Van Halen was the Whisky A Go Go’s house band in the mid-70s, where they mostly performed cover songs. They performed there up to 1978 before returning for a show in the 90s with one of their other post-David Lee Roth singers.
Fan Halen (pictured above by the Whisky marquee in the Hot For Teacher band attire) pays tribute to early Van Halen, who recreates and celebrates the high-flying David Lee Roth era Van Halen.
PHOTOS BY NATALIA BRITT
Tribute band Fan Halen pays tribute to early Van Halen, who recreates and celebrates the high-flying David Lee Roth era Van Halen.
Fan Halen is definitely a great name for a tribute band. That’s clever.
The original Van Halen lineup released many great albums in a relatively short time period and are rightfully considered one of the best rock bands ever.
During the live telecast, Fan Halen managed to play songs from almost every one of those incredible albums (minus 1980’s Women and Children First) within an hour in front of millions of TVs on AXS TV and the hundreds who gathered for the live crowd at The Whisky-a-Go-Go. 1984 was the last album David Lee Roth would sing on until he did a couple tunes years many years later. To put it in perspective, he was about 30 then and he just turned 60…
Katie Daryl started the telecast and introduced the band, who started out with the third single from 1984, “Panama”.
This show took place at the Whisky and there was definitely some whisky onstage….
“I live my life like there’s no tomorrow” started off the next tune, RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL, the first song on their debut album. They rocked it with great drumming and vocal harmonies.
The next song was DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY from he super-awesome VAN HALEN II (which made it to #6 on the charts) – this was the band’s first song to crack the Top 20 in the U.S. (it went to #15). This was another killer tune that brought back the good old days of guitar rock with an adoring crowd.
UNCHAINED was next – a rocking tune on the “meanest” (and, possibly heaviest) VH album – 1981’s FAIR WARNING.
The followed it up with SOMEBODY GET ME A DOCTOR, from Van Halen II– another “non-stop rocker”.
Van Halen has done numerous covers of other artists’ songs throughout their catalog. The next song was another cover – a tribute to the blues called ICE CREAM MAN from John Brim (WHO?) that was first released in 1953.
ELR got out the acoustic and belted out the tune. This song appears on their first album.
Next up, Derek Fan Halen got to show off his chops by playing ERUPTION into the other cover song on the first album, YOU REALLY GOT ME (originally recorded by the Kinks in 1964). This is one of the tunes that got the crowd most pumped and is one of the most memorable of any VH songs.
They continued on with a rocking version of AIN’T TALKIN’ ‘BOUT LOVE – another huge favorite from the first album.
The kept on with the first album with the incredible guitar riff and over catchy tune – FEEL YOUR LOVE TONIGHT. At this point in the show, they had already managed to include over half of their debut album.
They followed up with the cover of Roy Orbison’s “(OH) Pretty Woman” from Van Halen’s full album of covers, 1982’s DIVER DOWN. Ever see the video for this song? It’s really weird.
When the show retuned from commercial break, Fan Halen came back and rocked out the last song from Van Halen II- “Beautiful Girls”.
The net tune kicked in with thunderous double bass and signified the intro of “Hot For Teacher”. This was the last single released with David Lee Roth before he left the band. The crowd was going nuts for this one.
The ended their encore with their #1 single and the song practically everyone is familiar with:“Jump”.
This show was a great blast to the past and it gave a good idea of what it was like to experience the magic of a great band in their prime.
Fan Halen is also for the fact they are known to play some deep cuts that the VH fans that own every album can appreciate.
FAN HALEN
Ernie Berru – ERNIE LEE ROTH / DAVID LEE ROTH / DLR
Michael Thompson ALEX FAN HALEN/ ALEX VAN HALEN
Derek Fuller EDDIE FAN HALEN EDDIE VAN HALEN /EVH
George DuBose MICHAEL FANTHONY / MICHAEL ANTHONY
Katie Daryl, FAN HALEN and Fans of Fan Halen – FANDEMONIUM
FAN HALEN is also on iTunes for Vol. 7 of AXS TV Presents The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands:
http://tributebands2014.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/axs-tv-on-itunes/
Want to read about a cool EVH story during the recording of 1984?
