An Imperfectly Satisfying Performance by Van Halen in Rosemont -- Concert Review

Concert Review

Van Halen
with Opening Act:
Kool & the Gang
April 1, 2012
Allstate Arena,
Rosemont, IL
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It might sound foolish or far too fawning, given how far removed Van Halen is from their original David Lee Roth era heyday, but I entered the Allstate Arena on April Fools' Night expecting nothing less than a @@@@ (out of 5) show.

Sufficiently satisfying but at the same time somewhat disappointingly, that's what I got.

Certainly, there was an overt air of nostalgia for me and presumably many among the assembled mass of paunchy middle-aged men in black t-shirts (a well-faded "The Loop" shirt brought a grin of recognition to my lips). Van Halen was one of the great bands of my youth, with Eddie Van Halen's extraordinary guitar playing and David Lee Roth's rakish charm & flamboyant fashions making the So. Cal foursome--especially in my early teenage years--even cooler than AC/DC, Aerosmith & Rush and eminently more badass (in every way) than Journey, Styx & REO Speedwagon.

Although the current tour, ostensibly supporting Van Halen's surprisingly stellar new album A Different Kind of Truth, already played the United Center in February, seeing them at the pre-naming rights Rosemont Horizon--where I've attended more concerts than anywhere, dating back the longest--also added a sense of sentimentality to the evening (although when I first saw Van Halen, there, back in 1986, Sammy Hagar had already replaced Roth as the lead singer).

But having seen the band's first "reunification with Roth" tour twice in 2007-08 and awarding both shows the equivalent of @@@@1/2--in my own database; I wasn't blogging much then--I didn't head to the Horizon Sunday night hoping to catch merely a watered down oldies act.

And thanks primarily to Eddie--who looked healthy, sober and happy while routinely wreaking both thunder and lightning from his guitar--the show was better than that. In addition to his astonishing solos--though more so the briefer ones--I will never tire of hearing his magnificent riffs on songs like "Unchained," "Dance The Night Away," "Panama" and "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love."

Though Eddie's brother, Alex, is likewise in his late 50s, he remains a propulsive drummer and while I still have a problem with Eddie's choice to excise original bassist Michael Anthony from the reunion in favor of his son Wolfgang Van Halen, it was clear that Wolfie has clearly grown since the last tour as both a bassist and vocal harmonizer.

I've long had a love/hate opinion of David Lee Roth, who even as one of rock's best and most unique frontmen oft seemed to let his goofiness stand in the way of being even better as a singer and lyricist. Like seemingly most Van Halenites, I always preferred Roth to Hagar, but I also appreciate that Sammy--while himself often opting to dumb things down--wrote and sang songs that Roth never could.

Last night it was clear that Roth's vocals have continued to devolve. Though he always tended to frequently speak his lyrics rather than really sing them, here his phrasing was way off from the originals and at times he seemed off-pitch. In still exuding his uniquely caddish charm as a frontman, Roth's subpar singing wasn't enough to ruin the classic songs in a live setting, but it did occur to me why a live DVD was never issued after the last tour.

To their credit, the band seamlessly incorporated a few new songs into the setlist (see it here on setlist.fm), though I actually could have taken a couple more off A Different Kind of Truth, such as "As If" and "Outta Space." At the same time they went a bit beyond the most obvious back catalog choices by including "Everybody Wants Some," "Jamie's Cryin,'" "I'll Wait," "Women in Love" and "Beautiful Girls."

So while I would have liked to have heard "And The Cradle Will Rock," it really wasn't the setlist nor Roth's singing that failed to lift this show from one I couldn't help but enjoy to one I truly loved.

This is hard to enunciate, especially as the smiles on the faces of DLR and EVH suggested that they truly were enjoying themselves, yet somehow the concert felt methodically joyless. Yes there were a few setlist tweaks from earlier shows on the tour, and Roth offered some offbeat anecdotes, but the whole thing felt just a bit too perfunctory and scripted. Given their musical talents and the relatively simple lighting/video accompaniments, there's no reason Van Halen couldn't shake things up a bit more. Why not pull out "Fools"--from 1980's Women & Children First--for April Fools' Day?

On any given classic song, Van Halen still sounded great--especially when the music and our memories drowned out Dave--and they played several of them. But whatever the bridge between a concert filled with great songs and a truly exceptional concert--in my mind, a bit of surprise and spontaneity is a big factor--Van Halen didn't cross it. Even Eddie's 8-minute guitar solo (video below) was pretty much what I expected, and Alex's drum solo was especially so.

In fact, or at least opinion, the freshest thing about this Van Halen show was their choice to have Kool & The Gang open for them on the current tour.

Though one might not have expected much of a fan-base crossover, the near capacity crowd was generally seated early and seemed to show sincere appreciation for originating bassist Robert "Kool" Bell and his band, even if James "JT" Taylor, the singer from their days of peak popularity, was missing.

From set opener "Fresh," to the closing four-pack of "Jungle Boogie," "Ladies Night," "Get Down On It" and  "Celebration," the crowd seemed to eat it up and heartily sang along as they got ready to be rocked by Van Halen.

