Murat Theatre

Thanks to John King and Ben Swain for this set list!

The wedding adage “something old, something new, something
borrowed, something blue” would definately apply to Sammy Hagar’s
first solo performance in Indianapolis since 1984.

In Wednesday’s 2 1/2 hour set, the venerable “Red Rocker”
entertained a less-than-sold-out Murat Theater crowd with music
spanning 25 years and three phases of his career.

Hagar, who seemed ecstatic to be a solo artist once again,
and his new band careened from one decade to the next, playing
tunes from his Montrose days to his Van Halen tenure and still
finding time to work in some of his solo hits and tracks from
his new album, “Marching to Mars”.

The long retrospective approach, bolstered by Hagar’s usual
high-energy antics, worked.

Fans got to hear Hagar’s stock winners, such as I Can’t
Drive 55, One Way to Rock and Bad Motor Scooter. But the extended
set and lack of an opener left time for plenty of the new album,
most notably Kama, a low-key song dedicated to his young daughter.

Guitarist Victor Johnson deserves extra praise for his
stellar playing, which unfortunately got swallowed by the room for
much of the show. He handled the unenviable task of playing a
number of Van Halen songs, which he did with a great deal of
skill and his own flair.

The main problem with the night’s show was the sound. At
times, it apperared to be a good thing that everyone knew the
words to most of the songs, as Hagar’s voice was lost. Some of
the better musical work was lost in the cacophony created by the
small size of the venue.

And although he has claimed many times that he isn’t holding
a grudge against his former bandmates, one has to wonder why he
would throw in an obvious poke at Eddie Van Halen’s replaced hip
by using his guitar as a crutch early in the show.

But it was a good show nonetheless with a party atmoshere,
right down to the Cabo Wabo backdrop and the impromptu lesson on
how to mix a “waborita”, after which he passed around samples to
some audience members.

Guess solo life suits Sammy just fine.

Thanks to John King for transcribing this article.

CONCERT REVIEW by Michael D. Clark (Indianapolis Star)

ADDITIONAL REVIEW

Went to the show in Indy last night and all I have to say is
wow. It is hard to compare the show to others I’ve seen because I’ve
only seen one other concert (Van Halen 2 years ago at Deer Creek).
Sammy’s show was at the Murat and was an indoor theatre holding about
2000 people and I was in the tenth row. The VH show was at Deer Creek,
and outdoor pavilion and I was at least 100 feet from the stage. So no
matter what the Murat show is going to be better.

There was a little confusion for the meet n greet but we got
everything figured out and I got to meet the man! He was real cool, but
was in a hurry so he didn’t stay very long and couldn’t really stay to
talk. He took a picture with the mailing list people and I got my
Rematch album signed (It’ll be framed and put next to my autographed
picture of Gene Keady. For a Boilermaker that’s the next best thing to
God). The coolest part of the meet n greet was that one of the contest
winners from Q95 was a mentally and physically handicapped kid and Sammy
took extra time to get pictures and sign stuff for the kid. I pray that
that kid is able to remember that for the rest of his life. We also got
to meet David Lauser and he was real cool. He seemed about in awe of
Sammy as we were. Real down to earth guy. I’m kicking myself that I
didn’t get his autograph too.

The concert was great. He was having a blast and it was just a
big party. Victor was having fun with the whole thing. He is a very
good guitar player. I was very impressed.Mona looked like she was still
getting used to playing for that many people. Sammy told her to do a
bass solo and had to push her to the front of the stage. She spent most
of the time back by the drums. The funniest part was someone threw a
rose with a note on it. He read it and it was asking his middle name
because she was pregnant and wanted to name her kid after him. So he
told everyone his middle name was Roy and told her not to name her kid
Roy. Then the crowd started chanting Roy. He said that in all of his
time putting on concerts he’s never had that happen. He told everyone
that he named his new girl Kama and played the song.

With the songs he played he said that “Bad Motor Scooter” was the
first song he ever wrote. He also told the story of how “Finish What Ya
Started” was wrote. He said that he had gone to bed, but wasn’t trying
to fall asleep, and Eddie came over saying that Val was ticked at him and
so Eddie wanted to work on another song. So Eddie and Sammy sat on
Sammy’s front porch with acoustic guitars and spent the whole night
writing the song (which was about how Eddie ruined the night for Sammy).

I think he’s having fun being on his own again. The big
difference between this concert and the VH concert I saw was that with VH
he didn’t talk as much. I think this was a better concert than VH, but
it’s still dissappointing not to see Eddie there. And I’m also
dissappointed that I will never see Van Hagar play “Humans Being” live.
I think Victor can play anthing Sammy tells him to and he will do it very
well, but Victor still isn’t the guitar god. I’m very glad to have seen
both concerts.

Thanks to Ben Swain for this review!