On October 9, session and YouTube guitar ace Pete Thorn took the stage at Mattie Kelly Arts Village in Destin, Florida with briefly-tenured Van Halen singer Mitch Malloy and his VH Experience band for a high-energy set of Van Halen classics.
The concert – held as a celebration of the late Eddie Van Halen's life and work – was headlined by Malloy and Thorn's band, which was rounded out by Phil X bassist Daniel Spriewald and session drummer Wayne Killius.
You can watch the all-star group take on a couple of 1984 mega-hits above (Panama) and below (Hot for Teacher).
Malloy – who currently serves as the frontman of Great White – served very briefly as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1996, after the departure of Sammy Hagar, and before the subsequent tenure of singer Gary Cherone.
Though Malloy auditioned for and rehearsed with Van Halen, he never performed publicly with the group, backing out after the band's highly public, tumultuous reunion with David Lee Roth at that year's MTV Video Music Awards.
Thorn – who rocked an EVH Frankenstein replica electric guitar for the performance – is quite the Van Halen aficionado himself, having recently put 23 pickups through their paces on his YouTube channel in a bid to find the most Eddie Van Halen-esque set.
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