Van Halen 1984 Tour Nashville Memories

Those sounds from my adolescence still sound amazing to me all these years later. It's the sound of electricity in the air. Fast cars and the wind blowing feathered hair while your speakers blow......musing as I often do on the mighty Van Halen....party anthems with soul. 

Photo from inside the trailer I was living in around this time. 

I know exactly where I was 37 years ago. I was at Municipal Auditorium to see the mighty Van Halen on their 1984 tour. The Gonz's mom took us to Nashville and dropped us off. Autograph was the opening band and they didn't make it through their set. Chants of Eddie rang out loudly and bottles rained down on the stage. I felt bad for Autograph, but it didn't keep me from joining in after an empty whiskey bottle rolled against my right foot. I picked it up and chucked it at the stage in the direction of the drums. 

There was a commotion either before Autograph or right before Van Halen came on when the crowd noticed Valerie Bertinelli was there. I didn't see her, but the word went around down the front of the stage like the telephone game. The Gonz and I were about 10 rows deep in just about center stage. There were no floor seats so we stood the entire night and I don't recall either of us leaving once we had our spot staked out. The Gonz had got to see Elvis play Murphy Center when he was in primary school, but I had never seen a big rock concert before. The closest had been seeing Kiss on HBO. 

We had spent most of the afternoon wondering what songs would be played that night. I think the Gonz even wrote out prospective setlist's. This pre-internet era was one of endless speculation and wonderment. We both worshipped at the altar of Edward Van Halen and the Gonz especially was excited since he had been playing guitar for a year or so by this time. Both of us had been concerned about all the talk of keyboards before 1984 came out, but once the album was released we were onboard with wherever Dave and the boys wanted to go. 

I'm in a Van Halen group on FB and John Watts posted some amazing photos from the show that night (0r were they?...as it turns out the photos may have been from the July Evansville, Indiana show) and he has given me permission to share them. He had smuggled his camera in and he ended up on the floor not that far away from me. I was thrilled to see the photos. Here's the view well before the show began. The Gonz and I would have already been in the crush of people near the front. 

The lights dimmed and then....Edward Van Halen in the spotlight, then there was Dave making that legs outstretched leap from the drum riser as the  riff from "Unchained" tore the roof off. My favorite band then and now was live in person. We were close enough to the stage that not only could you hear the sound you could feel it. Bass tones vibrated right through our bodies. The temperature inside Municipal rose into a swelter even though it was still winter. Alex Van Halen (who was an absolute beast) kicked into the drum intro for "Hot For Teacher" and the frenetic boogie charged the atmosphere even higher and boom...just 2 songs in and we get a drum solo at the end. Van Halen didn't need to play "On Fire" for us to know they were blazing, but that was next, which was awesome because part of our pre-concert setlist pondering was how many older tunes we'd get. 

Michael Anthony pounded out the bass intro to "Runnin' With The Devil" and it didn't matter if Dave screwed up any of the words as we all were singing along. The Nashville stop was their 3rd night in a row of playing after gigs in Louisville, KY on the 9th and Knoxville the night before. I later ended up learning guitar myself and have played shows in clubs for awhile and for these guys to go out night after night and play with so much energy is just insane. It's no wonder the Dave era imploded after this tour. I was just so lucky to get to see this tour. 

Diver Down always gets put down as the worst original Dave era record, but I always loved it almost as much as the rest so I was thrilled to see Eddie get the miniature Les Paul out and play "Little Guitars" which was my favorite tune from that album. I would sometime make mix tapes made up of the original Dave era and that song always made the cut. It was tunes like "Little Guitars" that made Van Halen so different from other hard rock/heavy metal bands. It is truly sublime with great lyrics from Dave showing off a rare romantic/mystical side. 

"Cathedral" followed with Eddie deploying the tray under the guitar which was a nifty invention. "House of Pain" followed and it rocked. Then Michael Anthony brought out the Jack Daniels bass and everyone went crazy since if you either live in or happen to be in the great state of Tennessee you better love Jack Daniels whiskey which is made in Lynchburg. His bass solo was okay and it was expected, but I kinda wish we had gotten more songs instead of the bass, drum, and Dave solos. Another one of my mix tape favorites was up next: "Jamie's Cryin'" is just a perfect pop tune. How about a break from this review of the concert to listen to it. 

if you don't see a video click on web version at the bottom of this post

The 1984 tour stage was cool with an catwalk that ran above and behind the drums. There was keyboards on each side and this is where Eddie and Mike went to play "I'll Wait" which was interesting, but was the one tune I could have done without. I stand corrected; maybe more bass or drum solos would have been better than "I'll Wait.". It was okay as "Everybody Wants Some" was next. Some keyboard indulgence can easily be excused in the wake of this behemoth (or show we say mammoth) song. Dave shared an almost x-rated story about Alex and some larger groupie during the middle and we all had a laugh. I believe it was after this that Dave performed his solo which was some choreographed sword dance. It was cool, but it did leave us scratching our heads. 

Years later I would see videos of Eddie and Alex jamming parts of "Girl Gone Bad" on the previous tour, so perhaps it wouldn't have been as big of a surprise when the whole band tore through the tune. Suddenly, a song that was not much of a favorite on 1984 showed all its glory to us. It was back to the keyboards for "1984" and "Jump" had become a surprise mega-hit and I don't believe it ever came out of Van Halen's setlist even during the Sammy Hagar years. It was a vindication for Eddie who had been pushing the music for years. Dave's lyrics were always great. If you get a chance to read Ted Templeman's book you'll find out much Dave brought to the table beyond being the master of ceremonies at their shows. 

The moment that lots of people were waiting for was next: the Edward Van Halen guitar solo which delivered and then some. "Eruption" was mind altering when it came out on Van Halen's debut album. You get way more than just that in an Eddie solo. When he started playing the intro to "Mean Streets" the Gonz's smile shattered into millions of little smiles as he picked his face off the floor. I can't emphasize enough this was the pre-internet days and neither of us had seen Van Halen in concert before so we didn't have a clue how he had played that intro on the Fair Warning album. 

It's odd that I can still remember feeling like when the band went into "(Oh) Pretty Woman" the night was almost over which made me sad. I never wanted the concert to end. "Panama" was the last one before the encores. "You Really Got Me" ended with Alex setting the gong on fire which was cool. If you want a feel for what the Nashville show was like beyond the photos you can (as of today's post) still see a boot of the entire later Montreal show on YouTube. The Nashville setlist doesn't note that the band played the short instrumental known as "Growth" that night, but they did before launching into "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love." Our ears would ring for days, but it was great. I bought a baseball jersey shirt which my children now take turns wearing and I bought the tour program which is in a box somewhere. 

My oldest wearing my 1984 tour shirt several years ago.

Before the decade was over I'd be the singer in a band with the Gonz and his younger brother and we'd go back to our old high school and play for the entire student body. I don't know if we ever performed "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" live, but I know we used to practice the song. I later learned to play guitar and led a few bands that played local clubs, but I could never play like Edward Van Halen. Sure, I can do some finger tapping and other tricks, but Eddie was more than the tricks. His music along with Dave's words was the soundtrack of my youth and it never fails to pick me up if I feel down. So here's to 37 years ago which will soon turn to 38, 39, and on to 40 years back. As long as I'm alive I will celebrate that evening in 1984 when I first saw Van Halen live and remember the absolute elation of that night. Thanks to John Watts for sharing his photographs. 

My ticket stub from the concert.