The Last Concert Eddie Van Halen Ever Performed Might Just Bring a Tear to Your Eye

October 6, 2020 was a dark day in the world of hard rock and heavy metal. Eddie Van Halen, the guitar virtuoso who helped catapult the band Van Halen into international fame, passed away at the age of 65, following a fatal stroke.

In the years since his passing, no guitarist has filled Eddie Van Halen’s shoes quite the same way he did. He was a master at the instrument and inspired thousands, perhaps millions of young musicians to pick up the guitar and start shredding. And in those years, many fans of Van Halen have looked back at past performances fondly. One such performance was his very last one, which took place in 2015.

You can watch that very performance in full below.

Eddie Van Halen’s Final Performance Proved He Was a Guitar Master Until the Very End

Eddie Van Halen’s very last performance took place on October 2, 2015. Nobody knew that it would be the last time a recorded performance from Van Halen would take place. Nobody knew how little time the guitar god had left. And yet, it was still an absolutely amazing performance that one would expect from the legendary guitarist.

The performance in question took place during Van Halen’s very last show of the band’s 2015 tour, on October 4, at the Hollywood Bowl in California.

Naturally, the setlist was quite hefty and packed with hits. The band opened with “Light Up The Sky” from the 1979 album Van Halen II. Other hits like “Feel Your Love Tonight”, “Beautiful Girls”, “Unchained”, and about 24 total songs were unleashed to the crowd in the span of a few hours. Eddie Van Halen, naturally, stuck a hefty guitar solo in toward the end. The concert ended with a performance of “Jump” from the 1984 album 1984.

Eddie Van Halen’s solo might just be the best part of that whole night. He pieced together various guitar solos from Van Halen songs, many of which hadn’t been performed live in years. Bits from “Euroption”, “Little Guitars”, and “Mean Street” can be heard.

Following the end of the tour, Eddie Van Halen stuck to a pretty quiet life out of the spotlight. He would pass away five years later in 2020. The Hollywood Bowl concert was never expected to be a tragic performance in hindsight, and I don’t think it should be seen that way now. It showed that Eddie Van Halen was meant to spend his life playing the guitar, and he went out with a bang.

Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images