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Van Halen


kevbone

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There was no amount of banter, bad jokes, costume changes, or iconic rock songs that could save anyone with the last name Van Halen from lead singer David Lee Roth last night at Ak-Chin Pavilion. From the opening notes of "Light Up the Sky" the flamboyant frontman never stood a chance vocally, and it really made you wonder why the Van Halen brothers would tarnish the band's legacy by allowing Roth to embarrass them night after night. Guitar hero Eddie Van Halen could do nothing more than smile all night. Roth was unable to do his signature screams and squeals or keep rhythm during "Running With The Devil," and it was only two songs into the show fans knew it was going to be a long night. The lack of production and energy from the band didn't help either during the 23-song set as the show dragged on. Roth's attempts at humor in between songs disrupted the tempo of the show on many occasions. At one point he referenced his favorite rock star moves performed by Bon Jovi and Bono from U2 and told the crowd, "I've never met a Van Halen crowd that wasn't three steps ahead of my punch lines."

 

During the mighty "Unchained" Roth spend most of the song sitting on a chair on the drum riser struggling to get through one of the heaviest tracks of the night, luckily the father-son duo of Eddie and Wolfgang handled most of the chorus vocal duties. It was hard to tell if David Lee Roth knew how bad he was all night or if he is just delusional, because no matter how off he was he looked like he was having the time of his life all night long. At one point the singer applied whiskey to the sides of his face like cologne. It should be noted that Roth's lackluster performance wasn't due to the amount of alcohol he may have consumed; he was never really a stellar singer even in the band's glory days. (Editor's note: If you haven't listened to the studio version of "Running With the Devil" that isolates Roth's vocals, do yourself a favor and do so now.) But last night he wasn't executing the material in any fashion that merited a fan coming out to see the show. That said, Roth is in fantastic shape and tried everything he could do distract the crowd from his singing including the splits, and the man can twirl a mic stand like nobody's business.

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They played at White River in 2015 (opening night of the tour) and were actually very good. DLR was as good as he ever has been (or will be) - take that for what you will. It sucked to not have Michael Anthony, but c'est la vie.

 

Of course there are many other shows/acts to see these days. For VH it's just about nostalgia. I saw Opeth at the Moore recently and that was friggin' awesome!

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With Trent on this one. Any haters who never listened to 'Halen while driving way too fast in a late 60's chevy are missing out. And I'm not talking some Van Hagar bullshit, but 100% David Lee Roth during the "women and children first" era. I have heard that ''Halen is the the band of choice for The Choss Dog Millionaires so that makes it pretty damn cool.

Ask Tim Halder ladies!

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