Prime Shots: Van Halen

ISO 1600 | f/2.8 | 1/125 | 180mm

Jacob Zinn

David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen get up close during “Unchained”, the opener to Van Halen’s sold-out performance at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Monday. The band is touring on their 2012 album, A Different Kind of Truth, their first album with Roth since 1984’s 1984.

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Tour Alert: Aerosmith & Cheap Trick Global Warming Tour

JUN 16	Minneapolis, MN Target Center
JUN 19	Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
JUN 22	Chicago, IL United Center
JUN 27	Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
JUL 01	Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
JUL 03	Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
JUL 05	Detroit, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills
JUL 07	Milwaukee, WI Marcus Amphitheater, Summerfest
JUL 17	Boston, MA TD Garden
JUL 21	Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
JUL 24	East Rutherford, NJ IZOD Center
JUL 26	Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
JUL 28	Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
JUL 30	Houston, TX Toyota Center
AUG 01	Denver, CO Pepsi Center
AUG 04	Oakland, CA Oracle Arena
AUG 06	Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl
AUG 08	Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome

Get out the sunscreen – this’ll be one scorcher of a summer tour.

Aerosmith will heat up U.S. audiences this June, July and August on their aptly named Global Warming tour.

“The old Aerosmith is back with a new vengeance,” said frontman Steven Tyler.

Following a string of sold-out shows in South America, the Bad Boys from Boston announced their first return to North America since 2010. They’ve scheduled 17 dates in the U.S. and one in Canada.

The hard-rocking five-piece will be supported by Illinois rockers Cheap Trick, a band that was to accompany Aerosmith on the third leg of the Rockin’ the Joint Tour in 2005 until Tyler required throat surgery.

The first leg of the tour starts in Minneapolis and wraps up in Tacoma. Tickets for most shows go on sale this weekend through Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

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Stuff Your Dad Likes: Power Ballads

Jacob Zinn can’t give you fatherly advice, but he can eat your girlfriend’s Valentine’s Day candy.

You know it’s coming up soon. That one day per year when you’re either in love and affectionate or you’re lonely and miserable: Valentine’s Day.

With February the 14th approaching, couples young and old are giving each other flowers, planning romantic evenings and buying lubricant by the bottle. While you might be courting someone with chocolate and roses, your dad may’ve courted your mom with power ballads.

Extreme’s “More Than Words”. Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home”. Cinderella’s “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”. The sole purpose of these songs was to get into women’s pants. Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” may be the sappiest, most cliché power ballad of the era, but it opened a lot of… opportunities.

There’s a good chance you might have been conceived to one of these songs.

However, odds are your dad had better taste in power ballads than the hair metal ones. Aerosmith’s “What It Takes” or “Angel” might’ve been rotating on his record player.

Or maybe he was more upfront with sexually explicit and implicit songs like Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” or AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”. Perhaps he traded Warrant’s “Heaven” for a slice of that sweet “Cherry Pie”. (Oh yeah!)

Either way, power ballads got him laid. He may not like power ballads, but the down-tempo, three-chord, lyricized high school love notes were saturated with just enough passion to bring star-crossed lovers together. And if your parents got married in the late ‘80s, you can bet someone requested “I’ll Be There for You” by Bon Jovi at their wedding.

Now that power ballads are often only played as joke songs at weddings and karaoke nights, they’re no longer the genre of choice for bedding mates.

But your dad doesn’t know that. If he digs out his crate of vinyl records from the basement, it might be to set the tone of the evening.

Whether or not you have a date on Valentine’s Day, I highly suggest that you make plans to go out and stay out past curfew until you’re certain both of your parents are asleep. You’ll thank me later.

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Tour Alert: Bruce Springsteen announces US tour dates

MAR 18	Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
MAR 19	Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
MAR 23	Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Times Forum
MAR 26	Boston, MA TD Garden
MAR 28	Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
MAR 29	Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
APR 01	Washington, DC Verizon Center
APR 03	East Rutherford, NJ Izod Center
APR 04	East Rutherford, NJ Izod Center
APR 06	New York, NY Madison Square Garden
APR 09	New York, NY Madison Square Garden
APR 12	Detroit, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills
APR 13	Buffalo, NY First Niagara Center
APR 16	Albany, NY Times Union Center
APR 17	Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
APR 24	San Jose, CA HP Pavilion
APR 26	Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
APR 29	New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
MAY 02	Newark, NJ Prudential Center

In March, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street will start a 19-date U.S. tour in support of the Boss’ upcoming 17^th studio album, Wrecking Ball.

