Van Halen - Sydney, Australia 20.04.2013

Van Halen - Live at ANZ Stadium (Sydney, Australia)
April 20, 2013

Source/Lineage: Core Sounds Cardioids (pointed towards stage to minimise crowd noise) -> Sony PCM-M10 (mic-in, 48kHz 24 bit, downsampled to 44.1/16 for your CD burning pleasure) -> Soundforge 10.0b w/Izotope Ozone 5 Mastering Plugin and Izotope RX2 Advanced -> FLAC Level 8 > MP3

Recorded, mastered and processed by: Yours truly ... Starclassic.

Location: Seated area, 10 rows up from dancefloor, slightly stage right.

Notes:
Do I need to say anything about these guys? They need no introduction, they still have it and they still entertain crowds all over the world. They even make guys jizz their pants with their musicianship! So I'll just get straight to the technical bits.

The sound guy did what he could with the fact that this was an open-air venue - a football stadium using only one half. The weather was unbearably cold and I froze my arse off because I neglected to consider wearing my fleece jacket over my fleece top which would've had the lapels I needed to clip my mics on as usual!

The bass was a bit on the heavy side but I think I managed to tame it enough without losing the raw energy of the gig. Dave's vocals were poorly mixed with him often disappearing among the powerful axe of Eddie. Even the snare drum lacked a bit of cutting power. If anything, I caught the last 30 minutes of Aerosmith before Van Halen's set and they actually had a better mix! Still, I think I managed to polish this recording up as best as I could, including filtering out most of the fireworks explosions from another nearby venue as well as some overexuberant clappers in the audience.

I only have one bit of advice for this C-grade recording ... it's mastered to be played LOUD. I can't imagine Van Halen at a volume of less than 11 and neither should you. Just saying. ;)

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Setlist:

CD1:
1) Intro
2) Unchained
3) Runnin' With the Devil
4) She's the Woman
5) Romeo Delight
6) Tattoo
7) Everybody Wants Some!!
8) Somebody Get Me a Doctor
9) China Town
10) Oh, Pretty Woman
11) Drum solo
12) You Really Got Me
13) Dance the Night Away
14) I'll Wait
15) Hot for Teacher
16) Beautiful Girls
17) Ice Cream Man

CD2:
17) Panama
18) Eruption 2013
19) Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
20) Jump

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