David Lee Roth, Cinderella, Extreme Tour 1991

[ijwthstd]

Rock Ain't Rollin' : Prices Up, Attendance Down Nationwide - Los Angeles Times
CHUCK PHILIPS
6–7 minutes

When it comes to choosing between David Lee Roth on a concert stage or Arnold Schwarzenegger on the movie screen, the public is opting for the Terminator.

And it’s easy to see why.

“It costs nearly $100 for two people to park, purchase tickets, T-shirts and refreshments at a concert these days,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a national concert trade journal based in Fresno. “For that kind of money, a couple can afford to go see ‘The Terminator’ three or four times. Arnold is wiping us out.”

The result, say Bongiovanni and other industry insiders, is the worst summer concert season in more than a decade.

Promoters estimate that attendance at pop, rock and country concerts across the nation is down 25% to 37% compared to 1990. Last week, poor ticket sales forced the cancellation of Southern California performances by the bill of David Lee Roth and Cinderella, plus a Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy pairing that failed to draw in several other cities as well.

With several concert promotion companies across the nation reportedly on the verge of collapse, few in the industry are voicing optimism about the future.

“The concert business is in big trouble,” said Moss Jacobs, general manager of Avalon Attractions, the Encino-based company in charge of promoting Roth’s Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre date and 270 other shows this year throughout Southern California. “Of course the recession is hurting us. But one of the biggest problems is that the concert industry has not offered the public much of anything new for years.”

Except higher prices, that is.

The average price of a concert ticket--excluding parking, facility and service fees--has risen 15% in the last year to about $23, officials estimate.

Promoters blame the escalating ticket prices on increased artist fees. But artists’ agents accuse promoters of bidding up the price of talent to lure acts into amphitheaters to which the promoters have financial ties.

“The industry is choking on greed,” said Carl Freed, executive director of the New York-based North American Concert Promoters Assn., which represents most of the nation’s major promoters. “From the band to the concessionaire, everybody seems to be out for themselves.”

Industry observers also cite the current absence of top-name concert draws such as Madonna as a point of concern. Still, most are at a loss to explain why such pop stars as Whitney Houston and Stevie Nicks have been unable to attract more than marginal crowds at numerous stops on their national tours.

Blockbuster headliners do not always guarantee promoters a profit either. For example, insiders say that many promoters did not turn a profit on recent Guns N’ Roses shows due to hefty fees guaranteed the group.

Even bargain-priced package tours such as “Operation Rock ‘n’ Roll” (featuring Judas Priest and Alice Cooper) and “Clash of the Titans” (Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer) have not fared well.

One exception is the Lollapalooza festival--a package tour featuring food and cultural information booths plus performances by Jane’s Addiction and six other alternative rock groups. Lollapalooza played to capacity crowds during three shows last month at Irvine Meadows.

Brad Gelfond, a senior agent at Los Angeles-based Triad Artists who helped organize the sold-out, 26-city tour, believes the concert industry is suffering from a much deeper problem than greed or recession.

“The real issue here has to do with passion,” Gelfond said. “Fans have quit buying tickets because performers are not offering them a concert experience that moves them.

“The success of the Lollapalooza tour is proof that concertgoers expect more from an artist than just a mildly entertaining gig. The event needs to tap into some kind of deeper sociological connection for the fan. Otherwise, concertgoers might just as well stay home and listen to a CD.”

[ijwthstd]

https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/06/26 ... mond-dave/

Cinderella, Extreme outshine ‘Diamond Dave’
Nestor Aparicio
~3 minutes

It must be hard for David Lee Roth to accept what has become of his career.

Once the leader of the greatest post-Led Zeppelin rock ‘n’ roll band in the world — Van Halen — Roth has now been relegated to the musical B-team and is even being upstaged in the minor leagues by upstarts like Cinderella and Extreme, who opened his show last night at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Last night’s effort from “Diamond Dave” was nothing short of pathetic.

Roth gave his solo music and the hallowed classics of Van Halen such poor readings that it was easy to believe he would stop halfway through the show and say it was all a bad joke.

But in songs like “Unchained,” “Panama” and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” the joke was on us, as he skipped lines, omitted words and, quite frankly, just didn’t sing. In two songs, his “Just Like Paradise” and Halen’s “Jump,” he forgot many of the words.

