Thursday, March 25, 2004

Sammy Hagar can still rock

Wednesday night's conference party featuring Sammy Hagar was better than I expected. The food was Mexican, mass-produced but still tasty. After we ate they warmed us up for the show by showing us homemade Novell commercials they commissioned at last year's BrainShare. Then a comedian (Jay Headron?) did about half an hour on turning 30, getting married, and growing up. He started out slow but got better as he went along. Then Sammy and his band came out.

They put about 70 people from the audience on stage behind the band, in the "On Stage Funatics [sic]" section, sort of like what Metallica used to do when they had a "snake pit" in the stage filled with fans. Most of the songs in the set were Hagar originals like "I Can't Drive 55," "One Way to Rock," "Where Eagles Fly," "Mas Tequila," and a few others I didn't know. He sang two Van Halen songs, both from F.U.C.K.: "Runaround" and "Top of the World." Hearing Sammy's originals made me wonder just how much influence he had over the other members of Van Halen, since his stuff sounds too much like what VH did for 10 years with him. I had the realization during the show that Sammy Hagar has become the Jimmy Buffett of the hard rock crowd. His songs are all about the beach, margaritas, spicy food, and hot chicks. But it was a good show anyway. I got some decent pictures I'll upload later today.

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