Alex Van Halen

I will say Alex made some great contributions to rock drumming as far as making it popular, BUT when I saw him in concert a few times, he wasn't as skilled as the other rock drummers I had seen, Tommy Lee, Tico Torres, Greg Bissonette, Bobbi Blozter, Jason Bonham to name a few.
 
Alex Van Halen is awesome! I am a fan of his as well. I rented the "Live Without a Net" DVD. I really enjoy watching them all, espically Alex. His drumsolo wasn't the best. I will admit that. But it was pretty good. Espically at the end where he really gets going. I'm not a fan of digital drums. But when I heard his digital drums, I thought they sounded pretty cool to me. He is the only exception with digital drums. Hot for teacher was a pretty cool on drums.

Why does he have those red tubes connected to his four kick drums?
 
hes pretty good i like him.. yes hot for teacher is cool i like his drumming in unchained pretty simple but i love it
 
I first saw Van Halen in concert back in 1980 or '81. It was an amazing show, but everything was kind of lost in the shadow of David Lee Roth. Not that I'm complaining. He's a tremendous showman. Alex Van Halen was great way back then, and it's been interesting following his drumming from album to album.

I don't think that the band Van Halen gets enough credit for bringing rock and roll back into the mind of a world that was being hypnotised by disco.

van8.jpg


"I look at Van Halen as social workers. What we're really doing is creating jobs for rock critics." - Alex Van Halen, Creem Magazine, May 1984
 
DogBreath said:
I first saw Van Halen in concert back in 1980 or '81. It was an amazing show, but everything was kind of lost in the shadow of David Lee Roth. Not that I'm complaining. He's a tremendous showman. Alex Van Halen was great way back then, and it's been interesting following his drumming from album to album.

I don't think that the band Van Halen gets enough credit for bringing rock and roll back into the mind of a world that was being hypnotised by disco.

van8.jpg


"I look at Van Halen as social workers. What we're really doing is creating jobs for rock critics." - Alex Van Halen, Creem Magazine, May 1984

You're very right, that they don't get enough credit. They really were the first in 1978 to bring good rock n' roll back, and kick Punk rock's and Disco's butt...altho I do like some Punk Rock. Also, I saw his solo in the 1983 rock festival, this DVD my uncle has, and it wasn't all that great, but pretty good. Mostly, he just hit a tom tom really fast...Also, David Lee Roth is hilarious.
 
Alex has come a long way as a Drummer in terms of his playing abilities, he's ranked as a solid rock&roll Drummer. His snare sound was his own (much like his brother's guitar) and we all came to know Alex as having the sickest drumsets around at the time. I think his best drumset creation ever made was the monster he built himself (with professional design guidence from Ludwig) in the "Jump" video. Its the Cadilac of drumsets in that its a true classic. And aside from its visual attractiveness, its a practical setup because all drums are reachable (mostly custom roto-toms) and the two outter bassdrums have speaker woofers & horn, inside them to boost the bass & low's of his live sound. The two inner bassdrums are played on and are of course the sound source routed out toward the other two outter bassdrums woofers. You can imagine the amount of amps going through the wires especially at their volume, and that explains the 2 fire extinguishers mounted on the outter bassdrums of his kit. You can see them by watching the jump video. I'm sure its obvious that this kit was (and still is) very inspirational to me, and others I'm sure........LOL

But yeah, Alex is the man!


Dap.
 
Yeah Van Halen is my favorite band!!!! They have so many great songs!! It was pretty kool because when Sammy Hagar came too my town for a concert a couple of years ago(i was only 13)Me and my family went up too the front of the stage too get a better view, and sammy saw me and he waved for me too get on stage. So my dad picked me up and i got on stage with sammy and got rock out with em!!!

Ånyway, Alex is a great drummer!! He has that unique snare sound that stands him out from the other drummers...I dont think hes the best of all time at all, but overall i think hes a very good drummer that should get more credit in my opinion...The song hot for teacher is a awesome song, but i heard the beggning was over dubbed with extra bass drum or whatever too get that sound. Is that true??
 
tylernator said:
Yeah Van Halen is my favorite band!!!! They have so many great songs!! It was pretty kool because when Sammy Hagar came too my town for a concert a couple of years ago(i was only 13)Me and my family went up too the front of the stage too get a better view, and sammy saw me and he waved for me too get on stage. So my dad picked me up and i got on stage with sammy and got rock out with em!!!

