Last night, I was hunting around for a Night Ranger DVD that refused to reveal itself. Instead, I found myself watching a long dormant copy of Van Halen’s classic performance at the US Festival in 1983.

Although I saw the reunion tour three times, watching this really made me question whether or not I need to see the upcoming reunion jaunt in support of the forthcoming VH album ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’ My thought: When you’ve got this to watch on demand, why do you need to lay out the massive coin to see the 2011 version of Van Halen live, minus Michael Anthony, minus 1983 DLR, etc. etc. etc.

As a Van Halen fanatic, it seems unethical to miss any chance to see Eddie Van Halen play guitar – that’s our general code as Van Halen fans. Even on the last tour where Edward was off the rails more than he was on, I managed to play the odds right and see the right shows where he was actually on it.

But I dunno. Maybe I should cut it off there and simply enjoy the video memories, both Sammy and DLR era.

Since we’re talking about it, here’s the US Festival performance in its entirety for your enjoyment. At the very least, you should check out ‘Somebody Get Me A Doctor,’ which is beyond awesome.

Also, do yourself a favor and head on over to check out this Van Halen bootleg from Venezuela ’83 that my good pal Chris Holmes posted up.