The album – which showcases the bottled ferocity of the first single, “We Take Care of Our Own” – features guest musicians such as Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and folk singer Willie Nile. It also reportedly contains the last ever saxophone recordings from the late Clarence Clemons, the longtime E Street bandmate and very close friend of the Boss.

Three days prior to the kick-off date, Springsteen will appear at SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin, TX as the keynote speaker.

Following these mostly east coast dates, the band will perform a summer-long concert series in Europe, but are expected to return to North America for more shows afterward.

Tickets go on sale as early as Jan. 27 and as late as Feb. 4, though tickets for the New Orleans Jazz Festival are currently available.

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Top 5 Bands that May Never Reunite

The ’60s and ’70s are long behind us, but the music of the era has remained constant over the last five decades. Former flower children crave classic rock nostalgia while their kids groove to the same music.

But while some bands from that time are still truckin’, some have almost no hope of ever returning. Keep your fingers crossed as you go through this list of bands that may never reunite.

5. The Kinks

Since the band’s break-up in 1996, the Kinks have flip-flopped on the possibility of a reunion.

The deciding factor seems to be whether brothers Ray and Dave Davies can get along. Their sibling rivalry has been the major reason the Kinks haven’t had another run.

With popular songs like “You Really Got Me”, “All Day and All of the Night” and “Lola”, there’s no shortage of reunion requests, but both brothers have turned down the opportunity. After spending more than 30 years together in a band, it seems they can’t spend anymore.

4. Pink Floyd

At 2005’s Live 8, the classic line-up of Rogers Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason took the stage for the first time in over 24 years.

Sadly, nothing came of that one-off experience – yet. A Pink Floyd reunion has been rumoured for decades, but aside from Live 8, the band has yet to reform. The demand is there: Waters has embarked on two successful tours featuring Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, with a second leg of the latter added on.

Out of this list, Floyd probably have the highest likelihood of getting back together. Just hope that it’s not when pigs fly.

3. Guns N’ Roses

If you ask Axl Rose, he’d say GNR is still together, but the Appetite for Destruction or Use Your Illusion line-ups are the ones most fans want: Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, and Steven Adler or Matt Sorum.

Current keyboardist Dizzy Reed has spent more time in GNR than any member other than Rose, making him the second-longest standing band member. Yet demand for an original (or close to original) reunion has been high for years. Fans patiently waited out Chinese Democracy, but how long can they wait for Slash and Rose to kiss and make up?

There’s a slight chance that the Guns N’ Roses will reunite – or, at least, talk about it – at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.

2. Led Zeppelin

Technically, Zeppelin reunited for one night only at the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert in December 2007. Robert Plant has since repeatedly dismissed rumours of a reunion with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham’s son, Jason. He has opted to continue recording solo albums and touring with the Band of Joy, adding that he can no longer hit all the same notes that he could in the ’70s.

Shortly after the tribute show, Plant said in an interview, “Everything’s got to be right [for a Led Zeppelin]. The whole thing about Led Zeppelin was it was so beautifully haphazard.” If the group can somehow regain the essence Plant described, that’s the one non-earthly element needed for a shot at a world tour.

1. ABBA

Even though the Swedish pop sensation ABBA were only together for a decade, the band has long-standing mainstream success, selling 375 million records worldwide. But now, 30 years removed from the limelight without a reunion, it’s looking less and less likely that Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid will perform on the same stage again.

In 2000, ABBA reportedly turned down $1 billion for a 100-show reunion tour. Divided between the four of them, that would have been $2.5 million per person nightly.

Björn Ulvaeus told a UK newspaper that there will never be a reunion. Benny Andersson currently performs with his own orchestra, Anni-Frid has taken up environmental causes and Agnetha Fältskog was, for some time, a social recluse. With the four of them content in their current activities, it seems none of them will take a chance on ABBA.

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Van Halen Announce 2012 Tour Dates

FEB 18	Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
FEB 20	Detroit, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills
FEB 22	Indianapolis, IN Bankers Life Fieldhouse
FEB 24	Chicago, IL United Center
FEB 28	New York, NY Madison Square Garden
MAR 01	New York, NY Madison Square Garden
MAR 03	Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
MAR 05	Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
MAR 09	Buffalo, NY First Niagara Center
MAR 11	Boston, MA TD Garden
MAR 15	Montreal, QC Bell Centre
MAR 17	Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
MAR 21	Ottawa, ON Scotiabank Place
MAR 24	Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
MAR 28	Washington, DC Verizon Center
MAR 30	Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center
APR 01	Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
APR 10	Fort Lauderdale, FL BankAtlantic Center
APR 12	Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
APR 14	Orlando, FL Amway Arena
APR 16	Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Arena
APR 19	Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
APR 21	Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
APR 25	Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena
APR 27	Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
MAY 01	Tulsa, OK BOK Center
MAY 05	Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
MAY 07	Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
MAY 09	Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
MAY 11	Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
MAY 17	Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
MAY 19	St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
MAY 22	Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
MAY 24	Denver, CO Pepsi Center
MAY 27	Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
JUN 01	Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
JUN 03	Oakland, CA Oracle Arena
JUN 05	San Jose, CA HP Pavilion
JUN 06	Anaheim, CA Honda Center
JUN 14	San Diego, CA Viejas Arena
JUN 16	Phoenix, AZ US Airways Center
JUN 20	Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
JUN 22	San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
JUN 24	Houston, TX Toyota Center
JUN 26	New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena

