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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why is this the only live album?!, August 23, 2000
I really wish there were more Van Halen live albums, because this one really cooks! Sammy Hagar sounds excellent as usual and the band plays awesome on every track. "Judgement Day" sounds absolutely furious on this, better than the album version, in fact. "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" sounds really good. Sammy does a nice job on the Roth-era classic. "Ultra Bass" is outstanding! Finally, we get to hear Micheal Anthony at the forefront, not drowned out by everyone else. This is a very impressive solo and it's about time he got one on an album! "Pleasure Dome/Drum Solo" is incredible. Some very heavy guitar leads into a long, amazing drum solo by the incomparable Alex Van Halen. This guy has the energy of ten men, I'm sure. How he can do those lightning-quick solos for so long without collapsing is beyond me. Wow! "Love Walks In" is one of my favorite Sammy love songs and sounds superb with Eddie on Keyboard and Sammy on guitar. "Right Now" sounds great as usual, as does "Why Can't This Be Love." Well, I've highlighted some stuff by everyone but Eddie. "316" is his shining moment on this album. An amazing solo that has to be heard to be fully appreciated. His guitar work is great on every song, but this is the standout for him. Well, everything is awesome about this one except for one thing; the sound quality. It sounds too spacious, as if they recorded in the middle of the concert hall. As a result, it sounds like you're listening to the album with a concert hall effect on all the time. Too much echo is a result, which makes it harder to differentiate things. This is my only complaint. It is a small one considering how good this album is. If you are a Van Halen fan, you will love this. If you are a Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen fan, you will love it even more. There's only one way to rock, apparently, and this is it!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound, weak track listing, July 22, 2003
Live: Right Here, Right Now is one of the best sounding live rock albums ever produced. However, it suffers tremendously from too many indulgent solos and way too many tracks from the uneven For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album. Many of the tracks sound just like the studio versions sounding like a greatest hits album recorded live with a poor tracklist.
The album does contain many of the hits from the Sammy Hagar era such as "Right Now", "When It's Love", "Why Can't This Be Love", and "Dreams" among others. The album also contains two of his solo hits, "One Way To Rock" and "Give To Live." While these are both good tracks, his signature song "I Can't Drive 55" is noticeably absent. Eddie Van Halen's solo "316" is surely an excellent showcase on the album but Michael Anthony's "Ultra Bass" is way too long and Alex Van Halen's drum solo is nothing spectacular. One senses these were pretty impressive to see live but sound indulgent on a live album.
The album also suffers from featuring no less than 10 tracks from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and very little from the David Lee Roth era skipping completely over Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, and Diver Down. The addition of tracks such as "Dance The Night Away", "Beautiful Girls", "Everybody Wants Some", "Take Your Whiskey Home", "Unchained", "Mean Street", and "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and limiting down to 3 tracks from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge would have helped this album big time. Hagar's singing on the few Roth-era tracks are decent but lack Roth's charisma. On a high note, their version of "Won't Get Fooled Again" is certainly one of the high points of the album. It's a shame that with all their strong material, they couldn't come up with a better live album. It reminds of you how Led Zeppelin released the lackluster live album The Song Remains The Same after releasing at least six classic albums with the only real difference being that this album sounds much better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended for Van Hagar fans, January 24, 2006
In 1993, at the height of grunge and alternative rock, Van Halen released yet another multi-platinum CD with their first ever live album "Live: Right Here, Right Now." Compiled from various shows between 1988 and 1993, "Live: Right Here, Right Now," focuses mainly on the Sammy Hagar era of the band and Van Hagar's first three albums "5150," (1986) "OU812," (1988) and most notably "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" (1991). Hagar's renditions of a couple Roth-era songs, a WHO cover, a few Sammy Hagar songs, and a few instrumentals round-out the album.
"Live: Right Here, Right Now" has a lot going for it. Many of these live renditions sound fuller than the studio versions, especially songs from "5150" and "OU812." Hagar's monologues, although at times long-winded, are generally interesting, especially his speech about living in the moment in the middle of "Panama." The instrumentals are more hit-or-miss. And there are A LOT of instrumentals; a drum solo, a guitar solo, and a bass solo. If you're into that sort of thing you will be well pleased with this release. But if you don't care for long instrumentals and solos, you may find them tedious. A cover of the WHO's "Won't get fooled again," sounds good, an obvious choice it may be.
The biggest drawback of this release is that it focuses exclusively on the Sammy Hagar-era of the band. It would have been far more desirable to have two CDs, the first covering '78-84 shows, (with Roth) and the second covering the Hagar era. But because the Van Halen brothers have always tried to downplay the Roth years and make Van Hagar out to be the definitive Van Halen (see "The Best of Both Worlds") we get a double-album of the Red Rocker without any Diamond Dave. When the band plays Roth-era material, it sounds good, until the vocals come in. As much as I like Sammy, he never could pull-off singing the Dave songs. While Hagar doesn't butcher the Roth songs, they just sound goofy, i.e. "got my ass against the record machine"(Hagar's replacement, Gary Cherone, did a terrific job singing all three eras on Van Halen's 1998 World Tour). Another problem with "Live: Right Here, Right Now" is that there are too many songs from "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." Even if this had to be a Hagar-only live album, more songs from "5150" and "OU812" should have been included.
While "Live: Right Here, Right Now" isn't exactly KISS "ALIVE," (1975) it's still a pretty good album. While casual fans are advised to stay away, VH fans, especially fans of Van Hagar will enjoy this release. Hopefully someday an official Roth-era live VH album will see the light of day.
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