Van Halen III

[Delarage]

I will admit, although I liked Van Halen, I never listened to the version with Gary Cherone (much panned). Today I finally pulled up a video and I have decided: He wasn't that bad. Not sure about the songs he wrote with the band, but this performance of "Ain't Talkin Bout Love" was pretty good. Kind of like a mixture of Dave & Sammy with a lot of energy. Not going to get the album, but not sure what all the hate was about.

[TwilightZone]

1. Gary has an incredible voice.

He never really had a chance to do much in VH. It would have been interesting to see if he would have been a better fit if they'd done more than one album together. Hard to tell.

His work on most of Extreme's stuff, especially III Sides to Every Story, is top-notch. Versatile, dynamic, just excellent overall.

[Delarage]

2. I agree

They needed more time

[Wawannabe]

3. Literally,

Just got done watching EVH's last interview! He had a whole lot of good to say about the Haggar years. Nothing about Cherone that I heard. Maybe just didn't come up.

Rock on!

[StClone]

4. Owwie, He really tumbled down the stairs!

And Alex looks odd with a neck brace. What was the show theme at the time for this? And didn't Roth return for an extensive almost ten-year run or am I wrong?

[kysrsoze]

6. I think they reformed in 2011 and toured in 2012 and 2015

I saw them in 2012 - my first time seeing them with Dave. Id ‘d seen Dave solo twice and Van Hager twice. For this show, they were rusty for about one song and then rocked the rest of them. They played a lot of the earlier, harder stuff. It was great.

[kysrsoze]

5. I listened to III the other day. It was unlistenable. Horrible songs...

I figured I’d give it a chance. I idn’t like any of the songs. Even the rest of the band sounded way off. I gained a new respect for the Hagar years. Im sure its a big thing to walk into, but it was almost like Cherone was trying to imitate Sammy on the tracks.

‘A Different Kind of Truth’ was OK... half the songs were pretty decent... not on the level of their earlier stuff, but it sounded right again with Dave.

I’m still busted up about Ed’s passing. This was a punch to the gut.