For years, Eddie Van Halen has lived in the shadow of his former band mate and high school chum David Lee Roth. Even as he garnered all the accolades due him as an innovative and arguably the greatest rock guitarist of all time, fans still pined for the Roth days. While the band existed, and thrived musically, without Roth, many in the rock world never quite accepted Van Hagar or the Gary Cherone fronted incarnation.
Roth’s appeal stands in stark contrast to Eddie’s. He will never be considered a prolific musician, and in many ways, he isn’t even a great singer. What Roth does well is host a party and that is exactly what he did in Buffalo on Friday night.
Watching Roth struggle to keep up with the three Van Halens, Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang was fascinating. Musically, there was the sense that Van Halens could back anyone and make them look good, even a glitzy Vegas style barker with a Cheshire cat grin. Even as Roth appeared to forget lyrics, mumble through verses and sing woefully off key, the Van Halen clan did not miss a note.
What made the show work was the strength of the Roth era material, all recorded many years before their current bass player was born. Even Sammy Hagar knew the strength of Roth era songs like “Unchained,” or “Women in Love,” and thus avoided allowing too many of the Roth era songs into the set.
The Buffalo audience ate it all up, not seeming to notice the absence of Michael Anthony. And while there have been reports of Van Halen pumping Anthony’s background vocals into the mix, I was close enough to hear Wolfgang’s background vocals and it left me with no doubt that there were no prerecorded vocals in the mix.
The only Mike that appeared onstage was a video of Roth’s dog named Mike which played in the background while Roth strummed an acoustic guitar and spoke about his love of dogs before launching into “Ice Cream Man.” It was classic David Lee Roth, cheeky and original.
Roth hosted the party with unbridled enthusiasm, but it was Eddie Van Halen who stole the show. Watching Eddie own the guitar was simply awe inspiring, and while many young ax slingers have tried to knock Eddie off his throne, none have been able to reinvent the instrument the way Eddie Van Halen did.
Much of Eddie’s talent must be genetic, because his brother and son would be the standout members in any other band. Alex still pounds the kit like no other, and young Wolfgang quietly plays the bass with conviction and as his confidence increases, he seems to approach the bass, as a guitarist would, more like his father than Michael Anthony did. Watching him on bass made me wonder how great a guitarist the kid will be someday when he steps out on his own.
So while the Van Halen’s performance was far from flawless-it contained all the blemishes characteristic of the Roth era, which may explain why they never released a live album with Roth- one left feeling good having seen two high school chums back together and witnessing a great guitarist being great.
Set List:
You Really Got Me(The Kinks cover)
Runnin’ With the Devil
She’s The Woman
Romeo Delight
Tattoo
Everybody Wants Some!!
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
China Town
Hear About It Later
Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison cover)
Drum Solo
Unchained
The Trouble with Never
Dance The Night Away
I’ll Wait
Hot For Teacher
Women In Love
Girl Gone Bad
Beautiful Girls
Ice Cream Man (John Brim cover)
Panama
Guitar Solo
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
Encore:
Jump
All Photos by Gus Griesinger
We would like to thank Tracey Mancini from the Buffalo Sabres Media Relations Department and Tim Tobin from Livenation for their assistance in helping BackstageAxxess to review the show.
