OHIO (Van Hallen Fans website) - Summer officially arrived in northeast Ohio on Wednesday (May 29) when two days of heat and humidity were met at the Blossom
Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls by the sunshine-drenched, rock and roll party atmosphere of onetime enemies and former
Van Halen frontmen
David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.
Roth and Hagar opened their co-headlining tour in a less than half-full venue. What possibly scared off concert goers who still keep their radio dial glued to music made two decades ago was the uncertainty of it all. Would the performers reign in their collective egos in order to make it to the stage? Does Roth still have the ability to entertain a crowd with his mix of wolfishness, acrobatics, and a nod-and-wink that this isn't rocket science but entertainment?
The answer to both of those questions is "Yes!"
While this has been billed as two prize fighters going at it for a few rounds, cooler heads and thoughts of a fuller bank account at tour's end prevailed ... so far. As for Roth, the man's still got it. His performance was a vindication for a public persona that had deteriorated to a running gag on the nationally-syndicated morning radio program The Bob and Tom Show.
He's in fantastic physical shape, still has that amazing extension when he kicks and jumps around, and even made a couple of those patented mid-air splits while jumping off the drum riser. His set consisted of every Van Halen track that's blared out of speakers since the group's 1978 self-titled debut . Out of 19 songs, only Roth's solo "Yankee Rose" made it onto a set list that included "Jump," "Hot for Teacher," "Mean Street," "Beautiful Girls," "Pretty Woman," "Unchained," "Ice Cream Man," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," and "Atomic Punk."
Hagar and his band, the Waboritas, supplied solo hits ("I Can't Drive 55," "Three Lock Box") along with his VH staples ("Right Now," "Dreams," and "Finish What You Started"). Still, it felt as if his 90-minute set was more of an ongoing advertisement for his Cabo Wabo cantina and tequila. References could be found on the curtain, the bass drum, Hagar's T-shirt, sitting onstage and, of course, during the playing of "Mas Tequila."
While Roth's charismatic presence was the showman, Hagar, with his blue-collar approach, represented the everyman. And it seemed that on this night, the fans from both camps of VH's career could live with that. Despite drumbeats that took its tribal cues from Alex Van Halen, pulsating basslines from Michael Anthony, and tones and solos that mimicked guitar god Eddie Van Halen, one couldn't avoid the whiff of faux Van Halen in the air. As opening night proved, the strength lies not only in the songs themselves but who was playing them.
