I dragged my wife 7 hours away to Phoenix, AZ and took two days of PTO to see Van Halen. Not because she was a big fan, or that we needed a get away, but I took her out social responsibility – she needed to see one of America's greatest contributions to pop culture. She knows they are important to me, and can list about 12 hits if her back is against the wall, but she doesn't know a whole lot more than the fact that they have a good guitar player and a witty and unapologetically sleazy frontman. So, as any good husband should do for a wife who grew up without the proper rock n' roll influences in her upbringing, I had us listen to the honest Van Halen biography on the way to the show. As she listened to the absurdity of the rock n' roll lifestyle that was the 70's and 80's through the lens of the crown princes of excess, I began to watch her understand all the drama, brilliance, disgust and fairy tale story that is Van Halen. Through her eyes, I was beginning to see Van Halen again –for the first time – and found the only way I could to try and be ready to prepare an honest review of a band who I have cherished since I was in diapers.
At the show, we sat in our seats next some obnoxious and overly touchy middle aged drunk men as the opening act, white blues wanker Kenny Wayne Shepard, predictably improvised blues licks to a rudementary bass line for what seemed like hours. Shepard was about as good on the guitar as anybody, but watching him is more of a circus act than musical. He really only appeals to guitarphiles and people who are astonished by the note-to-time ratio.
Then, 8:45, 15 minutes earlier than I expected, the lights went down. Alex banged on his drum as Eddie and Wolf casually walked on stage to a roar of slightly surprised fans. Then, hanging on the edge of the drum riser, standing on one leg, leaning compleley forward with two large drum cymbols clashing together, stood what I believe is the only frontman worthy of side-kicking to Eddie Van Halen, and that was David Lee Roth. Once again, I was a 17-year-old boy.
They opened with Light Up The Sky, an album track from their second record. All I could think of was, "Wow, how ballsy!" The stage was nothing like we would have seen in the 80's. A modest light rig for a stage of that caliber, there were no hanging wires, no inflatable microphones or legs, no pyro technics and no stage that walked deep into the center of the crowd. Van Halen was doing what so few bands at this level dare to do – just let the music do the talking. Van Halen, arguably the group most responsible for outlandish stadium performances, was just playing it straight. The band was all just in plain T-shirts and jeans, except Dave of course, who was wearing a flashy sequenced jacket. Pretty flashy no doubt, but by David Lee Roth standards, he may as well have been wearing what he wears to a morning radio interview.
The set list didn't include a few obvious hits like Jamie's Cryin', Cradle Will Rock, and I'm the One. So many album tracks were included, along with a track from A Different Kind of Truth. This one was definitely for the fans, the fans who don't have the stamina to crowd the front of the stage and fight for position.
I could wax about how the band was perfect, but other than Dave, you really only are there to watch Eddie Van Halen. Eddie was perfect; he jumped around and had about as much fun on that stage as was possible for a 60 year old cancer survivor. He was not sliding on his knees and blowing smoke rings, but he still gave you just enough to let you know he loves playing for you as much as you love watching it.
I have seen every incarnation of Van Halen: Dave, Sammy, Gary and Dave again. I maintain that Dave was the best, especially on that first reunion tour in 2007. However, Dave was off this night. Certainly, he still has moves. He's not as athletic as a 21 year old, but he can dance like a real pro. What age has done to him wasn't the issue. If you bought the live record, you were probably disappointed in how hard Dave was to listen to. People say he can't sing anymore, if he ever could. Well, only people who have never sung in front of a crowd would dare say that, because, if you try and sing along, you will know that Dave can sing the lights out. And you know what, he still can, but he seems to be choosing not to. Dave spent so much time improvising, changing the timing, pitch and skipping so many words that it was impossible to sing along with, with the exception of the chorus. Don't get me wrong, they are his songs and he can do what he wants, but his improvising was way too much. So much so, it was dissatisfying. It would be easier to accept if Dave was just old and less capable, but he shows you just enough of his voice to let you know that is not the case. He just refuses to sing the song straight; he has sung those songs so many times, he seems to be bored of them.
That being said, one thing Dave will never let us down with is his rapping with the crowd. He is still the crowned king of rock n' roll storytelling. During one of his break downs in "Dance the Night Away", Dave explained the rock n' roll front man trick called the "Half Jesus." I burst out laughing multiple times throughout the show and was completely entertained by Dave's antics. It's been said by many that all comedians want to be rock stars and all rock stars want to be comedians. It is my firm belief that David Lee Roth is the only one who is both, which may be is what best explains why I believe he is the best rock star who ever lived.
Despite the huge set back with Dave's voice, I had the time of my life. Now for the first time, my beautiful bride joined me to watch what is one of the most important things to me. In my never-ending quest to be understood, even to my own wife of 5 years, this was the final thing she needed to see to understand me as a person. After listening to the dirty underbelly of Van Halen's story on the way to the show, she still captured the wow of what she was truly experiencing... that she was watching a legend. We have gone to a multitude of concerts together, many of them huge bands with storied careers, but for the first time, she understood that we were in the presence of living legends.
Van Halen is 3 decades past their prime, but something about watching them in this day and age almost makes them seem even more interesting. Of all the things that stood in the way of Van Halen coming together for this tour, it was a miracle that we witnessed what I grew up my whole life thinking would never happen. Seeing these living relics of a place in time that existed after the 60's sexual revolution and before the 80's AIDS epidemic and war on drugs, we were gawkers of the pinnacle of everything conservatism was against. From Running with the Devil to Hot For Teacher, we were enveloped in another world where people lived like tomorrow didn't exist, right in the moment of our own being: David Lee Roth, still the most charismatic and funniest front man in the sport, and Eddie Van Halen, still the guitarist that all other guitarists are measured up to.
So much of how I see the world and relate to people can be explained through the details that lay between the lines of Van Halen's lore. My older brothers were mostly good to me, but possibly the greatest thing they inadvertently passed down to me was a passion for rock n' roll in its finest form. Being with my wife, watching a band that is so unique that it's impossible to think that they could ever be recreated or outdone, was, in my crooked world, a perfect moment.
