Van Halen announces big 2015 North American tour

Rockers Valen Halen will head back on the road on a big North American tour this summer, still with wild man David Lee Roth fronting the group, and they'll make their way to the Triangle in September.

The band will play the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh on Wednesday, September 9. Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band will open. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, April 3, via Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Van Halen will release a new double live album on March 31 titled Tokyo Dome Live in Concert. It was recorded at a Roth-fronted show in Tokyo in 2013.  Check out "Unchained" from the album below.

Van Halen announces massive 2012 tour, coming to Greensboro

As expected, rock stars Van Halen are hitting the road on a big U.S. tour this year after releasing their first new album with frontman David Lee Roth since 1984 (released in the same year). The new release titled A Different Kind of Truth will be out on February 7.

The tour will stop at the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday, April 21. Ticket info is not available yet, but tickets for some shows on the tour will go on sale on January 10. We'll keep you posted when the info is available.

Check out an odd little teaser trailer for the tour that features the songs "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher" below.

The Roots, Eve 6 to play (separately) in the Triangle

It's barely spring but dates are popping up across the area that will take us well into the sweltering days of summer.

The Roots will play a free show at Duke University on Wednesday, April 23, for the university's "last day of class" party. In our experience, there's no sort of ID check to keep these shows students only, so by all means head out there.

In a move proving once and for all that they are totally out of touch, Downtown Live organizers have booked Eve 6 to play in Moore Square on Aug. 23. What should be a really cool event is instead a parade of past-their-peak rock bands. My hope of redemption lives on, but I'm guessing it will quickly fade as each new show is announced.

State Fair organizers are also already hard and work and have booked Jason Aldean, TobyMac and Joe Nichols for their weeklong Christian 'n Country extravaganza. This year's fair will be held Oct. 17-26.

In another Van Halen update, the show has now been re-rescheduled for May 5. We're not holding our breath.

And for those of you who are, like us, wondering when the hell R.E.M. tickets will go on sale for their June 10 show at Walnut Creek, we have no idea. But you'll be the first to know when we do find out!

Van Halen show at RBC Center postponed

Friday night's Van Halen reunion show at the RBC Center has been postponed. The official statement released says that Eddie Van Halen is undergoing medical tests. That could be true, or the breakdown that many expected to happen a long time ago could be finally coming to pass.

Billboard reports that the Raleigh show has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 13. Raleigh is one of four shows that are postponed as of today. Apparently the tour is not canceled and will continue in Charlottesville next Tuesday.

Van Halen will come to Triangle after all

The Van Halen reunion tour that kicked off in Charlotte and Greensboro earlier this year will finally stop in the Triangle. The band announced a new string of dates in 2008 which includes a stop at the RBC Center on March 7. Ticket info isn't available yet.

Now if we could only get The Police, we'd be set.

[UPDATE]
Tickets for Van Halen go on sale Saturday, December 8 at 10am. Tickets will be $125, $75 and $49.50.

Van Halen reunion to kick off in NC

It looks like the Van Halen reunion tour with David Lee Roth is back on. The group was initially scheduled to tour through the summer but the tour was canceled when Eddie Van Halen entered rehab in March.

The tour won't include the full classic lineup though. Original bassist Michael Anthony will be replaced by Eddie's son Wolfgang.

The tour will include all the major stops including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, but the surprising thing is that the tour will kick off with not just one, but two shows in North Carolina. The tour will begin in Charlotte at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena on September 27 and roll through Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum on September 29.

While it's cool that Van Halen will kick off there tour here, one could also speculate that the band would want their first, potentially mistake-ridden, shows to be in North Carolina as opposed to a major city like New York or LA. The start of The Police's reunion tour was plagued with problems and mixed reviews that led to Stewart Copeland (drummer of The Police) to slam one of their shows.

So, with a new bassist and some rusty, aging members, will the Van Halen reunion tour be a high-flying success or a train wreck? Hell, will the tour even happen or will it get canceled again? Let us know what you think.

Van Halen: Not ready to make nice

Surprisingly, there are many things we can all learn from rock stars. Today let's look at a chapter from the book of Van Halen entitled "Quitting While You're Ahead."

As some of you may have heard, it was rumored that Van Halen's reunion tour — starring David Lee Roth, not that weird guy with a perm — would kick off in North Carolina this summer. However, before one tour date was ever officially announced, the band scrapped the whole thing. According to Pollstar, the tour is "officially postponed indefinitely."

We can apply this lesson to this summer's Police reunion tour. The band is scheduled to do one leg in the U.S., head abroad and then come back to the states for a second leg of the tour. Hopefully they'll come somewhere near North Carolina before they realize they're not that good of friends after all and cancel the rest of the tour.


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