Customer Reviews

Live: Right Here Right Now

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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!

WOW what a great album by the Ultimate Van Halen. Everysong is great including the Drum solo by Alex, the 11 minute 316 by Eddie, and A BASS SOLO by Michael Anthony- A BASS SOLO!!!!!!! I hate when people say the album sucks cause of bad quality and how Sammy did with some of the songs. Even though most of the songs are from "For Unlawful Carnel Knowledge" the album is still an Live album worth getting. It is like a god to all other live albums. So don't listen to those peoples reviews about the bad side of it. Van Halen is Van Halen and they are RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Let's Face it. If a band wants to prove its greatness, the live stage is where they will have to prove it. After all few great bands have not released a great live album. Enter Van Halen.

Right Here Right Now documents the first six years of the Van Hagar years. There are high octane, mind blowing, solo passages from Alex Van Halen (will put you into a seizure), Michael Anthony (That's right. a BASS Solo), and of course the all mighty guitar GOD Eddie Van Halen. Sammy Hagar proves his worth as a party man and eternal teenager, and his stage presence makes for pure electricity. Many songs, most notably the ballads, sound far less dated than their studio counterparts (Dreams, Give to Live, Best of Both Worlds, Why Can't This Be Love). It isn't very surprising that only four songs from the DLR era (If that were the case Hagar would come off as just Van Halen's new mouthpiece) are included in the set, but they are some of the very best, and are some of the album's best performances. (Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, You Really Got Me, and of course Jump) And then there are some magnificent rockers; Judgement Day, Runaround, Top of the World, a mind blowing rendition of the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again, and what is by far Sammy's greatest solo career song One Way to Rock.

In conclusion this a magnificent representation of what a carefree stage presence that Van Halen had. Sure it would be nice if they released some live DLR material (they could have done one disc for Sam, and one disc for Dave), but this album will still be able to make your heart beat just a little faster. This is one of the most exhilirating albums you'll ever own, and certainly the best of the Van Hagar era. Don't be discouraged by any negative reviews you'll see. Just get it RIGHT NOW!

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.

I really like this album, But maybe it was a little bit ofensive including almost the whole F.U.C.K album. I am not saying that I don?t like it, because I think it is the best Van Hagar album. However, Van Halen has more to perform alive. I think that more songs from the Roth's period would have been cool! Rock N Roll Forevaa!

In 1991, Van Halen released the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". This album got a surprsingly good reception from both critics and longtime fans of the group, who initally dismissed the Sammy Hagar-led VH as a formulaic ballad machine. To celebrate this newfound exceptance, the band launched a massive world tour. The result was the two disc live album "Live: Right Here, Right Now", containing 24 tracks from the tour. How is this live album? Here are the highlights and the low points.

Highlights:
The majority of the album is really great. Sammy's vocal are in top condition, Eddie plays like a madman, and the rest of the band delivers. The performances are energetic and full of life, from the opening "Poundcake" to the closing "Top Of The World". They stake a great stab at The Who's classic "Won't Get Fooled Again", and Alex shows his talents on the drums with the nine minute "Pleasure Dome/Drum Solo". Forced to pick a highlight, though I'd go for Eddie's 11 minute instrumental "316", which also manages to incorporate "Eruption" at the end.

Lowlights:
The reason I don't give this collection five stars is for the performances of the David Lee Roth songs. Sammy actually manages to pull of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Jump" pretty well, but it's "Panama" that doesn't work. It starts off well enough, but then Sammy launches into this whole foul mouthed dialouge about tomorrow and stuff. It's somewhat amusing and a little uplifting, but overall unneccessary. Also, I think they leaned a little too heavily on the "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" tracks. They perform pretty much the whole album. I would've had them do just "Right Now", "Poundcake", "316", "Runaround" and "Top Of The World" and then do some more stuff "5150" and "OU812" and maybe some more Roth stuff.

Overall, this is a great live album. With some changes, it would have been perfect.

I love this CD even though a lot of people bash. It is a live CD therfore it shouldn't sound exactly like the studio versions. I agree at times the mix is a little rough but still great. I saw VH on the tour promoting this CD back in '93 and it is still one of the greatest concerts I've ever been to. Alot of people feel Sammy is not the half the showman that DLR is err! was but that's bull. I like the Hagar and Roth eras of VH but VH just seemed more like a true band with Sammy where Roth was always trying to hog the spotlight. Sammy does a great job on "Ain't Talkin Bout Love". The only Roth song on here I feel that is not up to par is "Panama". Sure there are some flaws sound wise but once you get past that it's great.

When this album was released in 1993, Van Halen remained one of the few hard-rock acts of the 70's that could still fill a hockey rink with 20,000 fans on a regular basis. The band's knack for crafting catchy, melodic, guitar-powered rock keeps their (mostly male adolescent) fans happy, and makes them a staple of AOR radio. Thus, Van Halen's niche near the top of the hard-rock heap is insured. It's a shame that "Right Here, Right Now" was the first live album in the band's then 16-year history. It would have been interesting to compare the first incarnation of V.H. (with lead vocalist David Lee Roth) with the second (featuring Sammy Hagar on lead pipes). While Hagar is a decent singer, he is also one of the most obnoxious, unoriginal front men in rock. On "Right Here, Right Now," when he's not mumbling his song introductions, his R-rated stage banter sounds as if it were scripted by the screenwriters of "Spinal Tap." Some might argue that Roth wasn't much different, but Roth was a class clown who didn't mind poking fun at his own persona. In comparison, Hagar comes off like a smug jerk. And Roth was a better singer to boot. From the evidence on "Right Here, Right Now," however, it seems like the members of Van Halen are happy to put their early days behind them. Only four of the collection's twenty-four tracks are from the David Lee Roth period. Hagar even blows the lyrics a few times to suggest how little they matter. Musically, Van Halen remains in top form, with premier guitarist Eddie Van Halen leading the way. He remains one of the true originals in hard rock. The word "original" however, describes little else about the package. Anyone who's witnessed more than three rock concerts in his life should be familiar with that oldest of concert cliches - the instrumental solo. On "Right Here, Right Now," each of the three instrument-playing members of Van Halen takes center stage to (yawn) demonstrate his musicianship and wow the audience with his command of his instrument. A drum, guitar, and even bass solo might thrill a few 15-year-olds in concert, but on record such excess will more likely inspire either a nap or a migraine. Sure, Eddie's a great guitarist, but eleven minutes of riffs and runs is tedium ad nauseam. While the overall sound quality of the CD leaves much to be desired, most of the songs come across okay, performed in faithful-to-the-original versions. A weak cover of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" is the only "new" track, obviously included so that something previously unavailable could be released as a single. If you're a big Van Halen fan, you're better off buying the concert video that accompanies this package. Otherwise, if you already have the studio albums, pass.

Considering this is the only Van Halen live album, it's not bad. Pulled from live shows in the Sammy Hagar era, with a few tracks originally sung by David Lee Roth redone by Sammy. Key tracks are: Poundcake, When It's Love, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Panama, Runaround, Right Now, Why Can't This Be Love, You Really Got Me, Jump and Top of the World. Worth getting, and a good introduction for newbies, like a live greatest hits up to that point. Hagar says- you never know you might not see tomorrow. You gotta be satisfied; I could die right now and be somewhat satisfied.