Van Halen 2007 - some comments
Last night I went to see Van Halen perform at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. For anyone who may not already know, the story of Van Halen can be compared to some of the day's most popular soap operas on television. I went to the show a tad bit skeptical, as this tour is the first since 1983-1984 to feature the band's original vocalist David Lee Roth, and it is also the first tour NOT to feature original bassist/backing vocalist Michael Anthony (who has been replaced with 16-year old Wolfgang Van Halen, son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen). As most people who know me already know, I am not a huge fan of David Lee Roth - I respect the work that he did during his original tenure in Van Halen, and I do also like some of his solo recordings, but his over-the-top persona, incessant (and mostly nonsense) ramblings, and arrogance do not impress me in the least. In addition, I certainly do not regard him as a great vocalist - I'll give him credit as a great frontman, but not as a great vocalist. However, because much of Van Halen's music with David Lee Roth has a certain undeniable magic, and because I'd never seen DLR with Van Halen, I wanted to go to the show.
Three years ago, I attended a Van Halen concert on July 2 (also at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland). At that point in time, the band had recently reunited with second vocalist Sammy Hagar, who had replaced DLR in 1985 and remained with the band until 1996. I was fortunate to have caught the 2004 tour early on, when Eddie and Sammy were still getting along. Overall, the band's performance was very good, although Eddie's guitar work was rather sloppy; the major downfall to the 2004 show was Eddie's guitar solo, which may seem surprising, especially comng from a guitarist who credits EVH as one of his main influences. By the end of the tour, huge (and well-publicized) tensions had mounted between Sammy and Eddie; needless to say, after the tour, Sam was again on his own.
Rumors escalated last year that David Lee Roth was working on a reunion with the Van Halen brothers, especially after his major failure as a radio personality. Finally, the rumors were confirmed, and the reunion was announced early this year - until Eddie entered into rehab. Afterwards, the tour was finalized and the announcement made that David Lee Roth was back, and that Michael Anthony was to be replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen. This alone is enough to make up a soap opera script, although this is the highly condensed version - which excludes all of the trash-talking, infighting, and horrible Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremonies along the way.
Fast forward to last night - when the "new" classic lineup of Van Halen performed in Cleveland on David Lee Roth's 53rd birthday. The show was actually quite good. Eddie's guitar performance was much better than the 2004 tour (although his solo spot was still rather disappointing to me), Alex's drumming was spot-on, and Wolfgang did a commendable job handling the bass duties. However, Michael Anthony's bass playing and awesome background vocals were sorely missed. Now to the "star" of the show - David Lee Roth: he sounded much better than he has in the past 10 years with his solo band, and he still has a certain amount of energy which is contagious. However, going back to the point I made earlier - he is not a great vocalist. He did a great job with remembering all of the words to the songs (unlike when he toured with Van Halen the first time around) and also kept the audience entertained. But as a musician, I cringed when he hit several off-key notes throughout the night, and again, I missed the strong backing vocals of Michael Anthony. Wolfgang and Eddie Van Halen did a decent job with the harmony vocals, but part of the key to what makes Van Halen songs tick is Michael's vocals.
For fans of the "classic" era of Van Halen from 1978-1984, the set list for this tour is nearly perfect:
You Really Got Me
I'm The One
Runnin' With The Devil
Romeo Delight
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Beautiful Girls
Dance The Night Away
Atomic Punk
Everybody Wants Some
So This Is Love?
(Oh) Pretty Woman
Drum Solo
Unchained
I'll Wait
And The Cradle Will Rock
Hot For Teacher
Little Dreamer
Little Guitars
Jamie's Cryin'
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Guitar Solo
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
1984
Jump
Some of the highlights for me personally included "I'm The One", "Somebody Get Me A Doctor", "Unchained", "Ice Cream Man", and "Panama." To its credit, the band did well with "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Jump" as well, but because those songs are still overplayed on the radio, they did not stand out to me.
Now that I've seen the two major frontmen with Van Halen (although not during their prime), I can finally compare the two with minimal bias. My conclusion only supports my opinion all along - I appreciate the energy, the attitude, and the magic of the Mark I lineup of Van Halen; however, with Sammy Hagar, the band expanded its versatility and gained not only a great vocalist, but also a great musician. Generally speaking, having an experienced musician (who plays an instrument well) front any band adds a certain level of credibility and tends to make the music more interesting. To me, the Mark II lineup of Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar) tended to be much more musical - while the classic David Lee Roth albums certainly display a wide variety of styles of music, the music created with Sammy Hagar was only more versatile, and in many cases, rocked harder. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the big radio-friendly ballads (i.e., "When It's Love", "Love Walks In", etc.) that were popular during the Sammy Hagar years, but I dig the harder rock edge of the Mark II lineup - in my opinion songs such as "Aftershock", "Right Now", "This Dream Is Over", "Judgement Day", "Humans Being", and others boast high levels of skill and musicianship. It's difficult to explain from a musician's point of view without confusing some people with terminology, but the David Lee Roth years tended to have basic chord progressions and power chords with guitar leads randomly thrown in between, whereas the Sammy Hagar years had more riffs and arpeggiated playing with guitar leads cleverly interwoven into the riffs.
Which concert did I enjoy more? That's a difficult question, because I enjoyed both shows - albeit for different reasons. On a whole, Eddie's guitar work was more fluid and focused last night than in 2004. I preferred the vocals of Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony in 2004. I preferred the atmosphere and energy of 2007 with DLR. Alex's drumming was consistent in 2004 and 2007, although his drum solo was better last night.
My skepticism is still intact, however: only time will tell if DLR will actually maintain his friendship with the brothers Van Halen and remain a member of the band. I'm also rather skeptical of any new music that may arise from this "new" version of VH, although time will reveal what it has waiting in its wings for Van Halen...
Until next time!