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Posted by vh_littleguitars (Member # 169) on June 30, 2003, 09:28 PM:

Have the Punks ever played "Dancing in the Streets"?? I've been to a lot of shows and can't ever remember that one being pulled out of the bag. Great cover, but would it be too hard to pull off live?!

Posted by AlbertR (Member # 31) on July 04, 2003, 01:56 AM:

I think I remember them playing that song the last time I saw them at the Whisky A Go Go [Drunk]

I remember some people were looking at each other like "what are these guys doing playing a Jagger / Bowie song" [Roll Eyes]

Now a song like "Top Jimmy"... I've been told that would be a very tough song to pull off (Van Halen never performed that one live, along with a few other songs from the first 6 albums). [Quiet]

Another difficult song I would like to someday see Russ perform is Cathedral. If an East Coast VH tribute band can do it, I'm sure he could too.

Posted by Tracy (Member # 247) on July 04, 2003, 06:40 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by vh_littleguitars:
Have the Punks ever played "Dancing in the Streets"?? I've been to a lot of shows and can't ever remember that one being pulled out of the bag. Great cover, but would it be too hard to pull off live?!

I think they played it at the Whisky at my first ever Punks show, on April 5th. [Cool]

(I'm sure of the date because I'd gotten my kitty tattoo earlier that day, and it was a week before I flew in to NYC in business).

>^,,^<

Posted by Brett (Member # 1) on July 04, 2003, 09:32 AM:

Yeah they have and they shouldn't anymore. It is easily the worst Van Halen song of all time. No offense to the Punks of course, but I simply loathe that cover when VH did it. So un-Van Halenish in every way. There are so many better things they could have done for "Diver Down."

Posted by vh_littleguitars (Member # 169) on July 04, 2003, 09:12 PM:

Shrug. I like the VH cover of that song. I was just curious because I've never heard the Punks play it before.

Posted by Top Timmy (Member # 2) on July 04, 2003, 10:13 PM:

Maybe Ralph will chime in and give us an answer. [Cool]

Ralph?

Posted by Atomic Bass (Member # 4) on July 05, 2003, 01:41 AM:

Good Luck...

Posted by vh_littleguitars (Member # 169) on July 06, 2003, 02:41 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Atomic Bass:
Good Luck...

Well I really didn't expect Ralph to respond. I imagine with Metal Shop and AP he is really busy. Plus I know he has to have women all over him. Man that has to be a nice feeling! *slaps self*

Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 50) on July 06, 2003, 02:26 PM:

I've heard numerous times that Top Jimmy is really hard to play live. Why is that?

Posted by Brett (Member # 1) on July 06, 2003, 04:02 PM:

Because it's not tuned standard, it would take Russ having another guitar to switch to. It's not just dropping the low E, to D, you have to retune all but 2-strings and the song is in standard pitch, not down 1/2 like most other Dave-era songs.

Plus with all that said, Ed used a specially-made Ripley guitar that allowed him to pan each string on the guitar to a separate track, which is what gave that song part of the feel that it had.

Even the Mighty VH didn't do it live, it's a pain to do right.

Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 50) on July 06, 2003, 07:22 PM:

thanks Brett. Even though I don't play guitar, and didn't understand half of what you just wrote, I somehow understand now why they can't do it live. Thanks. Have the Punks ever done the last 2 songs on 1984. GGB and HOP??

Posted by SciKikMobster (Member # 236) on August 13, 2003, 04:56 PM:

I saw them pull off Dancing at Kozmos awhile back... it sounded good. I didn't notice any fuck ups. Ralph said that was their 1st time playing it.