What he probably could have used was Sammy Hagar to bail him out.

What makes it all the more disappointing is that Roth was backed by his most impressive outfit yet in the three trips on the road since leaving Van Halen in 1986.

Led by longtime drummer Gregg Bissonette and hotshot guitarist Jason Becker, the five-man unit mimicked early Van Halen music and harmonies with uncanny perfection.

Every element was in place for a terrific show. Everything except the Roth from 1978.

The only saving grace of his portion of the show was “Beautiful Girls.” He still didn’t sing the harmonies, but at least capably ad-libbed the speaking parts, which he failed to do in “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher.”

At least prior to the Dave debacle, Cinderella and Extreme were quite entertaining and made the show more than worthwhile.

Extreme played a 40-minute set, garnering more crowd participation and approval for its recent No. 1 song “More Than Words” than anything else did all evening. And that came at 6:15 so many of the fans hadn’t even made their way into the show yet.

Extreme was very good, but it was Cinderella who provided the biggest surprise of the show. Its 80-minute, 15-song romp weaved blues, metal and melody into one of the most impressive rock sets of the year.

No longer content to rely on hair spray and makeup, the band has made great strides since the last time they opened for Roth in 1986, adding a keyboardist, a saxophone player and a pair of wonderful backup vocalists, who added just the right touch even on old metal songs like “Shake Me” and “Night Songs.”

[ijwthstd]

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1991/06/17 ... ami-arena/

TRIO OF ROCKERS FAILS TO DELIVER AT MIAMI ARENA
4–5 minutes

At first blush, $20 seems a fair price for a hard rock triple-header featuring David Lee Roth, Cinderella and Extreme — that is, if you’re into endurance tests.

Disappointingly, none of the three acts was able to muster a smashing set during the four-hour Saturday night concert at Miami Arena.

Roth acted like Steve Martin with a raspy voice, Cinderella wore a glass slipper that was much too polished and Extreme — the only act on the bill with a top-selling disc and single — unhappily lived up to its name.

Admittedly, there was one major high point and several cheaper thrills offered during the shows. But with stimulating performances in meager supply, stamina truly was the concertgoer’s cry of the evening.

Moreover, it could be asked why this threesome was grouped together in the first place. Roth and Cinderella are both dead in the water on the charts, while the funk ‘n’ metal band Extreme is happening only because the quartet’s left-field ballad More Than Words recently zoomed to the top of the singles list.

Musically, Roth and Cinderella — billed as the co-headliners — present little artistic diversity as they both cook up heat-and-serve rock recipes designed to attract a mainstream music fan.

As live performers, all three acts were vastly different in style, but equally deficient in artistic substance. To make matters worse, all three were plagued by a boom-box quality sound blend that made the lead vocalists nearly unintelligible.

Roth was least affected by this irritating technical gaffe, but he was just slightly better than his event predecessors. As about 8,000 fans aged mostly 18 to 25 looked on, the ex-lead screecher for Van Halen time and again pocked his unevenly paced set with clownish facial distortions and poses that recalled Martin during his Saturday Night Live heyday.

All of the onstage antics were vintage Roth, which unfortunately was made sour by his mediocre material. The flamboyant, pony-tailed wailer even had to rely on Louis Prima’s classic medley Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody to jumpstart his set.

Roth did score the evening’s major performance coup, however, when he appeared on a small stage placed in the middle of the Arena floor. As the rowdy beer-swilling crowd roared their approval, Roth broke into California Girls, hopped onto a giant inflatable microphone (complete with horse saddle), and was escorted back to the main stage where he was greeted by two enormous pairs of inflatable legs.

After donning a beaded royal blue jacket that would have made country star Porter Wagoner envious, Roth closed his lackluster set with a perfunctory version of Jump — the only Van Halen number that he performed.

Cinderella’s lead guitarist/lead vocalist Tom Keifer, as expected, dominated the group’s fast-moving 80-minute outing from start to finish. The band’s too- slick set — now a glitzy, pyrotechnical spectacle — had the crowd on its feet for most of the show.

But Cinderella’s likable, if unspectacular, studio-perfect treatments of their M&M; rock nuggets made for little emotional variation, except during a couple of raucous sing-along renditions of Gypsy Road and the throbbing show- capper, Shake Me.