On Thursday, sometime during their one-hour performance at the 250-capacity Café Wha? in New York City, Van Halen released the dates of their upcoming, 45-show North American tour with Kool & the Gang as their supporting act.

The band will be hitting the road for the first time since their 2007-2008 reunion tour with lead singer David Lee Roth.

With the new single, “Tattoo”, coming out Tuesday and A Different Kind of Truth–the band’s first album with lead singer David Lee Roth since the diamond-certified 1984–due for Feb. 7, Van Halen has been heavily promoting their return to the U.S. and Canada. The band has been rehearsing at the Roxy nightclub in Hollywood for two months in preparation for a finger-tapping, double-kicking, high-pitched good time.

If their Café Wha? set list resembles the hits for this tour, fans are in for shows akin to their ’80s heyday:

1. “You Really Got Me”
2. “Runnin’ With the Devil”
3. “Somebody Get Me a Doctor”
4. “Everybody Wants Some”
5. “She’s the Woman”
6. “Dance the Night Away”
7. “Panama”
8. “Hot for Teacher”
9. “Ice Cream Man”
10. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”
11. “Jump”
12. “Beautiful Girls”
13. “Unchained”

The band is also sure to perform other classics that they played on the last tour like “And the Cradle Will Rock…”, “Little Guitars”, “Jamie’s Cryin'”, “Mean Street”, “Romeo Delight” and their cover of Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman”.

With the current line-up having Roth on vocals, Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Alex Van Halen on drums and Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, the band leaves no room for longtime Roth replacement Sammy Hagar or original bassist Michael Anthony.

The tour starts in Louisville, KY and zig-zags between the midwest and northeast, then through the south and up to the pacific northwest, across the Canadian prairies and eventually to the southwest, rounding out in New Orleans, LA.

Tickets for some shows go on sale through Live Nation and Ticketmaster Jan. 14 while the first date goes on sale Jan. 16. VIP packages through VIP Nation go on sale Jan. 10. Onsales for other dates are to be announced.

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Prime Shots: Roger Daltrey

ISO 800 | f/2.8 | 1/80 | 70mm Roger Daltrey performs The Who’s Tommy in Vancouver on Thursday night. Date: October 27, 2011 Location: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, B.C.

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Stuff Your Dad Likes: British Rock

Jacob Zinn can’t give you fatherly advice, but he can sneak you into R-rated movies.

Ever since the British Invasion of the mid-‘60s, rock ‘n’ roll has not been the same. It’s been better.

From Soho down to Brighton, acts like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Cream crossed the pond to North American airwaves. Beatlemania rolled in like a tsunami of electric guitars, mop tops and reckless, six o’clock newsworthy misbehaviour.

And your dad loved it. Imagine being in high school when “Stairway to Heaven” or “Another Brick in the Wall” was first released. (If you can’t imagine that, ask your dad—he was a teenager once too, you know.)

Maybe your dad was born a bit later and grew up when punk pioneers like The Clash and Sex Pistols were rampaging on London streets. Or maybe he preferred the founding fathers of heavy metal, like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Motörhead. He might’ve even worn a Union Jack shirt with the sleeves cut off, just like Def Leppard.

Whatever the case, Vancouver has several big-name U.K. musicians coming through, and this may be you and your dad’s last chance to see them.

On Oct. 27, Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, does a solo performance of the band’s 1969 rock opera,
Tommy. The estimated 90-minute set will cover all four sides of the double album, including such classics as “The Acid Queen”, “I’m Free” and “Pinball Wizard”.

On the off-chance that he sings “My Generation”, just remember, he’s talking about baby boomers and flower children.

That same night, renowned instrumental guitarist Jeff Beck plays a sold out Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, sure to feature “Scatterbrain” and some famous covers of other rock peers and idols.

