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Samantha Member # 21	posted August 29, 2002 12:09 PM This may be a VERY stupid question, but why doesn't the band enlist a keyboard player? It would be really great to hear some of the other VH songs that really require keys like "Jump"? Just thought I'd ask....
AlbertR Member # 31	posted August 29, 2002 01:02 PM They have played several times in the past with a keyboards guy named Brian (I have pictures) who seemed to be helping Ralph out as a friend (and maybe for free beer and exposure). He was a nice guy, but it seems like he didn't seem to have much to do between starting with 1984, playing one of the early VH song that uses a keyboard (I always forget the name of that song, it is not a prominent keyboard sound that I'd notice), and then playing Jump. Thankfully, they ain't no Van Hagar cover band and early Van Halen didn't have a lot of keyboards.
Samantha Member # 21	posted August 29, 2002 01:30 PM Hi Albert, OIC, well, I was just listening to "Jump" today and thought it would be nice to hear Ralph sing it sometime. About the Van Hagar comment....I'm pretty neutral, I like all Van Halen, with DLR and Sammy. I must say that I prefer DLR better though, if that keeps me from getting any hate mail? P.S. I've seen your photo gallery, you are an amazing photographer!
Brett Member # 1	posted August 29, 2002 01:37 PM Considering there were only 3 keyboard tunes during the DLR era, I don't know how viable it would be for the guys to do this that often. I can pass on hearing "Jump," but "I'll Wait" might be interesting, since it's lesser played.
AlbertR Member # 31	posted August 29, 2002 09:10 PM quote: Originally posted by Samantha: ...About the Van Hagar comment....I'm pretty neutral, I like all Van Halen, with DLR and Sammy. I must say that I prefer DLR better though, if that keeps me from getting any hate mail? P.S. I've seen your photo gallery, you are an amazing photographer! No hate mail from me! People like who they like, and who's got the time to argue? Thanks for nice words about my pictures. Flattery will get you everywhere with me, so I've uploaded some pictures from 3/01 with the keyboard player, Brian Ruedy. I also have pictures of shows with Brian from 4/01 (back at The Shack) and 5/01 (at The Whisky) which I might post on my page some day. Well, to address your desire to hear Jump the Atomic Punks could do what DLR has been doing lately and perform with a pre-recorded keyboard track (which I personally don't care for). I don't think the 3rd keyboard song Brian played was I'll Wait (that might be too obvious), I think it was a more obscure song, but I can't think of it! I might have to dig underneath my little collection of VH/DLR recordings to figure out which song it was. Maybe someone with a good memory or a knack for VH trivia can tell us what song that was. Anyway, hope you like these old pictures I just posted. Remember that this was when I would post anything and everything. Now I try to be a little more selective, but not by much
Samantha Member # 21	posted August 30, 2002 02:59 PM Dear Albert, Thank you so much for writing back to me. I'm glad to hear I won't be receiving any hate mail. You're right, who's got the time to argue? I'm about to view the 2001 photos you were kind enough to upload for me, thanks much! Any photo you've taken is a photo worth viewing! You really are a phenomenal photographer and I can't wait to see them! You're right, a pre-recorded keyboard track would suck, but may be worth it just to hear Ralph and the boys perform it? I'll Wait would be cool too. Hmmm....... I would love to see whatever photos you can manage to dig up, I'm in! I love these guys! Wish I lived in Cali or NV so I could see them more regularly. You don't know how lucky you are! Well, have a great weekend and I'll talk to you sometime soon. Thanks again for your kindness. [ August 30, 2002, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Samantha ]
Samantha Member # 21	posted August 30, 2002 03:00 PM P.S. Have you heard anything about how Ralph's father is doing? Hope he's feeling better. [ August 30, 2002, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: Samantha ]
AlbertR Member # 31	posted August 31, 2002 01:10 AM quote: Originally posted by Samantha: ...I'm about to view the 2001 photos you were kind enough to upload for me, thanks much! Any photo you've taken is a photo worth viewing! You really are a phenomenal photographer and I can't wait to see them! ... I would love to see whatever photos you can manage to dig up, I'm in! I love these guys! Wish I lived in Cali or NV so I could see them more regularly. You don't know how lucky you are!... Wow Samantha, you certainly know how to get on my good side with words like "kind" and "phenomenal"... hopefully my old pictures from 2001 were okay... like I mentioned, I used to post just about every picture I took Another problem I had until recently was in fixing red-eye (my digital camera does not have a red-eye reduction flash mode)... the new software I am using does a much better job than just putting a black dot over a person's pupils! Well, since you asked, I just uploaded some pictures from 5/12/01 at The Whisky with the same guest keyboard player, Brian Ruedy. There are some decent pictures in this album, so that is why I decided to re-post it. Be careful what you ask for, I posted over 2,000 of my own photos on the old Atomic Punks website I also just uploaded some more "recent" photos from Vegas on 8/2/02. I think this venue is nearly ideal for getting good pictures. I think I've also improved a little in taking pictures, and I'm being more selective about what I post. I also have better software to fix red eye. Anyway, I hope you like those photos too. I still have pictures from the next night in Vegas to go through and post, as well as pictures from the Whisky on 8/10/02 then I'll be caught up with my Atomic Punks pictures... for now Oh, since you asked, a friend of mine who posts here (Playtone AKA Christy) received an email from Ralph recently where he said "My Dad and family are doing great!" Yes, I consider my self very lucky to be able to enjoy so many Atomic Punks shows, and to meet so many cool fans of early Van Halen
Samantha Member # 21	posted September 02, 2002 04:22 PM Hi again Albert, The photos were great! I've been looking at all of them in your gallery, wow! You are amazing. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say. I hope your well compensated for your contributions. I'm going to look for those photos from August in Vegas now. Very cool! Thanks for all the great photos. Many of us out here who don't see them often enough really appreciate them. That's great to hear that Ralph's dad is doing well. Keep uploading those great photos and I'll keep watching for more!