Extreme never hit its stride during the 40-minute opener, as they awkwardly veered from delicate love songs to crunching groove-minded rock thumpers. Though lead vocalist Gary Cherone was a more than capable frontman, his puerile “Let’s party!” stage demeanor rarely ignited the audience.

—- John Lannert is Billboard’s Latin Music editor and covers pop music for the Sun-Sentinel.

[LSD69]

I saw the tour in Karlskoga, a shithole with population 30k or so and far from any big cities even by Swedish standards, the opener was local nobodies Don Patrol and the 5,5k capacity ice hall was at least 3/4 full. He also played 7 songs off ALAE. My only complaints were that he played only YR and JLP off the previous albums and that Joe Holmes sounded all wrong on some of Ed's and Vai's parts

Holmes tried to squeeze more money out of Dave when they were overseas.

He's got some balls.

[LSD69]

https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/06/26 ... mond-dave/

Cinderella, Extreme outshine ‘Diamond Dave’
Nestor Aparicio
~3 minutes


Last night’s effort from “Diamond Dave” was nothing short of pathetic.

Roth gave his solo music and the hallowed classics of Van Halen such poor readings that it was easy to believe he would stop halfway through the show and say it was all a bad joke.

But in songs like “Unchained,” “Panama” and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” the joke was on us, as he skipped lines, omitted words and, quite frankly, just didn’t sing. In two songs, his “Just Like Paradise” and Halen’s “Jump,” he forgot many of the words.

What he probably could have used was Sammy Hagar to bail him out.

What makes it all the more disappointing is that Roth was backed by his most impressive outfit yet in the three trips on the road since leaving Van Halen in 1986.

Led by longtime drummer Gregg Bissonette and hotshot guitarist Jason Becker, the five-man unit mimicked early Van Halen music and harmonies with uncanny perfection.

What's "pathetic" is the reviewers knowledge.

Jason Becker did not play on that tour.

[Brainy Lane]

Classic fake news!!!

[FreddyFender]

poor ticket sales forced the cancellation of Southern California performances by the bill of David Lee Roth and Cinderella, plus a Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy pairing that failed to draw in several other cities as well.

Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy?

Still, most are at a loss to explain why such pop stars as Whitney Houston and Stevie Nicks have been unable to attract more than marginal crowds at numerous stops on their national tours.

Blockbuster headliners do not always guarantee promoters a profit either. For example, insiders say that many promoters did not turn a profit on recent Guns N’ Roses shows due to hefty fees guaranteed the group.

Even bargain-priced package tours such as “Operation Rock ‘n’ Roll” (featuring Judas Priest and Alice Cooper) and “Clash of the Titans” (Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer) have not fared well.

One exception is the Lollapalooza festival--a package tour featuring food and cultural information booths plus performances by Jane’s Addiction and six other alternative rock groups. Lollapalooza played to capacity crowds during three shows last month at Irvine Meadows.

Dave, Stevie, Halford.... the average age of all these acts was 40 or so.

Lollapalooza was full of young people. No surprise it wiped out all of these dinosaurs.

[Bono Nettencourt]

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1991/06/17 ... ami-arena/

TRIO OF ROCKERS FAILS TO DELIVER AT MIAMI ARENA
4–5 minutes

At first blush, $20 seems a fair price for a hard rock triple-header featuring David Lee Roth, Cinderella and Extreme — that is, if you’re into endurance tests.

Disappointingly, none of the three acts was able to muster a smashing set during the four-hour Saturday night concert at Miami Arena.

Roth acted like Steve Martin with a raspy voice, Cinderella wore a glass slipper that was much too polished and Extreme — the only act on the bill with a top-selling disc and single — unhappily lived up to its name.

Admittedly, there was one major high point and several cheaper thrills offered during the shows. But with stimulating performances in meager supply, stamina truly was the concertgoer’s cry of the evening.

Moreover, it could be asked why this threesome was grouped together in the first place. Roth and Cinderella are both dead in the water on the charts, while the funk ‘n’ metal band Extreme is happening only because the quartet’s left-field ballad More Than Words recently zoomed to the top of the singles list.

Musically, Roth and Cinderella — billed as the co-headliners — present little artistic diversity as they both cook up heat-and-serve rock recipes designed to attract a mainstream music fan.

