Video: Van Halen ruins “Jump”
posted at 12:29 pm on October 20, 2007 by Allahpundit
The bad news: Not only is the performance awful, it was apparently crippled by a technical glitch that doomed it from the start. The good news: This is from the same Greensboro concert that the clip in this post came from, so they simply might have been having an off night.
Anyone believe that? Click to watch.
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Painful.
spec_ops_mateo on October 20, 2007 at 12:32 PM
Go headdd and jumpppp (The shark)
William Amos on October 20, 2007 at 12:34 PM
i know something was wrong, but i dont understand what it is. All I know is that it was painful to watch – the dude didn’t even jump once.
44.1k to 48k, does that mean it ran too fast or something? I have no idea.
lorien1973 on October 20, 2007 at 12:40 PM
EVH’s guitar appears to be so out of tune that I’m somewhat tempted to believe the conspiracy theorist who commented at YT.
Sad.
phile on October 20, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Hey Allah, you got a repeat in Headlines! Schultz/Randi story!
Bad Candy on October 20, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Well, David Lee Roth has to be careful with the jumping these days, ‘cuz he might break a hip.
ReubenJCogburn on October 20, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Van Halen…just leave us with the good memories please.
I have seen cover bands that were better.
RobCon on October 20, 2007 at 12:49 PM
I think they need some serious practice.
stonemeister on October 20, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Were refunds offered?
Zorro on October 20, 2007 at 12:53 PM
THAT was hilarious!
D2Boston on October 20, 2007 at 12:54 PM
cripes…I have ticks for The Garden next month for VH…good seats too (I’ll see if I can get some filming in) and still, after that “not so good” performance, I’m really looking forward to it.
Jump was one of the first songs I learned on the keyboards….very easy. That, and Europe…The Final Countdown. Now there’s a song to get suck in yer head!
JetBoy on October 20, 2007 at 12:59 PM
Anyone can have a bad song or a bad night…guitar out of tune, whatever. There are some good clips of other shows on Youtube as well.
tommuck on October 20, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Yes! The giant inflatable microphone from 1988. That never gets old.
Nosferightu on October 20, 2007 at 1:09 PM
Wow, that was worse than the chick playing trumpet to the Star Wars theme.
Drew on October 20, 2007 at 1:11 PM
Speaking as a musician but without any special Van Halen knowledge, why would they ever put the synth on playback to begin with? Somebody told me Eddie Van Halen played both synth and guitar in the original, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hire a keyboardist to cover it live. Hell, it’s not Mozart. I can play it myself. Silly, as a live band, imho, to restrict yourself to the tempo and character, not to mention technical vagaries, of playback.
Anwyn on October 20, 2007 at 1:24 PM
Saw them in OKC a few years ago with Sammy Hagar and they rocked.
Buzzy on October 20, 2007 at 1:27 PM
You probably wouldn’t have cared much for the “Sunday Morning with the Arts” show I saw about a year ago, where there was a cheesy middle-aged man singing a bluegrass version of jump. It was David Lee Roth.
DrMagnolias on October 20, 2007 at 1:32 PM
And before anyone says “what repeat, BC?”, the Headline got fixed! :P
Bad Candy on October 20, 2007 at 1:36 PM
Oops…..
I couldn’t count how many times we’ve restarted a song ’cause of some problem,but they don’t really have that option I guess.
Frantic Freddie on October 20, 2007 at 1:42 PM
DrMagnolias on October 20, 2007 at 1:32 PM
That’s a crime man, a felony crime. I’m talking heinous felony crime too.
Buzzy on October 20, 2007 at 1:50 PM
I thought they were vapid 25+ years ago. Eddie is a fabulous guitar player, but the rest…ho hum. Definitely the minority opinion in high school in the 70s. I stopped listening about a minute in, being there live must have been like a bad acid trip.
windbag on October 20, 2007 at 2:04 PM
Somehow I doubt that’s merely an off-night. To paraphrase from “Pulp Fiction” (since I don’t feel like getting the boot for Brooklyn language):
See, this business is filled to the brim with unrealistic suckers, suckers who thought they would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better with age, it don’t.
steveegg on October 20, 2007 at 2:07 PM
Yes, the difference in playback made the pre-recorded synth out of pitch with Eddie, however it seems like DLR compensated adequately, but EVH had a tin ear and could not improvise correctl to the higher pitch.
bbz123 on October 20, 2007 at 2:08 PM
For the Ages bad.
thegreatbeast on October 20, 2007 at 2:13 PM
Eddie’s guitar playing here was so bad I’m thinking he went back on the wagon again.
I had to stop the clip when DLR started riding the enormous blow up microphone. That was just… sad.
Mindcrime on October 20, 2007 at 2:35 PM
Was that enormous mic was giving some enormous feedback?
TheSitRep on October 20, 2007 at 2:36 PM
I had to stop about a minute in to it.
Dave certainly is a man of constant sorrow, ain’t he?
kiakjones on October 20, 2007 at 2:37 PM
Van Halen has been crap ever since DLR left.
