The event is to help promote their forthcoming new album, due February 7; the project’s first single, “Tattoo,” will be released next Tuesday.
It’ll be the band’s first live set since their July 3, 2008 gig at the Plains Of Abraham in Quebec City, the final show of the group’s 2007/08 reunion tour with David Lee Roth.
It’s literally been decades since a Roth-fronted VH played a club show, but the Café Wha? has a personal connection to the singer: his uncle Manny Roth owned and operated the venue, providing a stage to then-up-and-coming acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan, Richard Pryor and many others.
VH’s bread and butter in the early days was club shows, with regular gigs at several L.A. venues, including The Starwood, Gazzarri’s and The Whisky A Go Go.
Now, after recently releasing some clips of the VH brothers and Roth talking about the early days, comes some more new audio.
“We played everything from polkas to…you name it,” says Eddie Van Halen. “Wedding songs, old standards – I’d never heard some of these old songs before, so I didn’t have a clue. That’s when I kinda learned to smile a lot.”
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