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Van Halen
HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA
December 16, 2007
By Dan Wall
Set List: You Really
Got Me, I’m the One, Runnin' With the Devil, Romeo Delight,
Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Beautiful Girls, Dance the Night Away,
Atomic Punk, Everybody Wants Some, So This is Love?, Mean
Street, Pretty Woman, Unchained, I’ll Wait, The Cradle Will
Rock, Hot For Teacher, Little Dreamer, Little Guitars, Jamie’s
Cryin’, Ice Cream Man, Panama, Eruption, Ain’t Talkin' Bout
Love. Encore: 1984, Jump. 2 hours, 10 minutes.
The
Van Halen reunion (and I mean VAN HALEN reunion-why didn’t the
boys bring out Uncle Vito to play organ) rolled into San Jose in
December, and the big questions were-is this really a definitive
version of the band? Can Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth
finally get along? And would the group miss original bassist
Michael Anthony?
After seeing
the show, the answers are no, apparently and you better believe
it.
Just about
everything that had been written about this show during its
first three months were on display on this Sunday night in San
Jose-Lee Roth’s comeback, Eddie Van Halen’s comeback, Alex Van
Halen’s power (and comeback) and Wolfgang Van Halen’s childhood
dream (he’ll have a comeback one day). It worked in a weird way,
but what was a good show and a fun time could have been a great
show and one of rock’s greatest reunion’s if Anthony was along
for the ride.
But it’s
becoming more apparent that if you cross Eddie Van Halen, you
don’t have much of a future with him. Don’t tell me for one
minute that his feud with Anthony is the most contentious feud
of all time -- it doesn’t even come close. And this from a guy
who can’t get along with Sammy Hagar, ran Lee Roth out of town
once before (although he probably deserved it), divorced a true
goddess (Valerie Bertenelli) and just for the heck of it, still
smokes even though he is a cancer survivor. How stubborn can you
get?
It’s his
name on the letterhead, though, and it’s his band now, so this
is what we get in 2007. And thankfully, it seems like Eddie has
finally addressed his alcohol problems that ruined the previous
VH reunion with Hagar. On that tour, the 70’s greatest guitarist
could hardly stay in tune (at least when I saw him) and that
probably caused the rift with Hagar that festers to this day.
On this
tour, despite his physical limitations (hip replacement surgery
in 1999, remember?), Eddie shined like he did back in the
heyday, firing off those classics riffs and solos just like we
remember. He sounded and looked great even after all of his
problems, and that turned out to be one of the biggest surprises
of the night.
It wasn’t
the biggest, however. That honor went to Lee Roth, who looked to
be in great shape, sounded better than he did in the 80’s and
actually remembered most of the lyrics (if he had remembered
them all, I would have asked for a DNA test). Singing in his
slight off-key, off-time way that has endeared him to so many,
the flamboyant Lee Roth was a true shining star on this night,
leading the band (he was the only one who actually MOVED)
onstage and keeping most of his Lee Roth-isms (only one “look at
all the people here tonight” raps) to a minimum.
Alex Van
Halen has always been a hammer and he was once again, pounding
away with able support from his nephew (and Eddie’s son)
Wolfgang, who is subbing for Anthony. Wolfie did his best to
stay out of the way of his more experienced family members and
played well, but if anyone out there disputes that the backing
vocals weren’t piped in, well then you had one too many
cocktails. I have a hard time believing that Wolfie and his pop
sang the classic vocals note-for-note – and it wasn’t just me;
everyone I talked to shook their heads when asked if it was real
of Memorex?
The only
song that suffered musically was “Hot For Teacher,” the fast
rocker that barreled along like a runaway train in the hands of
the Van Halen family. I think this is one song that Anthony
could have saved musically – his muscular, tight playing was
always a staple for this band, and his vocals were unique
because he hit the high notes neither Eddie or Dave could hit.
But alas, those qualities were either not on display or covered
up very well on this night.
You know
what though – it didn’t seem to matter to the crowd. Most of
these fans had either seen the band once or not at all, and if
this is what it took to get this band, with its legendary singer
back onstage, then so be it. It didn’t matter that the original
bassist was gone, that the stage show was bare bones (just video
and lights, nothing fancy), or that the backing vocals were
apparently on a loop –the crowd ate up each and every classic
song in a great set list (picked by Wolfgang, by the way).
It wasn’t
like the old L.A. Coliseum in April, 1979, with 80,000 people
screaming out the “hey, hey, hey” from my favorite VH song,
“Ain’t Talkin' Bout Love.” Back then, the group was on its way
to becoming the biggest band in the world, which it would become
in 1984. In 2007, this version of the band is a very adequate
tribute to what once was, but it can never be as good as it was
back then. Not until Michael Anthony is back in the band.
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