Live In Brazil January 21st, 1983 (Bottoms Up Productions)
Ibirapuera Gymnasium Sao Paulo, Brazil January 21, 1983
Running Time: Approximately 107 minutes
Romeo Delight, Unchained, Drum Solo, The Full Bug, Runnin With The Devil, Jamies Cryin, Little Guitars, Bass Solo, Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers, Little Dreamer, Mean Streets, Dance The Night Away, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Girl Gone Bad Jam, I’m So Glad, Cathedral, Secrets, Everybody Wants Some, Ice Cream Man, Heartbreak Hotel, Intruder/ (Oh) Pretty Woman, Guitar Solo, Aint Talkin Bout Love, Bottoms Up, You Really Got Me, Happy Trails
In April of 1982 Van Halen released their fifth studio album in five years Diver Down, the record was a mixed bag of covers, instrumentals and a few originals thrown into about 35 minutes. The music was light and had a pop feel to it after the dark Fair Warning release a year earlier, the tour to support the record culminated with a headline performance at the massive US Festival in May 1983. This performance is a complete pro shot concert from the South American leg of the tour and has been circulating in trading circles for years and has been released in bootleg title Diver Down Brazil (Langley DVD Masters-045).
The cover of this release claims it to be the definite version and I do not own the Langley release to compare but have seen screen shots and the picture quality seems comparable in quality. The copy used seems to be at least a couple generations down from the master, there are discoloration lines in the top of the screen for some songs and the picture clarity goes from a little blurry to clear depending and the camera angle and there is slight color bleed, more similar to the Largo 1982 video than the US Festival pro shot. Performance wise it is superior to the US Festival, mainly due to David Lee Roth not being totally trashed and the whole band delivers a strong polished show.
After a brief introduction the band launches into the opening salvo of Romeo Delight and Unchained, Dave sings very little of the lyrics more concentrating on the chorus of the songs. The Rhythm section gets their solos first with a short drum solo before The Full Bug and Michael Anthony’s solo leads into a spirited version of the ZZ Top classic Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers, a song they played when they were a covers band in the mid 70’s. Dave does some of his between song banter in Spanish and declares Brazil as numero uno. During Somebody Get Me A Doctor the band gets into a little jam that contains snippets of the Girl Gone Bad jam, its amazing listening to Van Halen bootlegs how many riff Eddie came up with in the 70’s that eventually became songs as late as 1984, the band them gets into the Cream classic I’m So Glad, a song they would sometimes play on their next tour.
Dave gets his solo spot with his acoustic guitar into to Ice Cream Man breaking into the Elvis classic Heartbreak Hotel. Eddie’s solo followed by Aint Talkin bout Love ends the main part of the show, the encores are just fragments of songs with the picture quality deteriorating at the end of happy trails. The DVD has a basic menu with the date, song titles, and a picture of a ticket stub for the event and a small window plays the video to (Oh) Pretty Woman. The packaging is a simple gatefold cover with picture of the band circa 78 on the cover and live shots from 1983 on the back with a brief history of the band up to that point on the inner cover. The classic Van Halen line up is always a pleasure to watch in both concert and promotional videos, since there are only a few pro shots of the original band this is a good release