As live performers, all three acts were vastly different in style, but equally deficient in artistic substance. To make matters worse, all three were plagued by a boom-box quality sound blend that made the lead vocalists nearly unintelligible.

Roth was least affected by this irritating technical gaffe, but he was just slightly better than his event predecessors. As about 8,000 fans aged mostly 18 to 25 looked on, the ex-lead screecher for Van Halen time and again pocked his unevenly paced set with clownish facial distortions and poses that recalled Martin during his Saturday Night Live heyday.

All of the onstage antics were vintage Roth, which unfortunately was made sour by his mediocre material. The flamboyant, pony-tailed wailer even had to rely on Louis Prima’s classic medley Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody to jumpstart his set.

Roth did score the evening’s major performance coup, however, when he appeared on a small stage placed in the middle of the Arena floor. As the rowdy beer-swilling crowd roared their approval, Roth broke into California Girls, hopped onto a giant inflatable microphone (complete with horse saddle), and was escorted back to the main stage where he was greeted by two enormous pairs of inflatable legs.

After donning a beaded royal blue jacket that would have made country star Porter Wagoner envious, Roth closed his lackluster set with a perfunctory version of Jump — the only Van Halen number that he performed.

—- John Lannert is Billboard’s Latin Music editor and covers pop music for the Sun-Sentinel.

Another botch job... guess that's what happens when you send the Latin Music editor to review a rock concert
Half the set was VH songs!

[daveg]

At first blush, $20 seems a fair price for a hard rock triple-header featuring David Lee Roth, Cinderella and Extreme — that is, if you’re into endurance tests.

I do remember around that time most concert tickets were over 20 bucks for the first time. I had no job and that was a major hinderance to my concert going.

Now, 20 bucks would be on the low end of a tickets "service fees"

[risingfarce]

They had some good tunes, but were kinda derivative... a lil Aerosmith, a lil AC/DC, a lil Stones... and as hair farmers go, they were kinda ugly.

"Night Songs" - sound like AC/DC, look like Steven Tyler

"Long Cold Winter" - Led Zep vibe, musically

"Heartbreak Station" - Rolling Stones vibe, musically

[risingfarce]

Dave was almost 40 and had peaked as an artist in 1984. For comparison: Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are about the age now that Dave was then. Think about how long it's been since they were "cool".

Cinderella were also yesterday's news. Nobody wanted to hear "Shelter Me" when they could hear The Black Crowes do what Cinderella was doing 10x better.

Extreme had an adult contemporary ballad hit. They'd have been a better fit opening for Michael Bolton.

Not at all.

For every "More Than Words", you had 10 hard rock tracks.

[Ozzy Stradlin]

poor ticket sales forced the cancellation of Southern California performances by the bill of David Lee Roth and Cinderella, plus a Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy pairing that failed to draw in several other cities as well.

Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy?

Yup, that happened.

It was the Tune In, Turn On, Burn Out tour -
Sisters of Mercy, Public Enemy, Gang of Four, Warrior Soul, and I think Young Black Teenagers.

I think they only played a few dates before got cancelled.

[Love_Industry]

Extreme had an adult contemporary ballad hit. They'd have been a better fit opening for Michael Bolton.

Not at all.

For every "More Than Words", you had 10 hard rock tracks.

True but it's also true that nobody cared about their rock tracks. See also Saigon Kick.

[Shredderpete]

Did Roth do Sensible Shoes?

No. Co-headlining meant short sets so the only new songs he was playing were the title cut and Tell the Truth, which had both already came and went from the charts.

2 things screwed Roth - going to Europe 1st, and losing Becker to ALS. Without a hotshot guitar player, he tried to lean on the blues thing and did a lot of CFTH tunes. I think the idea behind playing Europe 1st was to whip the new band into shape, but by the time he hit the States there was no interest. Apparently WB pulled support from the album because he insisted on releasing SS and Tcubed as the follow-up singles but they bombed. The whole ponytailed gaucho look was a big fail too.

The fuck is Tcubed?

[Love_Industry]

Apparently WB pulled support from the album because he insisted on releasing SS and Tcubed as the follow-up singles but they bombed. The whole ponytailed gaucho look was a big fail too.

