Van Halen
2 December 1982
Venue: Mid-South Coliseum
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Source: Soundboard (Master)

Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6

Track Listing:

01 Intro
02 Romeo Delight
03 Unchained
04 Drum Solo
05 The Full Bug
06 Runnin' With The Devil
07 Jamie's Cryin' (cut)
08 Little Guitars
09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
10 Bass Solo
11 Hang 'Em High
12 Secrets
13 Drum Solo II
14 Everybody Wants Some!!
15 Dave Talks
16 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise)
17 Dance The Night Away
18 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I'm So Glad
19 Intruder
20 Pretty Woman
21 Guitar Solo
22 Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
23 Bottoms Up!
24 You Really Got Me
25 Happy Trails
26 You Really Got Me (Reprise)

Notes:
Here is yet another uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Memphis during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously.

If you tend to glance at the track listing first, you may incorrectly assume Cathedral wasn't recorded. However, this show is a very rare case of there being a setlist difference, because Cathedral was NOT performed on this night in Memphis. Instead, they played a unique extended intro to Secrets, which is quite beautiful. Unlike other instances where the band has done extended jams due to sudden technical difficulties, this time it feels very deliberately planned as Alex comes in immediately on drums first, and the whole intro feels very structured. Crazily enough, this won't be the last time in 1982 that the band omits Cathedral in favor for an extended Secrets!

As the jam section of Somebody Get Me A Doctor continues to lean more heavily into improvisation over the last few weeks, this show features a snippet of the guitar bit that would eventually become the intro to Pleasure Dome about 8 years later. This can also be heard the night prior in Asheville, but I failed to make note of it then.

As usual, Roy paused the tape during the break where Dave would give an extended talk to the crowd prior to Jamie's Cryin'. Though instead of starting the tape again at the start of the song, he comes in a bit late this time, missing the first 50-ish seconds. The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out during Dave's long interlude of Everybody Wants Some, but seems to have been flipped quickly and didn't miss much. Then as usual, Roy pauses the tape after Somebody Get Me A Doctor, so does not capture Dave's acoustic solo or Ice Cream Man. The recording starts again about 3 seconds prior to the start Intruder. There is another pause during the break of Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love where Dave would usually say a few more words to the crowd, however no pieces of music are missing. Roy paused once more during both encore breaks as always, and starts again in time to capture the complete encore songs.

Huge thanks to those who significantly helped with the absurd pricetag that was required to liberate this VH collection, most of which would've been impossible to save otherwise.

Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time.

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show:

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