Heavy Metal” were the only other nods to his solo career on the setlist… relatively few, given the show was a “Sammy Hagar” show on paper.
Montrose classic “Space Station #5”, Chickenfoot cut “Big Foot”, and Satriani solo track “Satch Boogie” all made the setlist that evening.
So, how was the show?
In a word, incredible.
Sammy Hagar- There aren't a lot of 76-year-old-men who can do what Sammy Hagar does. Really, there's only one. He has his cardio, his wits, his pitch, and his classic smile. Sammy has lost a bit of range and a bit of stamina, but never anything in his pitch, his energy, and his ability to perform. The songs that needed to be lowered to accommodate Sammy's range were lowered, and he handed over a few leads to Michael Anthony and Rai Thistlethwayte in order to get a breather now and again. The quality and tone to his voice were every bit the same as they were 20 years ago when I saw him last. Sammy overperformed my expectations, and the expectations were in the sky.
Joe Satriani- Joe Satriani was absolutely the right choice for this material. I can’t think of anyone who could pull off this stuff, no disrespect to Sammy’s loyal guitarist Vic Johnson. I have heard people reference Satriani’s playing on this tour as “his own spin” on Eddie Van Halen’s playing. I would actually say Satriani took an impressively academic approach to playing Eddie’s parts incredibly accurately. Yes, there were elements of Joe in there, but he appeared and sounded focused on performing those songs loyally to their original recordings to the extent at which he could without being Eddie Van Halen (or Ronnie Montrose). I think it's fair to say that, with the exception of a living, healthy, sober Eddie Van Halen, no one could have done what Joe Satriani did with the Van Halen catalog. (Also, who looks that good at 68????)
Jason Bonham- Jason has been playing with Sammy for a while now as part of "The Circle", famously the son of John Bonham and the drummer of choice for many Led Zeppelin related projects. In a way, it comes full circle, as the influence of John Bonham on Alex Van Halen was undeniable, and looping things back to John's son Jason for this gig was ideal.
We all would have loved to have seen Alex Van Halen drum on this tour. Even one song. Even one night for one song. Alex is done drumming, and that’s okay… I get it. I'm not sure if I predeceased my brother he would be too keen to jump on the road and play music we wrote together with someone else (but bro, if you're reading and I do predecease you, you have my blessing).
Michael Anthony- From Van Halen I, it was evident Michael Anthony was an elite backing vocalist. Come 2024, he still holds the title as the best harmony/backing vocalist in the history of all flavors of hard rock. Impeccable pitch, impeccable range, and a signature part of the classic Van Halen sound. And his bass playing? I'm not sure if you have ever attempted to play "The Seventh Seal", "5150", "Satch Boogie", or "Poundcake", but they ain't easy. Some of them require a ton of right hand stamina. Some of them are straight up just hard. Michael Anthony is criminally underrated as a bassist. He is so much more than Ed tried to tear him down to being, and all you need to do to figure that out is to try to play his trickiest parts.
Rai Thistlethwayte- Rai wasn't on any of the band shirts or marketing materials so I believe he is considered an "additional musician" for the purposes of this tour, but he played live keys for the Van Halen songs that had live keys, a touch of rhythm guitar, and some great lead and backing vocals, filling out three part harmonies and at times supporting Sammy. His combination of skills was the right combination for this job.
Song Choices- If you asked me to make my dream Van Halen setlist, it would be incredibly close to what we heard that evening. I would have, of course, included a few more Roth-era tunes, but not THAT many more. It was unusual that "Dreams" was missing, but the show didn't really suffer for it. Honestly... something has to be missing. You can't do everything on a show like this.
Alright, so I should probably say something critical here, shouldn't I. I don't have much. I'm glad I got to hear those songs live (in some cases, again). The cameos from Pat Monahan and Kevin Cronin were underwhelming.
The history books will call it a “Sammy Hagar” concert.
It wasn’t quite right to say “I am going to see Sammy Hagar”… to me that conjures up the beach party rock Cabo Wabo thing. The word “Cabo” was not spoken a single time during the show, that I can recall. The show was predominantly Van Halen material.
Calling it “the Van Halen tribute tour” also seems wrong because, well, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, the only active and surviving members of classic Van Halen, were half of the band for this show.
Calling it “Van Halen” is also wrong because neither Van Halen brother took part, and I was fortunate enough to see the living, breathing, 5150 lineup of Van Halen. We don't want to pull a Pantera now, do we?
So I guess it was exactly as Sammy put it… a celebration.
The show was billed as Sammy Hagar's "Best of All Worlds" with Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham, and Joe Satriani. A late addition of Rai Thistlethwayte rounded out the band on keys, vox, and a little rhythm guitar, but he would be considered a sideman for marketing purposes.
Loverboy was support and they played a short 8-song set including their two hits, Workin’ For The Weekend and Turn Me Loose. Not a band I am big into but they were just fine.
The Best of All Worlds headline show started off with a bang… right into “Good Enough”, the opener from 5150. I would argue that the album 5150, which is right up there with VH1 and 1984 on my favorite VH albums list, was most neglected during both Van Halen’s run as a band and Sammy’s solo career, likely due to the brutal difficulty of the music. Fortunately, with Satriani on guitar, they flawlessly played 5 of the 9 songs from 5150, including the title track, “Good Enough”, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Summer Nights”, and “Best of Both Worlds”.