Ortzinator on October 20, 2007 at 2:59 PM
Uhhhhhhh… but DLR is back now, and they’re even bigger crap.
Mindcrime on October 20, 2007 at 3:10 PM
Eddie’s off! He’s tuned flat, and he doesn’t hear it?
Kini on October 20, 2007 at 3:14 PM
I had to cleanse my palate by viewing the original commercial video.
These guys have been f-u’d for a long time now. Maybe they don’t have the chops or energy left to pull it off…
Meanwhile, Neil Sedaka was on Fox & Friends last week celebrating 50 years in the Biz. … “Comma, comma, down dooby-doo down down.” ;)
Randy
williars on October 20, 2007 at 3:16 PM
I was thinking the same.
4shoes on October 20, 2007 at 3:20 PM
Good God… That’s just depressingly bad…
MaelstromX on October 20, 2007 at 3:21 PM
The keyboard part had a glitch (for whatever reason) and was shifted up a little ABOVE 1/2 step (c#+).
Eddie tried shifting up a fret, but it was still out of tune. Hit a c# on a piano/keyboard/guitar with this vid and and the mystery will be gone. If the glitch would have been an exact c#, then it still would have sucked, but not as bad.
There is NO WAY for a guitar player to compensate for this except for re-tuning, or just bend single notes to attempt to land on key or just stop playing (which would have been better).
If anyone thinks it is easy to tune on the fly (while being distracted by an “in-tune” bass guitar), then try tuning a 440 pitched guitar to this video before it is finished (while playing the tune).
So all the Eddie/VH bashers need to pick another reason to bash besides this one.
nottakingsides on October 20, 2007 at 3:27 PM
The sequenced keyboard track played in the wrong key (too high) and I have no idea why. It looks like Eddie tried to retune on the fly but couldn’t. I would’ve just stopped, laughed and moved on. Maybe have a tech try to fix it and give it another go for an encore.
Oh well.
MikeZero on October 20, 2007 at 3:28 PM
Oh… and what “nottakingsides” said.
MikeZero on October 20, 2007 at 3:29 PM
IMHO I have always believed VH to be a studio band, I like there early music and some of the latter with Sammy, but when I saw them play at the Cow Palace back in the early 80′s they didn’t sound good live back then, especially when DLR would forget the words to a song because he was so busy strutting his stuff for all the girls in the audience and now that they’re getting close to being able to draw SS they’re even worse!
Some celebrity has-beens and bands just don’t know when to let it go! Also, the drugs and alcohol have obviously taking their toll on EVH, the guy looks like he’s trying to out do Keith Richards in the walking dead department! Seriously, did anyone see the picture of him before he admitted himself to rehab not long ago…I thought he was an extra for a Dawn of the Dead movie!
Valerie B may have gained some weight but at least she doesn’t look like death warmed over!
Give it up VH, just retire and live off the royalties already before you hurt yourselves!
Liberty or Death on October 20, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Eddie probably still uses a Floyd-Rose locking tremolo and if so, a retune is very difficult and can’t be done on the fly.
so bad…., (o)(o)
Kini on October 20, 2007 at 4:22 PM
I guess rehearsing was out of the question?
Bet there are plenty of keyboard players that could have handled that live.
Hening on October 20, 2007 at 4:39 PM
I’ve got boot recordings from several shows of the current tour. . All you people bashing VH over one song are out of your minds. See yas in Worcester, MA November 6th, Van Halen!
MrC_5150 on October 20, 2007 at 4:41 PM
I am checking out the show Friday 10/26 in KC so I am not going to watch another video of them performing badly.
kahall on October 20, 2007 at 4:50 PM
Musician rehearsal has mostly nothing to do with the technical glitch of the synth playback (that has been working fine for previous shows). Someone just simply screwed up.
Sure, about any mediocre keyboard player with half-a-clue could handle the gig. But they don’t want a 5th guy on stage for whatever odd reason.
nottakingsides on October 20, 2007 at 4:50 PM
Just stop!
Or just don’t play the guitar along except for some chunka-chunka fake rhythm work to keep a hand in, because the audience wouldn’t have cared, since it’s more a vocal and keyboard song anyway.
Just awful, Ed.
profitsbeard on October 20, 2007 at 5:04 PM
Glad to see all those years of drug abuse, wild sex, drinking and all night ranuch fests have improved their cohesion as a musical act.
Might as well change the name of the song to “Hop”. In a few years, it’ll be “Walker”.
Nethicus on October 20, 2007 at 5:13 PM
Oh get over yourselves you uber-critics. Van Halen is what it is. It didn’t sound like the crowd much minded any of the faults all of you playa-hatas are complaining about. Hey, the dudes are older, but still packing venues and entertaining people. Something tells me they’re doing quite alright without you.
