Description
Despite its curious name, the Hide Your Sheep 1982-’83 tour remains Van Halen’s live pinnacle and the biggest show of the tour and the genre’s real coming out party happened May 29, 1983 at the US Festival in San Bernardino, California. The music weekend offered a wide array of musical options, with each day catered to a specific sound, but it was the Heavy Metal Day on May 29, 1983, that showed just how popular that metal had become. The line-up that day featured home state rockers and rising stars while Van Halen was headlining the day, with Scorpions, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Triumph, Motley Crue and Quiet Riot filling out the bill. The US Festival set a single-day concert attendance record with an estimated 375,000 people packing into the Glen Helen Regional Park near Devore. Heavy Metal Day followed New Wave Day, which was initially expected to be the greater draw. The Clash, Men at Work, Stray Cats, A Flock of Seagulls, The English Beat, Oingo Boingo, Wall of Voodo, INXS and Divynyls all took the stage and while they earned a significant turnout, it was nowhere near what showed up for Heavy Metal Day. Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil had said, It was the day new wave died and rock ‘n’ roll took over. Meanwhile, Quiet Riot’s Frankie Banali stated, 30 years ago today, on May 29, 1983, Quiet Riot performed at the US Festival on Heavy Metal Day, and that day proved to be a life changing experience for Quiet Riot, which I still feel today. In all, over 670,000 people attended the four-day event that also featured a Rock Day and a Country Day, but over half of the attendance came from Heavy Metal Day, which provided the perfect measuring stick for exactly how popular the genre had become. Van Halen had finished the touring for Diver Down and had some time off. Their equipment was still aboard a boat between South America and California, after completing a tour of South America, Dave had spent the time off in the Amazon jungle while Eddie had locked himself up in his home studio experimenting with the 1984 material. The band erupted into the first song of the evening, a wild version of Romeo Delight. The whole show was a mix of Daves drunken Vaudeville act and the bands brutal rhythmic attack. This show has now become one of those classic and legendary moments in heavy metal history and it would made the band, particularly Dave an enormous star. After this Roth became rock and rolls partying poster boy. After this it wasnt a music magazine around that didnt wanted an article, poster or picture of Dave as he now became the only game in town. The timing was great. The release of the 1984 album was released in the middle of this huge “Wave Of Dave” and the band got so much attention that it spawned several hit singles and heavy MTV rotation that the band now became one of the biggest bands in the States and it would be their finest hour.
Track list:
1. Romeo Delight
2. Unchained
3. Drum Solo-Alex Van Halen
4. The Full Bug
5. Runnin With The Devil
6. Jamies Crying
7. So This Is Love?
8. Little Guitars
9. Bass Solo-Michael Anthony
10. Dancing In The Streets
11. Somebody Get Me A Doctor
12. Dance The Night Away
13. Cathedral
14. Secrets
15. Solo
16. Everybody Wants Some
17. Ice Cream Man
18. Intruder
19. Pretty Woman
20. Guitar Solo-Eddie Van Halen
21. Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
22. Bottoms Up