The fuck is Tcubed?

I assumed autoincorrect for Tell the Truth as that was a single and video.

[Tommy2Tone84]

I'm not sure exactly when hair metal peaked, but we were definitely past that peak in 1991. By then, most bands had released follow-ups to their biggest albums that weren't as good or successful.

Unlike today, metal was driven by younger fans, and younger fans don't want to be a part of something that feels like old news.

I’m sure some would say 1988. But I tend to think it peaked in 1989 or 1990.
I remember 1990 being a fun but odd year as many major acts were off the road
and in the studio. I also remember watching The Metal Years and even Headbangers Ball
and asking myself where is all this going.

There were some great albums and tours that year though. KISS HITS, Lynch Mob’s Wicked Sensation, Alice Cooper’s Trash, Winger’s In The Heart of The Young, Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood, Black Crowes Shake Your Money Maker, Jon Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory, Queensryche Empire, Poison Flesh & Blood, Steelheart, LA Guns Cocked & Loaded

[Tommy2Tone84]

poor ticket sales forced the cancellation of Southern California performances by the bill of David Lee Roth and Cinderella, plus a Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy pairing that failed to draw in several other cities as well.

Sisters of Mercy and Public Enemy?

Still, most are at a loss to explain why such pop stars as Whitney Houston and Stevie Nicks have been unable to attract more than marginal crowds at numerous stops on their national tours.

Blockbuster headliners do not always guarantee promoters a profit either. For example, insiders say that many promoters did not turn a profit on recent Guns N’ Roses shows due to hefty fees guaranteed the group.

Even bargain-priced package tours such as “Operation Rock ‘n’ Roll” (featuring Judas Priest and Alice Cooper) and “Clash of the Titans” (Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer) have not fared well.

One exception is the Lollapalooza festival--a package tour featuring food and cultural information booths plus performances by Jane’s Addiction and six other alternative rock groups. Lollapalooza played to capacity crowds during three shows last month at Irvine Meadows.

Dave, Stevie, Halford.... the average age of all these acts was 40 or so.

Lollapalooza was full of young people. No surprise it wiped out all of these dinosaurs.

That’s a really weak and lazy excuse.

Between 1990 and 1991

Whitesnake were fossils at the time and had a platinum record with a very successful world tour. They finished the year by headlining Donington. Their opening act, those equally old fossils in Bad English had a platinum album the previous year.

KISS only went gold but had a hit single with Forever and managed to pull off a successful tour

Old fossils Heart and Cheap Trick had a successful tour

Aerosmith was riding high with Pump

In 1991, Van Hagar had a big album and tour. Sammy was staring down 50 on that tour.

Woolly mammoths, Damn Yankees and Scab Company had a successful album tour cycle in 1990-91

Poison who were all pushing 30 by 1990 and 1991 were successful

Wasn’t Ice-T on that first Lollapalooza? He’s literally 3.5 years younger than Dave. Perry Ferrell is only 4.5 years younger than Dave. Perry Ferrell was born in March 1959. He’s older than Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Dave Bryan, all of Def Leppard except Phil Collen, all of Cinderella, Skid Row and all four guys in Poison.

Perry was 32 during that tour in 1991, not 22.

Ice T was 33, not 23.

[Anthrax442]

Yup, that happened.

It was the Tune In, Turn On, Burn Out tour -
Sisters of Mercy, Public Enemy, Gang of Four, Warrior Soul, and I think Young Black Teenagers.

I think they only played a few dates before got cancelled.

YBT was the opener on the Anthrax/PE tour, so could have happened.

As far as A Little Ain't Enough goes, Roth being Roth, there's absolutely no telling, but I wonder if Becker having to bow out changed plans more than we know. Holmes is simply a mediocre guitarist at best, I saw it first hand when he was playing with Ozzy a few years later. He did an ABYSMAL job of playing the role of Zakk Wylde, so I can only imagine how awful he would have been trying to play EVH/Vai/Becker's guitar parts. There were songs that you know got abandoned so that Matt Bissonette wouldn't have to try to play Billy Sheehan's parts, so I imagine that would have been the same for not pushing the more difficult material on Holmes.

