1978 early Van Halen Live video clip

Man, cameras have come such a long way since. My bargain Samsung cell phone shot better quality footage and sound at last week's Muse concert. I wonder what setup the camera guy used. It can't have been easy. Think of all the amazing bands and tours we could have had good sounding footage off if they had had access to today's recording technology. All those great bands of the 60's and 70's, their performances now only living on in our memory because barely any bootleg recordings exist.



I reckon that with great stage performance also comes great ego. And I suspect that while some narcissism is already present before, its the whole standing in front of thousands of fans cheering you on that amps it up to Olympian heights.

there is an article on vanhalen newsdesk that shows the actual camera... it only ran for 3-3.5 minutes and he had to swap film. kudos to that dude for doing this. audio obviously had to be synced up.
 
Same here except I was ahead of you on KISS. Got sent home with a note in second grade after bringing Alive LP for show and tell.
Thanks to Columbia House Record Club, I obtained 5 or 6 KISS albums simultaneously and was in heaven as an pre-teen.

I would listen to those with big ass headphones for hours on my parent's stereo.

In 1981, I got Van Halen II, Back in Black, The Game (Queen) and Hi Infidelity (REO Speedwagon) on cassette and wore them out!

:D
 
I actually saw this tour in Utah.

I was in high school listening to ELP, Yes, King Crimson and learning to play guitar jamming along to the records.

My buddy, who was a Kiss fan told me we had to go see this new guitarist that would just blow me away. I was skeptical. After all he thought Ace Freeley was the world’s greatest guitarist.

Never heard a guitar played like that!

Show ended, we ran outside where bus was parked. Huge snowstorm. Doors bang open and out comes band and entourage. I’m trying to get Eddies attention and Roth with a bottle of Jack faceplants into the snow right at my feet. Me and some roadie pick him up and drag him into bus.

It smelled like a garbage truck. Knee deep beer cans and trash. Pizza slices stuck on the windows. We threw Roth into a bunk and they kicked us off the bus.

I was 10 feet from Eddie and didn’t get to talk to him.

I’ve detested Roth since that night.
too bad I was only a clueless 8 years old at the time. One of my favorite guitarists of all time. At least you got to seem him during these, in my opinion, greatest albums they ever produced.
 
I saw them in Birmingham in 81. Sadly, I don't remember a lot of the show. I remember it was super crowded on the floor, and the crowd down there was nuts.
 
So good. I would not want to have been Black Sabbath and go on stage after that.

Especially at that time in place as Sabbath was in a creative and personal downward spiral.

Also this is why in general at almost every concert I have been too the opening act always sucked ass. Musically they always feel out of place with the main act, they are not allowed free reign of the stage (they always never go onto the catwalks or B-stage) and the sound usually isn't as good as the main act. And that's excluding the fact that the audience is often hostile to them because they came to see the main act. The opening act is at best something to pass the time waiting for the real show to happen, and at worst something you have to suffer through waiting for the real show to happen. For a band to book an opening act that is really, REALLY good and actually outshines the main act I suspect management was sleeping on the job as they should have vetted the opening act better.
 
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