Van Halen
24 July 1982
Venue: Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Location: Biloxi, Mississippi
Source: Soundboard (Master)
Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6
Track Listing:
01 Romeo Delight (cut)
02 Unchained
03 Drum Solo
04 Dance The Night Away
05 Runnin' With The Devil
06 Dave Talks
07 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
08 Hang 'Em High
09 Little Guitars
10 Bass Solo
11 Jamie's Cryin'
12 Dave Acoustic Solo
13 Ice Cream Man
14 Somebody Get Me A Doctor (cut)
15 Cathedral (cut)
16 Secrets
17 Drum Solo II
18 Everybody Wants Some!!
19 Intruder
20 Pretty Woman
21 Guitar Solo
22 Keep Playin' That Rock N Roll
23 Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
24 Bottoms Up!
25 You Really Got Me
26 Happy Trails
27 You Really Got Me (Reprise)
Notes:
Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Biloxi during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously. Due to being so early in the tour, this is one of very few recordings that documents this earlier setlist arrangement, which would soon be significantly reorganized sometime between July 27th and 30th.
The true treasure of this recording, making it likely the most special of any of these 1982 live tapes, is the super rare appearance of Keep Playin' That Rock N Roll, an Edgar Winter song that Van Halen played during their early local gigging days prior to their debut album. The song is played where Bottoms Up would usually be slotted in the setlist, with Bottoms Up being pushed down to the first encore where The Full Bug would usually be slotted in the early setlist arrangement. In effect, The Full Bug was not played on this night in Biloxi. It's been known that Van Halen would throw curveball songs into their setlists on very rare occasion, however this song has not previously been known to be one of them.
There are only three other dates confirmed to have had VH perform Keep Playin' That Rock N Roll, all preceding their debut album. One is from the Pasadena Hilton on June 13th 1975, and is an excellent soundboard recording of the band's early years. The next is a really short version from Gazzarri's in West Hollywood on an unconfirmed 1975 date, and the other is from the Eros and Bogart's bar in San Bernardino on September 18th 1976, but the latter is simply unlistenable (and I don't say that easily about bootleg recordings).
While the song had never been known to have been played after the release of their first album, an attendee who was at the August 30th 1981 Fair Warning show in Nashville claims they opened the show with Keep Playin' That Rock N Roll instead of On Fire. While that can't be totally confirmed without finding a recording of that concert, it's not an impossible claim, seeing as this Biloxi 1982 tape now confirms this song in particular was in VH's arsenal of potential curveball rarities.
This Biloxi recording starts a bit late, a little over a minute into Romeo Delight, but over half of the song was still captured. The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs only about 35 seconds into Somebody Get Me A Doctor, and while no songs are missing in between, it seems it took a while to realize to flip the tape because the second side doesn't start again until about a minute into Cathedral. Luckily, this recording captures the remainder of concert.
Huge thanks to those who significantly helped with the absurd pricetag that was required to liberate this VH collection, most of which would've been impossible to save otherwise.
Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time.
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