Van Halen’s Secret Project Revealed: So VH Fans, What Do You Think? [POLL]

Gotta hand it to Van Halen. They’re one of the last few bands who can actually manage to keep a secret in this age of the internet. The question now is: Was the secret worth keeping?

Late last week it was officially announced through the Van Halen New Desk website that Van Halen will release their first live album featuring David Lee Roth on March 31^st. The album was taken from a concert the band performed in Japan in June of 2013 while on tour for their 2012 album “A Different Kind Of Truth”. Titled “Tokyo Dome Live In Concert”, the recording is to be made available in digital, CD and vinyl formats, and as part of a deluxe box that includes reissues of their 1978 debut album and "1984".

So now that we know the details, here’s what I think. Let's start with the good news.

THE GOOD:

1. Finally Van Halen fans get to hear the classic DLR era Van Halen songs played live and we’re getting Eddie Van Halen in top form. If you want a preview just check out the whole show at the top of the page. He’s on fire and, outside of bootlegs with average to decent quality, this will be high quality audio of legendary songs Eddie never recorded live with Sammy Hagar like ‘I’m The One’, ‘Everbody Wants Some!!’, ‘Hear About It Later’, ‘Dance The Night Away’, ‘Hot For Teacher’ and ‘Mean Street’.

2. Anytime a band releases something whether it be a studio album, box set or live album it’s a reason to tour. The rumors lately have been that Van Halen may go out on a summer tour and Hartford under the stars is a strong possibility. If it takes a live album release to get the band out on the road again then let’s do it. I’m buying the ticket.

3. Dave, Eddie and Alex Van Halen are now around 60 years old so the fact that they’re still putting anything out is cool with me. There will be a day when the band will no longer be. I'm going to appreciate the here and now as much as I can.

4. I have a Van Halen tattoo on my arm, posters and banners all over my apartment office, I own everything the band has released including solo projects. I even bought that long-forgotten album with Gary Cherone. I have bootleg cds, bootleg DVDs, seen them in concert several times over the past 25 years, seen David Lee Roth solo (so low it almost made me shed a tear) several times. Hell I even bought David Lee's 1994 bomb of an album "Your Filthy Little Mouth" and drove my college roommate insane by playing it every day. I've seen Sammy Hagar perform live many times. I even saw him and his kick-ass band Chickenfoot tear it up on stage. Outside of a member of the band pulling an O.J. or Bill Cosby I’m buyin' what they're sellin'. Trust me, it's instant adrenaline rush when that double cd arrives in my mailbox.

THE BAD:

1. The biggest question mark here is David Lee Roth’s voice. It was a source of fan complaints back in the band’s early days and it hasn’t gotten any better with time folks. Go to any live clip on YouTube of VH with Dave and just look at the posts below. Over 75 percent of them are brutal. Look, the bottom line on DLR is that his strong point is his showmanship and he’s best served up with a pair of eyes to offset what your ears are hearing.

2.  This piggy-backs #1. Why release this on audio only? Why not put it out on DVD too? It doesn’t make much sense unless they plan on milking this concert for as much as they can and release it as an individual DVD down the road.

3. This is not Van Halen at its best with Diamond Dave. Every long-time VH fan has been pleading the brothers Ed & Al to release the full concert from Oakland, CA back in 1981. There are three pro-shot videos on the internet from that night and they are all stellar. Diamond Dave hitting his trademark train-whistle screams, Eddie tearing it up on guitar, Alex pounding the skins and lighting his gong on fire. It is vintage Van Halen. So why isn’t this show or any early VH show being released? Two words: Michael and Anthony. Eddie has tried to erase the former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony from the band’s history ever since he joined forces with Sammy Hagar and was booted from the band. Releasing a video with him in it is not happening and it’s a real shame.

4. Let’s get to the remasters that will be included with the live release. The band will release remastered versions of their 1978 debut album and their massive commercial cross-over album “1984”. The plan is to release the four other studio albums with David Lee and have those remastered too. That would be really cool……If they hadn’t already remastered them in 2000! So now we’re getting remastered versions of remastered albums? Doesn’t make sense. I'll just buy the live album thank you.

So my fellow Van Halen fans what do you think? Tell us if you’re going to pick up a copy of the live album. Vote and comment below!

NOTE: A special thanks to the fans over at the VH fan website vhlinks.com for jacking this poll up big time. A real interesting debate also took place. You can check it out here.