CREDIT to ByTorX1
Van Halen
8 August 1982
Venue: Omaha Civic Auditorium Arena
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Source: Open-Air Microphone (Master)
Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6
01 Intro
02 Romeo Delight
03 Unchained
04 Drum Solo
05 The Full Bug
06 Runnin' With The Devil
07 Jamie's Cryin'
08 Little Guitars
09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
10 Bass Solo
11 Hang 'Em High
12 Cathedral
13 Secrets
14 Drum Solo II
15 Everybody Wants Some!! (cut)
16 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I'm So Glad (cut)
17 Guitar Solo (cut)
18 D.O.A.
19 Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
20 Bottoms Up!
21 You Really Got Me
22 Happy Trails
23 You Really Got Me (Reprise)
24 Outro Music
Notes:
Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated open-mic recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Omaha during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously.
This is what could be considered an "official audience recording", having been recorded with an open-mic right next to the soundboard / mixing desk. This is definitely a great recording, very similar to the Knoxville open-mic tape. Don't be fooled by the "Backstage" Open Air Mic from Toronto 1982 that was shared last year, which was overall pretty bad. Unlike Toronto, where both the soundboard was recorded while an open-mic was also seemingly obscured elsewhere to record, none of Roy's other open-mic recordings have a paired soundboard version.
A minor unique thing of note in this show, when the band comes back on stage for the final encore for You Really Got Me, Dave first says "Hello! I'm Dave Roth, and this is VAN HALEN!", something he never seems to have done at other shows during the tour.
Like the Rockford soundboard, this is also one of the few tapes that captures the "outro music" that plays over the speakers after the band walks off stage, a song called "Imitation" by Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
What will become common with many later recordings, to save space, Roy stopped the tape temporarily during the lengthy break where Dave would talk to the crowd before Jamie's Cryin'. The first side of the 90 minute master tape ends barely two minutes into Everybody Wants Some, so is missing all of Dave's tangent about the girl in the bar, and the song's reprise, as well as Dance The Night Away. The second side of the master tape starts about a minute into Somebody Get Me A Doctor. After the song ends, Roy temporarily stopped the recording again, and must've forgot to turn it back on because it doesn't start again until over half way into Eddie's guitar solo. Due to that, this recording does not capture Dave's acoustic solo, Ice Cream Man, Intruder, or Pretty Woman. Once the tape starts again during the guitar solo, the remainder of the concert is all captured, only having short tape pauses during the encore breaks, something else Roy would start doing to save space.
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.
