Van Halen 1-21-1983 Sao Paulo

There's not a lot in the way of Roth era Van Halen concert videos out there. It seems like there are about seven full shows being traded. The best quality footage is probably from the US festival. However, it's widely agreed that this is not one of the band's best performances. Someone has uploaded it in full here, so you can decide for yourself:


If you enjoy the 6 Roth albums, you are no doubt curious to hear some live material from that time. There are two sites that give you an carefully researched overview of what people have amassed over the years. HERE and HERE. You could, of course, see the band now. Obviously, however, twenty five years is a lot of time, and I expect that the shows are pretty different. This Brazil show demonstrates how much energy the band expended on stage, constantly running back and forth, sliding across the floor, jumping from things, Roth's trademark scissors kick. I wouldn't say that Rock and Roll is necessarily something that can only be accomplished by people under 30. For the majority of bands, though, dance moves and sex idol posturing are a big part of the on stage performance.

As far as VH boots go, It's interesting enough to hear the records with Van Halen playing guitar in some studio, but it's even more impressive when you are confronted with the fact that this guy would rip solid versions of these songs with all their inventive sounds and techniques...that he would do them on stage one song after the next. Its amazing, actually. After you have heard the albums enough so that you know all the songs, it's great to have live versions of them, where the players are in different balance with one other and there are different nuances to how they are played.

Of course, if that's what you are trying to appreciate, I'd recommend some soundboard audio boots over this video. Because the low end is non-existent and there is a moderate amount of tape hiss. It doesn't sound bad. Its just not all there... As far as which audio bootlegs out there are the best...I'm in the process of going over what I've heard. Check back and I might amend this post with some suggestions.

The image on this boot is also mediocre. It's pro shot, but there's a lot of generation loss. It's also one of those shows where they haven't taken the cameras into account as far as setting up the lighting for the show. It probably looked good from the bleachers, but the image is way dark on the video...somebody could tweak the hue and give it some reds and it would look a lot better. There is a two disc upgrade of this show. I haven't seen it and I don't know how it has improved


Absurdly enough, (given that I've spent some hours putting this blog together) I don't really get a lot of mileage out of concert videos. It's kind of a problem with the genre. Sure, it's involving to watch musicians make music right in front of you with thousands of people around you all having a good time, but it's something else to watch recordings of it on TV. It's not for everyone. Even when you have the best quality footage of a band performing really well, only seriously devoted fans and people who are particularly interested in stage performances are going to sit through these things multiple times. As opposed to purely sound recordings, which people will put on time and time again while they are doing other things. I'd risk supposing that concert goers are generally only a small fraction of the audience for music, Many times in life I've heard people tell me: "I don't like concerts; it's too crowded. When I want to listen to them, I can just as well do it in my living room."



This didn't prove to be the case for Van Halen in 2008, the pent up demand for people to see the Roth version of Van Halen grossed 93 million dollars for the band. Becoming one of the quintessential arena rock bands involved the continuous climb of making and selling 80 million records. It seems pretty safe to say that no band starting today can expect to sell 80 million records. Entertainment dollars are headed in different directions. People expect sound recordings for free. That being the case, will there be rock bands in 25 years that can fill an arena? Is being able to fill an arena the definition of rock music? I suspect that it's all over. If there are guitar players out there trying to top Eddie Van Halen, they're not gonna do it with respect to fame and fortune. Safe to say, Van Halen fans are content with the old songs that they have always loved. For them, 1983 will live forever.