That album is really strange, and I do wonder just how much blame is between circumstances, Roth being Roth, and Warner Brothers fucking things up. Because the single for A Lil Ain't Enough got pushed to the MOON by MTV. It was in high rotation for at least two months, it seemed. And then...nothing. I think I might have seen the video for Sensible Shoes once around that time, and then not again until much later on VH1 or something.

But then again, when you look at the tracklisting, what WOULD have been the other choices? Tell The Truth was a solid choice as a slower song, but other than that? It's Showtime? Hammerhead Shark, maybe? I'm just not really seeing any singles there.

[Love_Industry]

But then again, when you look at the tracklisting, what WOULD have been the other choices? Tell The Truth was a solid choice as a slower song, but other than that? It's Showtime? Hammerhead Shark, maybe? I'm just not really seeing any singles there.

I think Hammerhead Shark could have worked in 1991, it's catchy and classic rock sounding. Sure, it's a rewrite/partial cover but don't think many knew the original. Trivia, songwriter / original artist Eric Lowen passed away from ALS, same somewhat rare disease that Jason Becker has.

Holmes's playing could very well be the reason for skipping most of EEAS and Skycraper on this tour even when they played for almost two hours. As for dropping Sheehan era songs that Matt Bissonette couldn't play on Skyscraper, were those the fast songs off EEAS - Elephant Gun and Shyboy?

[Bono Nettencourt]

They opened shows with The Bottom Line in '88 so im not sure Matty B was a limitation. I agree that not having Becker really threw a wrench in the works.

Singles? Baby's On Fire maybe? Drop in the Bucket? But again, no Becker, no Drop... apparently that and It's Showtime were his two main tunes on that record. Hence the redirect to the 2 bluesy numbers...

[greengoblinrulz]

I was around 15 when l watched Cinderella/DLR at the Red River Valley Fair in West Fargo, ND. I recall it being very war that night and Extreme was not part of that date. Roth, while it was cool ti see him, he just seeemed REALLY outdated and not cool in ‘91. By them he was out of VH for 5-6 years and fane was fleeting. Was low key kissed he was the headliner as Cinderella was far more superior at that juncture. There must have been 4500 people. I was confused as to why the small turn out, come on, these band’s are huge right!? Little did I know in my small brain and in my small-market that the hair metal genre was on the verge of a complete collapse and this was the actual good showing all things considered.

There with my 19 year old brother/cousin. They spent Jr High/High School with Hagar in VH & only hearing lead single off 3 Roth solo albums......who was even getting passe with older fans.
When you're 17/18/19, you arent as deep into music at that age as you eventually will be & are genereally listening to what you did in that 6 year run.....which wasnt a great run for Roth. This is the age where you also have the disposable income to spend on CDs/concerts as you're livin at home with no bills. He had passed by that age bracket and the new 15year olds were about to be hit with Nirvana.

[Anthrax442]

Holmes's playing could very well be the reason for skipping most of EEAS and Skycraper on this tour even when they played for almost two hours. As for dropping Sheehan era songs that Matt Bissonette couldn't play on Skyscraper, were those the fast songs off EEAS - Elephant Gun and Shyboy?

I was thinking Shyboy specifically, but yeah, Elephant Gun would be another.

[Bono Nettencourt]

I think it was more that he always did at least half a set of VH songs live, so there just wasn't any room left for much else but Yankee Rose and Goin' Crazy. Remember, he had to play the new album and the CFTH stuff too.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

Van Halen had a big album and tour,
According to the RIAA, Cinderella went platinum in Feb 1991. DLR was gold by April. Extreme was either platinum or close to double platinum. They were certified double platinum by the end of 1992. A year in which hair metal was allegedly over.
It makes no sense that this tour failed.

I think the answer lies here. It was VH/Hagar vs Dave solo. VH won by a mile. F.U.C.K. went to #1, sold millions and had a number of big hits including Right Now that was a HUGE international/crossover hit. Plus they took Alice in Chains out with them which gave them even more crossover appeal.

Plus, as mentioned in several replies, so many bands were out on tour. It was very competitive.

Dave eventually would do theater tours on his own which I think worked out better than trying to be an arena act with younger opening bands.

