The whether and when of a Van Halen reunion with original lead singer David Lee Roth have been subjects of frequent speculation ever since Roth quit the enterprise in April 1985, a rabbit that would not come out of its hat until at last the band kicked off its current tour last month.
The famously combustible band brought its signature brand of boisterous, hard-charging rock to the Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday for a show that had some impressive moments but was generally more serviceable than special.
Although the signature presences of Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen were sufficient to satisfy most nostalgia, the band's lineup was not quite its original, as bass player Michael Anthony has been replaced by Van Halen's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. That role has never been the band's lynchpin and remained secondary as drummer Alex Van Halen hammered out a backbeat for the rowdy opener "You Really Got Me" while his brother Eddie tore into the melody with sharp-edged electric licks.
Roth's role requires little more than an ability to bark festively in a manner sufficiently assertive to match up with full bore rock anthems, and despite having accrued some additional rasp on his voice's high end over the years, he remained game enough to handle the chore as he yelped "I'm the One" and pushed along the chunky "Runnin' With the Devil." Short-haired relative to the flowing locks of his glory years, the 53-year-old Roth was more tentative and less kinetic than the memories he was trying to evoke, almost asking for the crowd's approval where once he would have commanded it as he battered the lyric of "Somebody Get me a Doctor." He looked fit and frequently punctuated his performances with spinning high kicks, twirled microphone stands and other colorful touches that were the closest things to spectacle in a generally straightforward show.
The storied antagonism between Roth and the Van Halen brothers was nowhere to be seen as the singer went out of his way to vamp Eddie's still-incendiary playing as it formed the centerpiece of the roaring "Everybody Wants Some." The tour is most assuredly a marriage of convenience for two factions that desired the buzz - and payday - their reunion would bring, but the band members seemed almost surprisingly cordial in ways that went beyond the couple of hugs the always-grinning Roth and Eddie Van Halen managed during the show.
With the exception of a snippet of "316" during Eddie Van Halen's lengthy guitar solo near its end, the entire set was built from tunes from the Roth era, which meant everything was at least 23 years old. Much of it remained a dynamic mix of hard rock and pop, from the springy "Unchained" to the rugged throb of "And the Cradle Will Rock." Roth opened "Ice Cream Man" by reminiscing his way through a solo acoustic guitar bit (in fact, Wolfgang Van Halen was the lone member of the quartet who didn't take a solo turn), and his voice was a touch creaky during a blowout trip through "Panama."
The set ran to two hours by the time it closed with a pulsating rendition of "Ain't Talkin' `Bout Love," and then extended with a brief encore of the band's lone chart-topping single, "Jump." The tune closed with Roth riding a big inflatable microphone across the stage, but the prerecorded keyboard line was more in line with how adornments fit into the program, a light touch in a show that tied up more efforts in raw energy than gimmicky flair.
Source: courant.com
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