Hearing “5150”, “Summer Nights”, and “Good Enough” performed live by living members of Van Halen is something I would have said would never happen if you asked me 20 years ago. The addition of “The Seventh Seal” from Balance, which I didn’t get to hear when I saw the actual Van Halen, was incredibly welcome. One of the darker tracks from their catalog, but one of my all-time favorites. Other songs from the Hagar—era VH catalog performed that night included “Right Now”, “When It’s Love”, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Poundcake”, “Judgment Day”, “Runaround”, and “Top of the World”.
One of the tells that this was NOT a Sammy Hagar solo show was the inclusion of more Roth-era VH tunes. I am not aware of any other time since Van Halen that Sammy sang “Jump” and “Panama”, and frankly they both sounded great, reminiscent of the “Right Here Right Now” live album cuts. To hear them performed in this context felt different than it did 20 years ago. There was no one forcing those songs on the setlist. No one tells Sammy Hagar what to do anymore. They did those songs because they were an important part of this celebration… and of course, many of us were happy to hear them.
Rounding out the Roth-era was a Michael Anthony-fronted rendition of “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”.
Sammy’s solo tune “Eagles Fly” was played with the full band as arranged on rather than the typical acoustic solo Sammy fashion. The bassline, originally recorded by Eddie Van Halen, was played by Michael Anthony, of course. (Don’t worry, TalkBass, I am gonna say more about Mikey)…
Sammy’s “I Can’t Drive 55”, “There’s Only One Way To Rock”, “Mas Tequila”, and “Heavy Metal” were the only other nods to his solo career on the setlist… relatively few, given the show was a “Sammy Hagar” show on paper.
Montrose classic “Space Station #5”, Chickenfoot cut “Big Foot”, and Satriani solo track “Satch Boogie” all made the setlist that evening.
So, how was the show?
In a word, incredible.
Sammy Hagar- There aren't a lot of 76-year-old-men who can do what Sammy Hagar does. Really, there's only one. He has his cardio, his wits, his pitch, and his classic smile. Sammy has lost a bit of range and a bit of stamina, but never anything in his pitch, his energy, and his ability to perform. The songs that needed to be lowered to accommodate Sammy's range were lowered, and he handed over a few leads to Michael Anthony and Rai Thistlethwayte in order to get a breather now and again. The quality and tone to his voice were every bit the same as they were 20 years ago when I saw him last. Sammy overperformed my expectations, and the expectations were in the sky.
Joe Satriani- Joe Satriani was absolutely the right choice for this material. I can’t think of anyone who could pull off this stuff, no disrespect to Sammy’s loyal guitarist Vic Johnson. I have heard people reference Satriani’s playing on this tour as “his own spin” on Eddie Van Halen’s playing. I would actually say Satriani took an impressively academic approach to playing Eddie’s parts incredibly accurately. Yes, there were elements of Joe in there, but he appeared and sounded focused on performing those songs loyally to their original recordings to the extent at which he could without being Eddie Van Halen (or Ronnie Montrose). I think it's fair to say that, with the exception of a living, healthy, sober Eddie Van Halen, no one could have done what Joe Satriani did with the Van Halen catalog. (Also, who looks that good at 68????)
Jason Bonham- Jason has been playing with Sammy for a while now as part of "The Circle", famously the son of John Bonham and the drummer of choice for many Led Zeppelin related projects. In a way, it comes full circle, as the influence of John Bonham on Alex Van Halen was undeniable, and looping things back to John's son Jason for this gig was ideal.
We all would have loved to have seen Alex Van Halen drum on this tour. Even one song. Even one night for one song. Alex is done drumming, and that’s okay… I get it. I'm not sure if I predeceased my brother he would be too keen to jump on the road and play music we wrote together with someone else (but bro, if you're reading and I do predecease you, you have my blessing).
Michael Anthony- From Van Halen I, it was evident Michael Anthony was an elite backing vocalist. Come 2024, he still holds the title as the best harmony/backing vocalist in the history of all flavors of hard rock. Impeccable pitch, impeccable range, and a signature part of the classic Van Halen sound. And his bass playing? I'm not sure if you have ever attempted to play "The Seventh Seal", "5150", "Satch Boogie", or "Poundcake", but they ain't easy. Some of them require a ton of right hand stamina. Some of them are straight up just hard. Michael Anthony is criminally underrated as a bassist. He is so much more than Ed tried to tear him down to being, and all you need to do to figure that out is to try to play his trickiest parts.
Rai Thistlethwayte- Rai wasn't on any of the band shirts or marketing materials so I believe he is considered an "additional musician" for the purposes of this tour, but he played live keys for the Van Halen songs that had live keys, a touch of rhythm guitar, and some great lead and backing vocals, filling out three part harmonies and at times supporting Sammy. His combination of skills was the right combination for this job.
Song Choices- If you asked me to make my dream Van Halen setlist, it would be incredibly close to what we heard that evening. I would have, of course, included a few more Roth-era tunes, but not THAT many more. It was unusual that "Dreams" was missing, but the show didn't really suffer for it. Honestly... something has to be missing. You can't do everything on a show like this.
Alright, so I should probably say something critical here, shouldn't I. I don't have much. I'm glad I got to hear those songs live (in some cases, again). The cameos from Pat Monahan and Kevin Cronin were underwhelming.
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