Stadler
Proglawyer very clearly asked why, if he was so talented, was he doing this gig - I think the words were "flying under his father's alcohol soaked wing". Sounds like a knock to me.
It sounds like a knock to me too, but not a knock on WVH. I read that as a direct knock on EVH, but I guess you could kinda read it further.
Where else is he going to play? The band's name is "VAN HALEN", not "ANTHONY". And there are now three "Van Halen's" in the band, out of four members. Given the personnel turnover in some of the bands we love here - Yes, Purple, King Crimson - I cannot see how anyone can really criticize this. Even Mike Anthony himself gets it, even if he doesn't like it.
He (Wolfie) can play wherever he wants. He can even play with EVH and AVH. But no matter what the lineup's names are, that's NOT the same thing as the band Van Halen. Just like Liquid Tension Experiment isn't Dream Theater. And Chickenfoot isn't Van Halen. And so on.
Regarding the lineup change, you really don't see how anyone can criticize this? You really see nothing here that anyone else might take any objection too at all? You think several thousand people are just angry about nothing? Sure band lineups change. Even Van Halen had already had 3 incarnations prior to Wolfgang's inclusion, two of them monstrously successful (and accepted). That's not the problem. In none of your examples was an original band member (the nicest and most consistent of the bunch, mind you), who had played on every album and every tour in the band's history, replaced involuntarily by a family member from a totally different generation (Wolfie wasn't even alive for all but 3 Van Halen albums). Again- nothing against Wolfie here, but I have big time objections against what's gone down (no new material, and 3 more lineup changes) with the "band" VH over the past 13 years, which traces to EVH (and possibly AVH) directly. Because frankly, there's no one else left to trace it to.
...I saw that show, and to be honest, once I started hearing DLR banging out those old tunes (he sounded great, by the way) it could have been George W. Bush playing bass and it would not have mattered to anyone other than Mike, Sammy and Mike's immediate family.
Fair enough about your own experience, but the rest of this statement isn't remotely true as it clearly mattered (and continues to matter) to a great many of us. Take the opinions in this thread and extrapolate the ratio of discontent out amongst the rest of the fanbase. Even if it was just a tenth of that many people, that's clearly still lots of upset fans out there.
And I'm not trying to be argumentative...
Me neither (honest), and I readily concede that people can feel lots of different ways about this (that's why we're talking about it, right?). But I keep "countering" because to me your posts seem to claim that no one could/should be feeling otherwise about it, or that there isn't any room for criticism of what is happening. Clearly we do not all agree about that.