MAJOR BUMMER ALERT! If you were planning on partying with Van Halen this summer, you may be shit outta luck. The band was scheduled to tour America all summer long, and well into September, too — but yesterday they postponed thirty-one shows, calling off, for the time being, all performances after a June 26 gig in New Orleans. That’s sucky enough, but what’s worse is that, as of this writing, the band has offered no explanation for the postponement.
Rolling Stone chalks it up to — shocker! – inter-band drama, citing an unnamed source who claims that the group’s members “hate each other” and “are arguing like mad.” And while, given the band’s past history, it’s not too far-fetched to believe that David Lee Roth and the Van Halens aren’t getting along, it’s hard for me to imagine that the state of things has devolved to the point where they would put off such a large amount of tour dates — especially considering that they’re apparently getting along well enough to keep the trek going for another thirteen shows over the course of more than a month. I just don’t see Eddie Van Halen going “FUCK YOU, DAVE! I HATE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH THAT THIS TOUR IS OFFICIALLY OFF AFTER ONLY A BAKER’S DOZEN MORE CONCERTS!!!!” It would be, y’know. Odd.
So what other reasons could there be for the postponement? Honestly, I have no clue. Apparently the shows are selling well, so that’s not it. Hopefully the group will release a statement sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, don’t forget that I’m giving away a 7″ single of Van Halen’s “She’s the Woman” for the latest edition of Completely Unreadable Band Logo of the Week. Go here for details.
And, sorry to tell ya, if you had tickets to any of the following Van Halen gigs, well, you are now free that evening:
July 7: Uncasville, Ct., Mohegan Sun Arena
July 9: Hampton, Va., Hampton Coliseum
July 11: Philadelphia, Pa., Wells Fargo Center
July 13: East Rutherford, N.J., Izod Center
July 15: Baltimore, Md., 1st Mariner Arena
July 17: Rochester N.Y., Blue Cross Arena
July 19: Detroit, Mich., Joe Louis Arena
July 21: London, Ontario, John Labatt Centre
July 24: Toledo, Ohio, Huntington Center
July 26: Grand Rapids, Mich., Van Andel Arena
July 28: Cleveland, Ohio, Quicken Loans Arena
July 31: Fort Wayne, Ind., Allen County Memorial Coliseum
August 2: Columbus, Ohio, Schottenstein Center
August 4: Knoxville, Tenn., Thompson-Boiling Arena
August 6: Memphis, Tenn., FedEx Forum
August 8: Birmingham, Ala., BJCC Arena
August 10: Greenville, S.C., BI-LO Center
August 12: Cincinnati, Ohio, US Bank Arena
August 21: Spokane, Wash., Spokane Arena
August 23: Portland, Ore., Rose Garden
August 25: Sacramento, Calif.,Power Balance Pavilion
August 28: Fresno, Calif., Save Mart Center
August 30: Reno, Nev., Reno Events Center
September 4: Salt Lake City, Utah — EnergySolutions Arena
September 8: Albuquerque, N.M., Tingley Coliseum
September 11: El Paso, Texas, Don Haskins Center
September 13: Austin, Texas, Frank Erwin Center
September 15: Oklahoma City, Okla., Chesapeake Energy Arena
September 17: Wichita, Kan. – Intrust Bank Arena
September 21: Moline, Ill., Iwireless Center
September 25: Milwaukee, Wis., Bradley Center
0 ·
Comments
In the videotaped statement, Roth says, "The band is getting along famously, better than we have in quite some time, and I think the shows reveal that through the miracle of YouTube. I think we're one of the few bands who relishes you bringing whatever camera — if you can carry it in and pull the trigger on it yourself, then please do. And through the eye of YouTube, you can see that we're having ourselves a hell of a time, and I think that translates into the music. As usual, we've bit off way more than we could chew when it came to scheduling. The band is winning but our schedule has been sidelined for unnecessary roughness. If we continue past July 4 and all the way into Australia and Japan, then we're asking for the robot-zombie tour when you start getting a lot of 'yes' questions. [Adopts robotic voice] 'Do you feel alright' 'Yes.' 'Are you having a good time?' 'Ahh…' You don't wanna get to that point. And we're nowhere near that point. But we're gonna take a break and we're gonna come all the way back around, because this tour is gonna take us about two years. And we're the guys who brought you KOOL & THE GANG as the ultimate and arguably left-handed top bill co-headline tour — they just went on first every night — and we have in mind a supersize monster truck rally VAN HALEN tractor pull sort of event, and we're gonna be bringing that back around for the United States as soon as we learn to speak Australian. So stay tuned and we'll see you down the road in just a little bit."
https://player.vimeo.com/video/42480835