It was on this hot “Summer Night” in 1986 that Van Halen performed in New Haven, Connecticut for what would become the band’s first-ever commercially released concert – “Live Without A Net”.
This was the second of two consecutive nights Van Halen performed in New Haven before 12,000 crazy, flipped out 5150s at the now-defunct Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which officially closed in 2002. The band was nearing the end of the second leg of a North American tour in support of their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals – 5150. The original plan was for the August 26th concert to be used for the official release, but audio problems prevented it from happening.
The lineup of Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony performed 19 songs in all that night but not all of them ended up on the “Live Without A Net” video when it was released on November 24th, 1986. The songs “You Really Got Me”, “Dreams”, “Good Enough”, “Summertime Blues” and “Wild Thing” were omitted from the film while the sequencing of songs was also rearranged. Other edits occurred such as the removal of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” during the song “Best Of Both Worlds”. The full version would be aired during the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards on September 5th, 1986, however.
Watch Van Halen “Best Of Both Worlds” TV Version
“Live Without A Net” Tracklisting
1 Introduction
2 “There’s Only One Way to Rock”
3 “Summer Nights”
4 “Get Up”
5 Drum Solo
6 “5150”good
7 “Best of Both Worlds”
8 Bass Solo
9 “Panama”
10 “Love Walks In”
11 Guitar Solo
12 “I Can’t Drive 55”
13 “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”
14 “Why Can’t This Be Love”
15 “Rock and Roll”
Watch “Live Without A Net” (Complete Video)
LiISTEN to what was EDITED OUT of ‘Live Without A Net’!
While fans have never been able to see the entire August 27th show, it does exist, according to Hagar who, during a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, said Van Halen recorded and filmed every show the band performed.
“During my era in Van Halen we recorded and taped every show we ever did,” said Hagar. “Anything we ever did it’s all on video. We carried big video screens with us and every night I would get a VHS or Beta or whatever the format was, and then later on they started burning me DVDs. I’d walk off stage, they’d hand me a DVD. Boom. ‘Here’s your show tonight buddy.’ I’ve got everything. Everything we ever did.”
VHND notes: Unfortunately, Hagar is wrong about this. He’s remembering things a bit differently than what happened. He does not have all the Sammy-era concerts on video. In fact, the band didn’t even start regularly recording their concerts on video until the 1995 Balance tour… the fifth and final tour of his era. Their videographer made VHS copies of each show of that tour, so the most that Sammy could have would be VHS of every show of the Balance tour, plus likely some miscellaneous videos that were filmed from previous tours. As far as him having all of this on DVD, DVDs were not invented yet. Perhaps he means he has DVDs of some of the 2004 tour?
Below is the actual setlist from that night.
Van Halen: New Haven, CT 8/27/86
1 “You Really Got Me” (omitted from “Live Without A Net”)
2 “There’s Only One Way to Rock”
3 “Summer Nights”
4 “Get Up”
5 Drum Solo
6 “Dreams” (omitted from “Live Without A Net”)
7 “5150”
8 Bass Solo
9 “Panama”
10 “Best of Both Worlds”
11 “Love Walks In”
12 “Good Enough” (omitted from “Live Without A Net”)
13 Guitar Solo
14 “I Can’t Drive 55”
15 “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”
Encore:
16 “Summertime Blues” (omitted from “Live Without A Net”)
17 “Wild Thing” (omitted from “Live Without A Net”)
Encore 2:
18 “Why Can’t This Be Love”
19 “Rock and Roll”
Below are some videos featuring audio of songs that weren’t included on “Live Without A Net” taken from the August 27th show along with other nights from the ’86 tour.
“Good Enough” (Soundboard Recording From 8/27/86)
“Wild Thing” (Soundboard Recording From 8/27/86)
“Dreams” (Philadelphia August of ’86)
“Summertime Blues” (Largo, MD 8/8/86)
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