If your dad grew up in the ‘80s, he might appreciate a little law breaking, after-midnight living heavy metal from Birmingham’s Judas Priest. They perform with Thin Lizzy and Black Label Society on Oct. 30 at Rogers Arena on Priest’s farewell Epitaph World Tour.

British rock ‘n’ roll is arguably the largest influence on American classic rock bands. Your dad surely has a Beatles record in the house somewhere, so ask him how to use the record player and give it a listen.

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Top 5 Cock Rock Frontmen

It was the early ’70s. The hippie counter-culture was on its way out and all that was left to do was popularize cock rock for the next several decades.

The name of the genre refers to the bulge in the tight pants of rockstars–a bulge responsible for the bedding of plethoras of groupies. A prominent resurgence three decades ago saw peace, love and music make way for sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll; women walked this way for Steven Tyler and teachers were hot for David Lee Roth.

Related Articles Top 5 Songs about Ramblin’ Top 5 Classic Rock Songs about School

While cock rock climaxed in the ’80s, this list looks at the forefathers of the genre, the ground-breaking lyricists who made in-your-face, pelvis-thrusting crotch shots not only mainstream, but the norm.

5. Paul Stanley of KISS

Stanley can be credited with bringing cock rock moves to the oversexed genres of glam rock and hair metal. KISS had always worn tight leather pants, but as the frontman, Stanley was the only member to use it to his advantage. Gene Simmons might’ve had the tongue, but Stanley had the balls… to flash his cod-pieced Love Gun to the crowd.

4. Roger Daltry of The Who

There perhaps is no better a display of cock rock than The Who’s 4:00 a.m. performance from Woodstock ’69. Daltry shakes his wild locks during parts of “My Generation” and “Pinball Wizard”, with low angles complementing his protrusion. Whether it’s real or not, groupies of the time might or might not say they won’t get fooled again.

3. Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones

Arguably the first to introduce the moves, Jagger is a prominent sex symbol of the time, known for shuffling his hips during songs like “Honky Tonk Woman”. With allegedly countless love-children, Jagger proved that these moves work, creating a legion of followers who want the same pants as those on the cover of Sticky Fingers.

2. Jim Morrison of The Doors

The Doors’ music may not have been as sexual as their peers, but Morrison’s onstage performances left little to the imagination of fire-lighting gypsies. While Morrison wasn’t as controversial as Oliver Stone made him out to be in the 1991 biopic, The Doors, he was certainly one of the earliest rockers to use the moves, which surely got him more than a few L.A. women.

1. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin

Anyone who’s seen the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same has witnessed one of the originators in all his long-haired, bare-chested, blue-denim bell-bottom jeaned glory. Plant made every woman in Madison Square Garden sweat and groove with the sway of his hips, putting them in a hypnotic trance. His two-sizes-too-small britches that emphasized his trouser snake made him an icon for cock rock, one that both men and women looked up to (figuratively and literally).

Honourable Mentions

• Steven Tyler of Aerosmith
• David Lee Roth of Van Halen
• Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe
• Bret Michaels of Poison
• Sebastian Bach of Skid Row

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Top 5 Classic Rock Songs about School

Summer’s approaching, and so is the end of the school year for many kids and teens worldwide. For as long as hard rock has been around, rockstars have written songs about school which their young fans can relate to.

Here comes another top five.

Top 5 Classic Rock Songs about School

5. “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” by The Ramones (1979)
Those trouble-making Ramones–they just wanna have some kicks and they just wanna get some chicks. But they don’t mind irritating the teachers and the principal along the way, as noted in the film of the same name. Let them have their fun.

4. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” by Mötley Crüe (1985)
Originally by Brownsville Station, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” is about the rebellious teenage youth who just don’t like sitting through class. In the cheesey video, a student with an attitude hangs out with the Crüe in the boys room after a trip to the principals office. When the principal returns with an apology and an A on his paper, he still sticks it to the man.

3. “Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen (1984)
The video features David Lee Roth behind the wheel of the schoolbus, driving an apprehensive Waldo do his first day of school. He and his classmates–which include Eddie and Alex Van Halen with Michael Anthony and Roth–soon find out that their teacher is a bikini-clad pageant winner who table dances on the desks. If only everyone who ever crushed on their teacher could relate.

2. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd (1979)
Perhaps the most well-known of the three parts, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” contains the cryptic lyrics, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control,” sung by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and repeated by a school choir. The album version starts with a trademark scream from bassist Roger Waters before the boarding school protest anthem begins. It’s eerie from start to finish.

1. “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper (1972)
If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t heard enough anti-school rock songs. “School’s Out” was the anthem of that years graduating class and ones to come. The bell has rung–class dismissed!