Van Halen!

Tonight I went out with my longtime friend Sean to see Van Halen play at the Rose Garden Arena. Yes, you read that right. Van effin’ Halen, with David Lee Roth back as the lead singer!

How, you might ask, would I be going to such a show? Well, it’s a good question, and it requires a little bit of storytime… Back in elementary school I was into Van Halen, and introduced my friend Sean to them. Before I’d even reached Junior High, the “Roth Break-up” occurred, and I remember lamenting that I’d never get the chance to see them. I was also never a big fan of their Hagar-era reincarnation (“Van Hagar”). Fast forward 22 years… Sean, bless him, heard of the Halen + Roth reunion tour and immediately thought of me and bought he and I tickets to the show (well, his wife bought the tickets, thanks Mel!). While Van Halen has been off my personal playlist for many years, they occasionally resurface when I get the itch (equal parts nostalgia and the desire to rawk out).

Despite my fears (you know, of them being something of a sad, ghostly version of themselves, aided by walkers and IV’s… and catheters) they were great, and it was a blast. They really did RAWK, and despite their age they both looked and sounded great. Granted, DLR wasn’t able to hit his high screechy vocal accents the same way he did at 54 years old as he could at 26, he was still one hell of a front-man, and the energy onstage between he and Eddie Van Halen was that of two longtime friends having a heck of a good time.

The original lineup was almost complete, the original bassist Michael Anthony (who has sided with that loser, Sammy Hagar) had split with the group, and was replaced with Eddie’s son Wolfgang, who was excellent in his own right and seemed to fit in very well with the band, both in namesake and talent.

The band played nothing but Roth-era Van Halen, and sounded really good. There were, naturally, moments where the songs strayed from their album counterparts, either by mid-song improvisational guitar solos, or vocal changes by Roth, but there wasn’t a song that wasn’t as fun and rockin’ as the originals. Some of the standouts for me were pretty much anything they played from their first album, of which they played a LOT (if not all), which was a pleasant surprise since it’s the one album I actually leave on my iPod and enjoy listening to occasionally. It was also a long show, pretty much non-stop except for a VERY brief break before finishing the show with Jump. They went onstage at around 8:30 and played until 11:15, pretty much non-stop, featuring some amazing solo breaks by both the drummer Alex and Eddie.

Before the show Sean and I went to Rose & Thistle for some beers and some food, and after the show we hit Kennedy School for another beer or two and some fries, both of which served as nice ‘bookends’ to the night. Had a blast, despite how hesitant I was about the evening earlier today.

Oh, and if the pictures from my crappy phone ever make their way to my inbox, I’ll post ’em here, though I doubt they’ll be worth it. The above photo is credited to the official Van Halen website.

Update: Here’s a video from a show a month ago.