FAN REVIEWS

Thursday November 4th Ames, Iowa Van Halen Show.
First of all I would like to say that this is the 2nd VH show that I have been able to attend this summer and like usual, I was again blown away by their performance. It almost seems like the clock rolls back in time to 1994 before the last "vacation" occured. Sammy's still hitting all the high notes, Eddie's still jumpin' , and good old dependable Mikey and Alex are still bangin' away at that insatialable killer beat section. It's really an awesome thing to see. The fun part about this 2nd show for me, was that I was able to take my 11 year old son to his first Van Halen show! I surprised him after picking him up after school and told him that he and I were going on sort of a road trip together. But I didn't tell him where or what we were going to see untill we got to the Iowa border. He was getting a bit nervous and was wondering if I was planning on dropping him off at some boys school or something! It was great! I calmed him down and told him not to worry-----not yet anyway. He finally got the destination out of me and man he was grinning from ear to ear! I couldn't get him to shutup, being excited to go to his first "ROCK CONCERT". So we get there and I hear him say to me as we're walking in, Dad, I don't see very many kids here. So my reply to him was, You'll see all different ages at this show tonight. This band has such a large age range of fans, it's really cool. Lights drop, and you hear Eddie warming up and all of a sudden the lights come up and Bang! It's time to rock! I saw my son's jaw drop as he was mesmerized by all of the lights and screen and excitement that was going on in front of and around us. We were in the 12th row on the floor (Eddie's side), and about 3/4 of the way through the show, I took my son with me as we headed for the center of the stage, to hopefully get an autograph from Sammy for my son. My summer car just happens to have license plates that read: REDROCR on them, and I was hoping to have Sammy sign it so my son could hang it on his wall with his other plates from other states. Sammy was gracious enough (as usual) to sign it and hand it back to him. This was truly a night that he and I will never forget. It was well worth the 500 mile round trip, I can tell you that. How many kids out there can say that their Dad, REALLY WANTED to take them to their first VH show. It was an awesome feeling for me to share the love and passion that I have had for this talented group of guys for all these years. Anyway, thanks for letting me tell my story to you, and may the mighty VH and Sammy, rock on for a long time to come!

Brian L
Ramsey, Minnesota