Seeing Valerie Bertinelli on the TV every night promoting her wares for a nameless diet company reminded me of how much I used to like listening to her ex perform keyboard gymnastics. This particular thread is devoted to the "Dave" days when good old David Lee Roth pranced around the stage with reckless abandon and when they had one of the premier bass players/backup singers in rock provide the heavy bottom end that this band needed to stay on top. I am of course referring to Michael Anthony.
Yes I am talking about that Van Halen. Don’t get me wrong I also happen to like the "other" Van Halen that featured Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist sometime guitarist and brooding band mate.
These days (even though Dave is back) they seem to be a shadow of their former selves but in their day this was a band that broke a whole pile of rules, established a whole new breed of new flashy guitar players who emulated Eddie to the tenth power and who to my dismay seemed to populate every guitar store on a Saturday morning. Not too surprisingly not many of these guys had paying gigs to support their new obsession.
Love 'em or leave 'em (as Valerie did) this was a great band, with great song arrangements and powerful musicianship.
They deserve a mention here in this section. Dave? Oh yes Dave. He was (again in his day) one of the greatest, shameless self promoters (did I mention he is a singer?) in rock who also owned a PA but that's another story. What a front man is all I can say. He gave you your moneys worth at their shows.
Gene Simmons has a connection with this band. Anyone know what it is?
