This weekend I checked out Van Halen at the Mohegan Sun arena. I have only seen VH once back in 1995 with Sammy. I have to admit that I am more of a Sammy fan, than a Dave fan. My two favorite albums are Carnal Knowledge and 1984.

The show opened with Eddie doing a version of Eruption, then it was song after song, after song. Over two hours total. Many songs went from one, right into the next with no break. I have to commend Wolfgang for his playing. He laid everything down note-for-note and added his own flavor at times. He was also very strong with his background vocals. Eddie’s guitar playing was impeccable. His guitar rig failed completely early in the show during “doctor”. You could see some techs running up on stage to figure out what was going on. He grabbed a new guitar, plugged in, and was up and running in no time. The others covered things up with a bass-drum groove. If Dave hadn’t announced that there was trouble, you probably would not have noticed. He seemed to cover up what Dave was unable to hit vocally. Dave sounded good, but had difficulty with many of the high notes-which can be expected with any of these veteran groups.

My only critique of the show was the volume. I am not one to complain about a loud concert, but the guitar and drums were so loud, it completely drowned out the vocals. It could have been the smaller arena, or the fact that Dave wanted his vocals deeper in the mix. It was still a great concert and the band still rocks as hard as ever!