And from the opening chords of "Unchained," I had a fist-pumping good time for enough of Van Halen's set to suggest that any other acolyte catch them while they can. They don't make rock bands like this anymore and even at their baseline standard, they were still fantastic compared to many bands one might see. (As I'm writing this, I'm listening to a band called "fun." that I'd read some decent things about. Yecch, do they sound saccharine and nowhere near as fun as the most mundane song VH played.)

Still, in trying to offer a fair analysis, the band that basically defined "Arena Rock" kind of did so last night to both the upside and downside of the connotation. Though they can still make the joint "Jump," one doesn't quite sense that Van Halen is "Runnin' With the Devil" anymore. (Hmm, Eddie's prodigious guitar gifts, a rather soulless show; could it be a deal was made at the Crossroads?)
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Here's Eddie's extended guitar solo:

No Lie, The New (Old) Van Halen Album Is Surprisingly Good -- Album Review: Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth

Album Review

Van Halen
A Different Kind of Truth
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If the Grammy Awards were to add a category recognizing the "Most Surprisingly Stellar Album," Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth would seem to be a shoo-in next February.

Although I am an avid fan of the music the band originally made with David Lee Roth as its lead singer--I also liked the early "Van Hagar" years--and was delighted by the hits-laden reunion shows with Roth (but sans bassist Michael Anthony) in 2007-08, when I heard that they were releasing a new album I presumed it would be a train wreck, and that was before I saw the album cover.

Van Halen, in any incarnation, has not released great new music since at least 1991, and that's probably being generous by a few years. Roth left the band after 1984--both the year and album of the same name--and even in the heyday was always more of a charismatic cad than a traditionally gifted singer or lyricist. While Eddie Van Halen still had lightning in his fingers on the last tour, I wasn't expecting him, at 57, to rediscover any great inspiration as a composer.

And in fact, the first thing I read about A Different Kind of Truth was that several songs recycled old demos that preceded the first (self-titled) Van Halen album in 1978. This also didn't stir great expectations.

Of course, I still fully intended to get the album upon its release. (It came out last week.)

But I suspected I would hear hokey-jokey, half-sung lyrics over humdrum Van Halen music, without even the lift Michael Anthony's backing vocals used to provide, as he is seemingly still banished from Eddie's good graces and supplanted by Eddie's (and Valerie Bertinelli's) son Wolfgang. For those not up on Van Halen, Eddie's brother, Alex Van Halen, rounds out the foursome on drums, as he always has.

In many regards, my suspicions about A Different Kind of Truth have proven true. There are no particularly catchy guitar riffs or hooks. None of the songs rank with their best hits of old, at least in terms of being radio friendly. "Runnin' With the Devil," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," "Dance the Night Away," "And The Cradle Will Rock," "Unchained," "Jump" and "Panama" all outshine anything you'll hear here.

And while DLR proves to be a lech with a gift for creating--and/or borrowing--such witticisms as "mousewife to momshell," "suburban garage-a-tois" and "my karma just ran over your dogma," other than espousing his support for unions--albeit amidst the otherwise banal but relatively catchy first single "Tattoo"--he, not surprisingly, never really says much of substance.

Yet much to my surprise, the album works. Though lacking any tunes that truly rise above the rest, all 13 of the songs rock really hard and Eddie's guitar work is quite simply dazzling. I recently reminded myself how solid the early VH records were from top-to-bottom, and while lacking any ear candy hits, the new work is chock full of strong "album cuts." Most of the songs feature a guitar solo that kind of just shows up, blows your mind and reminds you that this guy pretty much reinvented how the instrument can be played.

In fact, I interpret the album's third cut "You and Your Blues"--with lyrics such as "ain't goin' down to the crossroads"--as Eddie's rebuttal to Page, Beck, Clapton and all the blues-based players he was probably compared to coming up. Either he's chiding them--through Roth--for aping Albert King, Buddy Guy, et al or simply saying that he was otherwise inspired. But there's no denying Eddie Van Halen created a sound all his own, and his playing sounds glorious here.

Not shockingly, it drives much that sparkles about the new album. The lyrics of "China Town" aren't much, but the music--including Alex and Wolfie rather notably--is propulsive. Although Roth isn't bad on this album--he's solid vocally and a good foil for Eddie--many of the songs find me waiting for him to shut up and give way to the Van Halen boys. For example "Stay Frosty" starts as a quirky allusion to "Ice Cream Man," with Roth showcasing the goofy charm that Hagar never could match, but the song really goes into overdrive when he stops singing.

While I don't expect A Different Kind of Truth to stand as my "Album of the Year," it's certainly been a surprise treat in just a week of listening. No, there isn't much here I truly hope to hear in concert, but I also wouldn't dread any 3 or 4 tracks making the setlist when I see Van Halen on April 1 at Allstate Arena (they're also playing the United Center on Feb. 24).

In several ways, VH's return to form reminds me of AC/DC's Black Ice a few years back (even the cover art locomotive evokes AC/DC "Rock and Roll Train" concert imagery). It won't go down as the best album in the storied career of a classic hard rock band, but it's plenty good enough to remind you why they were--and even still are--so great.