Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 4/07

To ween myself off the barrage of heavy metal entries of late, I offer one last for a spell: April's metal memory. Van Halen was my first "loud" concert. As memory serves, my two older sisters had literally worn out their VH1 album (AC/DC's Back In Black and Queen's News of the World were to follow) and could no longer settle for staring at David Lee Roth in poster form. After hearing that Eddie and the boys were coming through town, they'd convinced my Mom and stepfather to chaperon them. Long story short: my sitter bailed and I was in tow to see VH open for Foghat! (I think... Although I may be getting 2 shows mixed up? VH in 1979 and Foghat in '81? Done some research and no one recalls exactly... In any case, still seems like an odd pairing, but apparently pre-VH bands Mammoth and Snake used to play Foghat and Lynyrd Skynyrd covers on stage at small clubs.) They were definitely a product of 1970s hard rock. As you can see in the video, early Roth was Robert Plant reincarnated. It took a couple albums for VH to shed their old rock, Zeppelin roots and develop their own form as a California frat-rock band. I don't recall too much about the VH show. I was 9 or 10. We were back in the nose-bleed section of the Cumberland County Civic Center and I still hadn't heard anything so loud since my first excursion to see the Blue Angels. Afterwards, I remember my sisters were an excited, sweaty mess of big hair and runny mascara - they'd had a blast. Even my Mom enjoyed the show, inquiring repeatedly about the singer with the hairy chest.