AlbertR Member # 31	posted September 08, 2002 03:16 AM Well Samantha, if you would have flown out to tonight's Atomic Punks show at the Anaheim House of Blues you would have seen your wish come true. Christy, her friends, family and I were finishing our dinner at the House of Blues when I heard the distinctive sound of the 1984 keyboard introduction. It was "only" 10:30 so it seemed odd that they were starting so early (the other 2 times I've seen them they started around midnight, ending around 1:30 or 1:45). Anyway, this was a very, very cool show. A few songs in to the set they played "And the Cradle Will Rock" which was the other early VH keyboard song I was trying to remember Then Ralph introduced his friend, the keyboard player, who now goes by Brian O'Brian (not Brian Ruedy), and they played Jump Very cool, and good crowd reaction They did not play I'll Wait. I haven't ever heard them play that, and it is not one of my favorite classic VH songs (although I'd rather listen to I'll Wait instead of any Van Hagar or Van CHERone song). My personal favorite song of the night, which I had NEVER heard them play before, was the David Lee Roth solo song called " I'm Easy " from the Eat 'Em and Smile album. I totally love that song, and was very happy to hear it live and loud (I was standing less than 5 feet from some speakers at the front). Not too many people said they recognized the song, but I totally loved every second of it! Another rare treat was that the Atomic Punks did not 1, but 2 encores! I've never seen them leave the stage and return for an encore (which Ralph has said is "totally gay for a tribute band to do, and is something only the real band should do"... but he did it tonight and performed one song, then they also sang "Happy Trails". Then since it was not even midnight (and they had played less than 90 minutes), the crowd begged for more and got the band to do "Mean Streets" which was cool for me, because the venue was just a few miles from my home, and also just a few miles from Ralph's home when he was growing up in Mission Viego ... so it meant something special when he sang "this is home...". Ralph's mother and father were also in attendance tonight. I think Ralph's mother was up in the front center of the balcony, as I had noticed this older woman totally singing along to all the Van Halen songs. That was way cool to see I could not take any pictures at the show, but my friend Christy had a HOB photo pass and took a bunch. When she has sent me a link to her photos I'll add them to my VH/DLR web page. Anyway, I guess I've raved enough about this show to maybe warrant this post being moved to the "fan review forum", what do you guys think? Killer show tonight!
Chief Member # 29	posted September 08, 2002 12:34 PM AlbertR... You have some excellent photos on your page!!!
AlbertR Member # 31	posted September 08, 2002 12:37 PM Oh, a few other interesting things I forgot to mention about last nights show at the Anaheim House of Blues... At one point when Ralph was apparently talking on and on, the band started playing part of a U2 song, and Ralph asked if this was because he was grandstanding... he sang about 1/4th of "New Year's Day", which was interesting, before going in to Ozzy's "Crazy Train". I had never heard Ralph sing a U2 song. Also, Russ is now doing a bunch of EVH split kicks (or whatever they are called, fans of early VH know what I am talking about) and it was totally cool to see as part of an Atomic Punks show The place was totally packed (probably sold out all 1,100 tickets), the band was pumping, and the place was jumping!
Brett Member # 1	posted September 08, 2002 12:54 PM I was pretty dumb, we should have brought our camera last night, but I just totally forgot. We almost missed the show because my wife forgot her wallet at home, and we were in the parking lot. We had to drive all the way home and get it and come all the way back. I had no clue they were going on at 10:30, I figured midnight, so we barely made it back in time. Cool show, like Albert said, they did a lot of stuff they NEVER do live. Pretty cool.
AlbertR Member # 31	posted September 08, 2002 03:31 PM quote: Originally posted by Chief: AlbertR... You have some excellent photos on your page!!! Thank you, chief! There are some pictures taken by others too, as I like sharing photos about bands I like. BTW, I just updated the links for the photo albums by Christy, so they should work now Brett, you were at last night's show !?! Why didn't you introduce yourself? You probably know what I look like, but I have no idea what you look like! I heard that TopTimmy was there, but I guess he mostly hung around backstage Well, without a photo pass, you wouldn't have been able to take many photos. You could have given your unused photo pass to me, since I had my camera with me, I just couldn't use it because of the HOB security gorillas Again, it was a great show!
Brett Member # 1	posted September 08, 2002 06:13 PM Dude we got there two minutes before they went on, we didn't have a chance to think about doing anything else but watching. We were backstage too, I'm pretty sure I would have been able to take pictures from back there. I've never had the chance to be backstage like that for anything, so I was just kind of trying to enjoy it, it was a totally new thing for me. Next time I'll try to get out more.
AlbertR Member # 31	posted September 08, 2002 09:48 PM quote: Originally posted by Brett: ...We were backstage too, I'm pretty sure I would have been able to take pictures from back there. ... Yeah, you can take some pictures from there, this is how it looks: (picture taken 7/21/01 at the Anaheim HOB) Brett, don't be such a stranger next time you go to an Atomic Punks show Oh, and regarding the start time of 10:30 vs. your assumption of them starting around midnight.... what, didn't you check the Atomic Punks show calendar ? ...oh yeah, there wasn't an approx. show time there ( subtle hint )
Jeff C. Member # 50	posted September 13, 2002 02:47 PM Hey, having the piped in pre-recorded keyboard tracks for Jump, I'll wait, and And the cradle will rock...isn't that bad. Hell, Roth himself does it in concert.

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