Rock of ages:
Van Halen puts its differences aside to unleash power at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.
Like a Formula One car crossing the finish line on one of those “donut” spare tires, three-quarters of Van Halen powered through Oakland on Sunday, and the fourth did enough to keep the band from running into a wall.
David Lee Roth used his other odd talents to distract from strained vocals, and everyone named Van Halen was in tight, propulsive form. The minivans outnumbered the muscle cars 15 to 1 in the parking lot, but the band is still capable of rocking like it’s 1984.
All of the above was in question, after a typically eventful/ tumultuous year for Van Halen. Fans embraced the throwback sound of the comeback album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” and the arena stops were selling well. Then last month, band members abruptly postponed 30 summer dates, saying they had overscheduled the tour.
Conspiracy theorists looking for more sinister reasons came away empty on Sunday night. Eddie Van Halen looked healthier than he did on the 2007 tour, and has lost very little musical precision at age 57. Compared with the last time, when the Van Halens and Roth interacted as if by restraining order, Roth and the guitarist were practically cuddling onstage. The only sign of possible discord was 21-yearold Wolfgang Van Halen, arriving with prep school short hair. In the Van Halen family, isn’t a square haircut a form of rebellion?
The band started strong with “Unchained,” one of the high points during another set list of pre-Sammy Hagar material. “You Really Got Me” and “And the Cradle Will Rock …” were other standouts, because of the guitar legend’s willingness to
explore beyond the sheet music notes. During the rare classic rock tour where the new stuff was welcome, just four songs came from the latest album.
Van Halen is older, but becoming more disciplined onstage, to match the aging fan base’s realities of bedtimes, early workrelated wake-up calls and incontinence issues. Van Halen started on schedule at 9 p.m. and finished with an encore of “Jump” precisely two hours later. Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption”/”Cathedral”-infused guitar solo was about seven minutes — considerably shorter and less meandering than his ax filibusters of the “1984”/“5150” days.
Original bassist Michael Anthony continues to be missed, but young Wolfgang handled the duties with increased confidence, and contributed with his dad to strong high harmonies. Drummer Alex Van Halen held his own, although the rumbling double bass drum intro to “Hot for Teacher” seemed abbreviated — several of the 24 songs played Sunday night felt a little rushed.
The element of unpredictability was Roth, for better and worse. The front man’s improvised moves were often stumbling, his sparkly black leatherclad legs seemingly acting independent of each other. By the end, Roth’s trademark leg kicks were barely high enough to clear an ottoman — made worse by an enormous screen behind the band that constantly replayed his shtick in slow motion.
He was consistent in the first two songs, but later tunes were a grab bag of vocal stylings. Bursts of on-key singing were followed by other notes way off pitch, some lines left for the audience to take over and entire chunks of song delivered in spoken word.
But nothing seemed to faze Roth, whose lack of self-awareness is his secret weapon. His stories included an off-color one about his ex-girlfriend, “Illegal Evelyn,” and a tribute to his dogs — while a video that looked like a Purina commercial played on the big screen. The singer grinned constantly, almost maniacally, and let the supportive fans feed his leisure suit cruiser act. This crowd would have been behind Diamond Dave if he pantomimed all the words.
This was definitely the first Van Halen tour where no one went shirtless. The same could not be said for the crowd, which lost itself in the moment, and left looking forward to the next tour.