[uwec95]

I saw this show at Alpine Valley. I have probably been to 40 shows at Alpine Valley and this is by far the worst attended show I have seen there. We had lawn seats and security let us go go down to the reserved area and we ended up probably 15 rows back. As far as the show goes, Extreme and Cindrerella were good and Dave was ok at best.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Van Halen had a big album and tour,
According to the RIAA, Cinderella went platinum in Feb 1991. DLR was gold by April. Extreme was either platinum or close to double platinum. They were certified double platinum by the end of 1992. A year in which hair metal was allegedly over.
It makes no sense that this tour failed.

I think the answer lies here. It was VH/Hagar vs Dave solo. VH won by a mile. F.U.C.K. went to #1, sold millions and had a number of big hits including Right Now that was a HUGE international/crossover hit. Plus they took Alice in Chains out with them which gave them even more crossover appeal.

Plus, as mentioned in several replies, so many bands were out on tour. It was very competitive.

Dave eventually would do theater tours on his own which I think worked out better than trying to be an arena act with younger opening bands.

I don’t remember Dave doing theaters.

I agree with others that Dave was long in the tooth and self parody. But he always had an element of self parody during his solo career. I tend to think losing Billy and then Steve killed his career or killed the excitement surrounding him as a solo act. As good as Jason was, I’m not so confident that he would’ve attracted fans. Dio had wunderkind Rowan Robertson at the time. Rowan is just as good as Viv ever was and better than clowns like Phil Collen. It’s not like he resurrected Dio’s flailing career at the time.

Fans also were losing interest in Cinderella. It’s criminal their tour failed while Warrant’s limped along across the finish line. Same with Tesla a year later. They sucked live. I’ve seen Cinderella at least a half a dozen times and even in less than ideal conditions, they were still solid even if you could tell they wanted to be somewhere else.

Extreme should’ve brought out tons of fans. It’s a sad narrative that they didn’t despite all their success at the time.

[risingfarce]

Extreme had an adult contemporary ballad hit. They'd have been a better fit opening for Michael Bolton.

Not at all.

For every "More Than Words", you had 10 hard rock tracks.

True but it's also true that nobody cared about their rock tracks. See also Saigon Kick.

Last year, the 3,500 fans at the show at Roadrunner in Allston, MA, cared.

They put out a great cd last year and are doing well selling tickets in the U.S. and Europe.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Van Halen had a big album and tour,
According to the RIAA, Cinderella went platinum in Feb 1991. DLR was gold by April. Extreme was either platinum or close to double platinum. They were certified double platinum by the end of 1992. A year in which hair metal was allegedly over.
It makes no sense that this tour failed.

I think the answer lies here. It was VH/Hagar vs Dave solo. VH won by a mile. F.U.C.K. went to #1, sold millions and had a number of big hits including Right Now that was a HUGE international/crossover hit. Plus they took Alice in Chains out with them which gave them even more crossover appeal.

Plus, as mentioned in several replies, so many bands were out on tour. It was very competitive.

Dave eventually would do theater tours on his own which I think worked out better than trying to be an arena act with younger opening bands.

I don’t remember Dave doing theaters.

I agree with others that Dave was long in the tooth and self parody. But he always had an element of self parody during his solo career. I tend to think losing Billy and then Steve killed his career or killed the excitement surrounding him as a solo act. As good as Jason was, I’m not so confident that he would’ve attracted fans. Dio had wunderkind Rowan Robertson at the time. Rowan is just as good as Viv ever was and better than clowns like Phil Collen. It’s not like he resurrected Dio’s flailing career at the time.

Fans also were losing interest in Cinderella. It’s criminal their tour failed while Warrant’s limped along across the finish line. Same with Tesla a year later. They sucked live. I’ve seen Cinderella at least a half a dozen times and even in less than ideal conditions, they were still solid even if you could tell they wanted to be somewhere else.

Extreme should’ve brought out tons of fans. It’s a sad narrative that they didn’t despite all their success at the time.

Their hits kinda came by accident tho, a product of that whole 90-91 Unplugged craze. See also Tesla and Mr. Big.

[Love_Industry]

a product of that whole 90-91 Unplugged craze. See also Tesla and Mr. Big.

Tesla had two platinum albums before Unplugged hit and their best seller is the 2nd album at 2x platinum.
Their best of from 2000 or so also went platinum by the way.

[Bono Nettencourt]

I meant that those songs were all similar sounding hits from around the same time, Frank.