David Lee Roth: Rockstar

Well, I saw Van Halen last night. I was never more than a lukewarm fan back in their heyday, and over time even that faded; but my brother likes them quite a bit, and I was pretty sure it'd be a very professional show, so I ponied up the ninety bucks or so, and bought a ticket.

Damn.

I still don't think I'm going to rush and buy a bunch of albums, but some bands impact the culture for a reason. Eddie IS that good as a guitar hero (guitar heros are an all but extinct breed, as they over specialized in an evolutionary sense and nearly died off when tastes changed) but the mightiest of them all showed us why he had that appellation in the first place. And Diamond Dave, well, what can you say? The guy's a rockstar, pure and simple. It's a personality type, and while he may be annoying on the tour bus he BELONGS on stage in front of 10,000 people. Honestly, his schtick has a real cabaret element to it--but few can pull it off with such gusto. He actually came across as warm and likeable.

Who knows, maybe fifteen years in the wilderness and addiction treatment have respectively mellowed these guys out and removed the element of "asshole" that Van Halen has always been tagged with. I left the show kind of bemused--I was expecting a good show, but part of me was also expecting a disappointment. I got a great show, and no disppointment, and even felt like I had a bit of window into their early years (part of Dave's storytelling schtick.) I'm not sure how much of it was genuine, but almost against myself, I left hoping it was.

for ditching Michael Anthony like they did. Apparently, Eddie was pissed that Mike maintained an amicable relationship with Sammy Hagar... even played some gigs with him at his Cabo night club.

After the split with Roth, I assumed, as did most people, that Eddie was the good guy and Dave was the asshole that couldn't get along with anyone. After the Hagar split, I started to suspect that Eddie might have been the culprit all along. Now, with the Michael Anthony split, it seems clear that Eddie runs the band on a 'my way or no way' basis.

I think Van Halen produced some classic rock-and-roll in both their DLR and Hagar incarnations, but I don't expect a return to relevance this time around.

How the fuck do you call it a 'Van Halen Reunion' when you boot out the lifetime bass player in favor of your 16 year old kid.

Shame on you Eddie

Also, it's been more than 15 years - try 22 or 23. I think they broke up in 1984 or 1985.

But, I never liked Van Halen after Roth left. Sure, Eddie was (and is) fantastically talented, but I agree that Roth was the charismatic showman that made it work. Without him, they're just another hard rock band with a really good guitar player.

a while after he and Van Halen parted ways--and I know he plugged away for a bit even after he was washed up--did you ever hear the albums he put out with Jason Becker as a guitarist? Neither did I. However the main point is, it's been a VERY long time since DLR has played arenas. I hope that has taught him what he needs to know.

And I hope treatment helped Eddie learn his lessons. Because it's pretty cleat now that he has quite a bit of his own baggage.

OFF the chain the first night! I mean INCREDIBLE.
I'm a huge fan.

I never really thought of Van Halen as heavy metal, sure, they had a few "metallic tendencies" but just didn't have the metal edge that somebody like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden had. Oh sure, back when I was in high school in the late 90s a lot of my friends thought they were metalheads and listend to Ratt, Motley Crue and Cinderella. The term I coined for at least the California stuff was "surf metal."

That term never caught on, but people did eventually settle on "hair metal" so that's the one I go with these days.