Sugar Land on October 20, 2007 at 5:29 PM
Sammy is 10 times better than Dave at this stage in their careers. Mr.Ego Dave can go Jump (in a lake). I’m going to see Sammy again instead.
roninacreage on October 20, 2007 at 5:42 PM
That version of “Jump” at the Greensboro show sucked, but the version played during the Toronto show wasn’t bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Z1qklwaZk
ScottMcC on October 20, 2007 at 6:17 PM
And what is with 50+ year old guys walking around without a shirt. I can’t speak for women but WTF?
lowandslow on October 20, 2007 at 6:23 PM
I hope that you and the four other people that will be there have a good time.
MrC_5150 on October 20, 2007 at 6:29 PM
Nah, the pre-recorded keyboard playback was way sharp, which made Eddie’s guitar sound way flat.
Right, Dave did a decent job of singing up to the pitch of the keys. I’m guessing Eddie’s in-ear monitor crapped out (I didn’t notice any monitors onstage so I’m assuming they’re using in-ears), so if he couldn’t hear the keyboard track all he had was his wall of guitar amps behind him, which could explain why he didn’t try to transpose up to the keyboards on the fly. I would bet he’s a proficient enough ear player to do that, unless he was just completely trashed.
I wonder how Wolfgang handled that, couldn’t hear the bass at all.
Either way, what a freaking train wreck.
Hire a keyboard player guys, and fire the idiot sound guy that f’ed up.
infidel4life on October 20, 2007 at 6:37 PM
I took my nephew to see ‘em in Chicago and they were considerably better than in the Greensboro clips aired here. I’m not going to tell you that (aside from Eddie & Alex) that it was technically great. But at least the guitar tech had things under control. And people were entertained. I reviewed it — good and bad — on Wednesday.
Karl on October 20, 2007 at 7:50 PM
Who cares about Greensboro? Does anyone even know what state Greensboro is in? Are they even in America?
ThackerAgency on October 20, 2007 at 8:19 PM
I question the timing.
mugged on October 20, 2007 at 8:52 PM
And the tuning.
mugged on October 20, 2007 at 8:52 PM
Ha! That fool gave up Valerie Bertinelli!!!! Just goes to show you that………something…..!!!!!!!
bloggless on October 20, 2007 at 10:49 PM
Why you….!!! :) I just had to read it and now it’s stuck in my head.
I saw that bluegrass version and crikey, it wasn’t very good. Having watched too many VH1 shows on 80′s bands that reunite for one night, I have to say that many of the singers have lost their voices, due to getting older? No idea, but I will now bravely, or stupidly, go watch this video.
yggdrasil on October 21, 2007 at 5:32 AM
As a tinnitus sufferer from perhaps too many shows like this (INXS “Kick” tour 1987 Radio City, 6 rows from the stage was a memorable example), I can only feel sympathy for those in the crowd whose ears will still be ringing from such a sub par performance.
Eddie tried. I was on a flight with he and Val (sigh) and a very young Wolfie once (all in coach!) and he couldn’t have been nicer. Unfortunately, DLR proves that it is possible to be a rock star and a lounge act at the same time.
How long before we see acts like VH, Ratt, Poison, White Lion, Winger, etc turn up on PBS pledge specials, probably hosted by Martha Quinn or something?
Captain Scarlet on October 21, 2007 at 6:06 AM
Thats gonna leave a mark..
Viper1 on October 21, 2007 at 7:18 AM
I believe it’s in NC.
4shoes on October 21, 2007 at 8:56 AM
No wonder I don’t go to big concerts any more. I have to wonder how much they charged people to at least sit in nose bleed section $100 bucks? A good band doesn’t need all those props (perhaps in an arena a large tv helps, but might as well PayPerView in a theater). A good band just needs a stage, tuned instruments and a well orchestrated band.
StuLongIsland on October 21, 2007 at 10:30 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Z1qklwaZk
Here’s a YouTube of VH performing ‘Jump’ in Toronto on 7 Oct. It may have been more in tune when they play it the way they intended, but it still doesn’t sound pretty painful.
So, use the video at the link above for comparison purposes.
spiff on October 21, 2007 at 12:14 PM
Well, that song always sucked anyway.
Gatordoug on October 21, 2007 at 3:07 PM
AP, give us some ABBA to cleanse our palate of that rubbish. And for all you ABBA haters out there, put your wife-beater shirt back on and go outside for a smoke. lol.
jihadwatcher on October 21, 2007 at 7:33 PM
A recent grad of a public school system I presume? Perhaps a former student of Jay Bennish?
mugged on October 21, 2007 at 7:53 PM
I just have one question. If that clip was played for Al Qaeda prisoners at Gitmo, would it violate the Geneva Conventions?
JamesB on October 22, 2007 at 12:07 AM
Even an appearance by Valerie Bertinelli (Mrs. EVH) couldn’t repair THAT damage… I might cut ‘em some slack if they put MM or MKH out there to say a few words of greeting though. ;)
Rugged Individual on October 22, 2007 at 3:09 AM
Had to turn it off.
srhoades on October 22, 2007 at 9:50 AM
There should be a congressional investigation into that illegal war on eardrums
Damn
Ochlan on October 22, 2007 at 10:14 AM
Who was the production coordinator..Jack Black?
Sensei Ern on October 22, 2007 at 12:29 PM