One of the biggest rock and roll tours of the year has been the Van Halen reunion tour featuring David Lee Roth on vocals. I was very excited myself since I had last seen Van Halen in 2008 and they put on a great show. So I got my tickets to two shows, one in Phoenix and one in Reno. As it turned out, Van Halen postponed the last 30 shows of the tour inclduiong that Reno show. I still had my tickets for Phoenix however and made it a rock road trip.
In a rather odd pairing, Kool and the Gang opened for Van Halen, but that was OK with me. I had seen Kool two years ago, and they were still, for lack of a better word...kool. It was no different in Phoenix, they put on a tight, 45 minute, 9 song show featuring all their big hits. They raced through them: Ladies Night, Get Down On It Jungle Boogie, Hollywood Swings, Fresh, and of course, Celebrate. Not much talking, straight music, a ten piece group, lots of dancing, well-choreographed and tight. Unfortunately, Van Halen could not say the same. Sound was bad in the arena. They played for a couple of hours, but Roth was off his game. Couldn't hit the old notes, voice broke during Jump, mic slipped out of his hands and into the crowd, and he dropped the mic stand when he was doing his whole baton twirling thing. The rest of the bad was all Van Halen, Eddie on guitar, Alex on drums, Wolfgang (Eddie's son) on bass. I'm a huge fan of Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing but he put us through a 15 minute solo piece that was completely self-indulgent, way too distorted and nothing much more than shredding up and down the guitar. Alex also had to do the solo thing, and he is not among rock's great drummers, so I'm not sure what that accomplished. Wolfgang has improved since thier first tour and he's playing with a lot more confidance, plus he does well singing backup and harmonies with Eddie. With Roth not his old self, except for his strutting and posing where he's still among the top, and sometimes sloppy playing, it just wasn't up to their standards.