Ånyway, Alex is a great drummer!! He has that unique snare sound that stands him out from the other drummers...I dont think hes the best of all time at all, but overall i think hes a very good drummer that should get more credit in my opinion...The song hot for teacher is a awesome song, but i heard the beggning was over dubbed with extra bass drum or whatever too get that sound. Is that true??

You know what? Sammy Hagar and Van Halen just got together, just to tell you. I missed it unfortunately. I really wish I coulda' seen that. I'm pretty sure in Hot For Teacher, he really did play that. Anybody with 3 years experience or so could probably play that, but I dunno' since I don't have that much experience :p
Also, how does he get that snare sound? I'd probably try and tune my snare to be like that. It's really cool.
 
I will say Alex made some great contributions to rock drumming as far as making it popular, BUT when I saw him in concert a few times, he wasn't as skilled as the other rock drummers I had seen, Tommy Lee, Tico Torres, Greg Bissonette, Bobbi Blozter, Jason Bonham to name a few.

HAHAHAHA!!! Tommy Lee? Tico Torres? Bobby Blotzer? For cryin' out loud! You need to get out and see some drummers, my friend!
 
I've always liked his style and the licks he came up with. Mostly I like his sound. His drums and Paiste lineup always sounded great on the albums. That snare sound is killer! How much Ted Templeman had to do with that, I don't know.
 
hahaha,you all now that Alex sampled the bass drum from and old billy cobham lick..he recorded it,and than hits a trigger and he plays over it.hes overrated and not even that good.
 
Bonzo said:
HAHAHAHA!!! Tommy Lee? Tico Torres? Bobby Blotzer? For cryin' out loud! You need to get out and see some drummers, my friend!

At least he posted Greg Bissonette!

And for Alex...ehh, nothing special. I particularly hate his custom drum era (the ones he built himself) because they sounded awful. His snare drum has to be one of the most annoying ever (exception, I forget the title, but "baby come on? come on baby finish what you started?). Cool snare part.

Hot for Teacher...ughh, not this argument again. Get a simmons pad, program it for that bass drum sound, play the opening pattern twice, then set the digital delay, then go into the double bass drum part. Its really not that hard.

Stu
 
I think Alex has a pretty rad style, he definitely had an element of swing in his playing. Some of my favorite stuff of his is on "I'm the One" off their first record. That's a classic rock record for sure.
 
AVH is an incredable drummer, very fun to watch. I saw one video of him playing and I really thought he was a cool drummer from then on.
 
Speedy said:
Alex Van Halen is awesome! I am a fan of his as well. I rented the "Live Without a Net" DVD. I really enjoy watching them all, espically Alex. His drumsolo wasn't the best. I will admit that. But it was pretty good. Espically at the end where he really gets going. I'm not a fan of digital drums. But when I heard his digital drums, I thought they sounded pretty cool to me. He is the only exception with digital drums. Hot for teacher was a pretty cool on drums.

Why does he have those red tubes connected to his four kick drums?

I don't know if this is true or at all possible but i have heard he pumps air into his drums i think to get rid of some of the resonance. Thats all ive heard personally i don't think thats entirely correct but anywho.
 
You mean Alex "Bochephus Bo-Halen" as he's referred to by Sammy Hagar in the Live Without a Net concert film? Alex Van Halen was a HUGE inspiration to me when I was a teenager, and still is. Great great drum and cymbal sounds... I personally really like the fact that he has put together some of the neatest drum setups ever! I love the one he had for the Fair Warning Tour (black and white striped Ludwig smoked vistalites), you can see it if you have VH-1 Classic during Rock Fest of Metal Mania shows... they sometimes show live clips for Unchained, Hear About It Later or So This Is Love?

One of the best at the "fast rock shuffle" feel (for lack of a better name). Everyone knows about Hot For Teacher, but check out Hang Em High... he is SO underrated because of his little brother (uh, what's his name again?)

Had the good fortune to meet him in '98 (yeah, Gary Cherone era, I know) and he was a very warm, nice guy, smiled a lot. I told him "I'm a drummer too". He said, "yeah, cool." and then I said, "you messed up my technique". He had a puzzled look on his face then I told him "all rimshots on the 2 and 4 backbeats from listening to you man!" (He got the joke) We shared a big laugh, posed for a picture then it was over. I have a very blurry photo due to poor lighting and a disposable camera. But man, was it ever great to meet one of my heroes.
 
Alex has been a big influence on me.I found after "1984" however that he started doing the same fills on all most of the albums.His best work was on "Van Halen 2" and "1984" I think.
 
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