When Van Halen toured, they played the crap out of the album they were touring for and on this night, they played all of Diver Down except for “Dancin’ In The Streets” and “Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now.” And they nearly played Side One of the record in order.

After opening with “Romeo Delight,” always a crowd favorite, they hit the audience between the eyes with “Unchained.” Then came a drum solo, followed by the first Diver Down song, “The Full Bug.” My memories of this show mostly involve the energy and the crowd response, which was to absolutely lose its mind. I locked in on Edward Van Halen for long stretches and he delivered his usual dazzling performance.

Looking at the setlist, I remember the two opening songs pretty well and “Little Guitars,” which was the seventh song. Song number eight was the beginning of the extended Diver Down run with “Where Have All The Good Times Gone” followed by a bass solo that went into “Hang ‘Em High.” They continued with “Cathedral” and “Secrets” before “Everybody Wants Some!!,” saving “Intruder” and “Pretty Woman” for a little bit later.

It was a tour de force, with a ton of hits and crowd favorites still left, despite the band only being five albums into its career. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Dance The Night Away,” and “You Really Got Me” all got played and they did four songs total off of Van Halen II.

The mighty Van Halen at that point in time was a force of nature. No matter what was going on behind the scenes, they played live like they invented it and there wasn’t any other band out there that could put on the kind of show they did. Blue Oyster Cult and Triumph had incredible laser light shows, Ted Nugent was a crowd-pleasing maniac and KISS was KISS. But Van Halen had its own vibe and a unique energy and with all that going on, they were hit-makers that delivered killer song after killer song that whipped audiences into a frenzy.

This was the second of my five Van Halen shows and my next go-round with them would be on the 1984 tour. These first three, all in the first Roth era, were my idea of a great time. I wasn’t disappointed by any of the other bands that I saw live during this time period because Van Halen was my favorite band and nobody else was supposed to be putting on that kind of show. It was theirs, alone.

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