Van Halen – Concert Review

Van Halen at Air Canada Centre March 17 2012

March 17 2012- St. Patrick day, record setting high temperatures, Saturday night, and Van Halen at the Air Canada Centre. Is there any possible way that the setting could have been better?

Van Halen is now on their second tour with David Lee Roth back on vocals, but this time marks the first time this lineup is touring with a new album (first time Roth is back with the VH brothers since the chart topping 1984 album). Tonight’s lineup featured Alex Van Halen (drums), Eddie Van Halen (guitar), David Lee Roth (vocals) and Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie’s kid on bass). It is unfortunate that there is no Micheal Anthony on bass or Sammy Hagar on vocals but tonight is Eddie’s show. The last two times we saw Van Halen (once with Hagar and once with Roth) in the last few years, Eddie was not the guitar wizard that knocked Jimmy Page of the throne in 1979 as the world’s best guitar player (according to Guitar Player reader polls for the year). Eddie was in some serious addiction trouble (to be precise Eddie was consuming way too much alcohol as documented in Hagar’s biography Red). Half a decade ago Eddie was a wreck looking all skinny and stumbling through the set in truly an embarrassing manner. Word is that Eddie has beaten his addictions for now and is back in form and we were anxious to see if that was true.

David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen

Tonight’s opener was Kool and the Gang. Truly the most bizarre opener I have ever heard of for a rock concert. I had zero interest in seeing them, and only popped my head inside the arena to see the attendance – needless to say there was barely any one in there while the disco boys played their boogie hits so we spent our time at the bar in the venue instead.

The show begins at 9pm, and the audience is buzzing at the very sold out Air Canada Center. The set begins with Unchained and Running With The Devil and within a minute you know that Eddie is back. He has some weight on his bones and clearly was not under the influence of anything.  The guitar wizard is commanding his instrument once again like he was in the 70’s and 80’s.

Van Halen are: David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen

Next we get a great Alex Van Halen drum solo (but the shortest drum solo I have seen in my life). I think the drum solo was just intended to give Roth a chance for a costume change because as You Really Got Me kicks off we see Roth with a glitter jacket to match the glitter pants (it was exactly at this point where I really wish I was watching Hagar with the cleaned up Eddie Van Halen tonight). I do prefer the Roth era Van Halen songs than the Hagar ones, but Roth is just so cheesy these days that I longed for a rock star of Hagar’s class up on that stage. Roth’s voice however is very strong throughout the night and the songs do sound like they did years ago (only exception was Dance The Night Away in which Roth was totally off for some reason). A major highlight of the night is when I’ll Wait kicks off  Hot For Teacher for a 1984 1-2 punch.

David Lee Roth during Ice Cream Man

Roth then does a little acoustic guitar strumming and tells us about his cattle herding hobby and that he owns 3 pick up trucks. Behind him is the full size screen showing sheep and dogs running around and is all part of the intro for Ice Cream Man. After that we get Panama and then the highlight of the night (if not the year) in which Eddie knocks out an 8 minute guitar solo unlike anything I have seen in over 10 years from anyone (check out the video below!). He blows away the crowd and tops it off with one of his only signature air kicks of the night. Eddie’s guitar mastery really blew everyone away as he weaves his magic while sitting down on the drum riser stairs on stage.

Tonight’s show ends 110 minutes later with red and white confetti blasting the stage with Van Halen‘s anthem – Jump to an ecstatic crowd.

VERDICT: This was Eddie Van Halen’s show and his triumphant return to form. The band was tight and the show was excellent. David please just a little less cheese next time.

Tonight’s setlist was:

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Author: T-Mak