by Christina Wagner
Writers and musicians are notorious for being broke bastards. When you combine the two, it’s downright hilarious. That being said, being a writer for EU comes with some tasty perks that are non-existent at other types of employment. I’m sitting here at one of the most exciting concerts of the year, Van Halen with David Lee Roth, my butt is firmly planted in one of the best seats in the house, and I’m preparing for the “awesome” that’s about to erupt in front of me. I’m so close I’ll be able to smell Eddie Van Halen’s armpit sweat. Even with the ol’ popsicle stand packed out like a can of sardines, the coliseum has that sort of new car smell fully equipped with mini blimps circling around above, cutting through the fogged out atmosphere. The audience was entertaining in itself, looking more like a “Colors of Benetton” ad than a rock-hungry army. The lights then began to dim and the audience howled.
This all-American rock band formed in Pasadena, CA in 1972 and enjoyed great success from their self-titled debut album in 1978. Not only did they make a name for themselves by selling more than 80 million albums worldwide, being the 19th best selling band of all time and proving to be one of only five rock bands to have two albums selling more than 10 million copies in the USA, they are also famous for the ever constant revolving role of their front man. David Lee Roth, the original gangsta, passed the torch to Sammy Hagar in 1985, who then passed it down temporarily to Mitch Malloy, who then shared it briefly with Roth before it was stolen by Gary Cherone, who gave it up to Hagar during a brief reunion, only to return the throne to Roth after their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on March 12th, 2007. The fragile roster doesn’t stop with the frontman position either. Founding bass player, Michael Anthony was also given the boot only to be replaced with Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli’s spawn, Wolfgang William Van Halen. “Wolf” joins his father and his uncle, drummer Alex Van Halen, on this fine Saturday evening in downtown Jacksonville. Hmm, this is starting to sound like the Partridge Family.
Eddie Van Halen played the entire set shirtless, making it hard for me to concentrate on the music, but luckily there was a videographer nearby bringing back my focus onto something other than his bowflex body: his fingers. He was just about flawless (his fingers), but most importantly, effortless. It was hard to watch him without getting a little bit jealous. Roth started out the set donning an outfit more likely to be seen in the closets of Siegfried and Roy than at a concert, waving a giant red flag before making his way down to center stage. Wolfgang stuck out like a boner in gym shorts, obviously uncomfortable, but he served his purpose. He kept up with the overly experienced rock outfit and didn’t miss a note.
The coliseum had a surprisingly bad audio mix. Roth’s vocals strained to keep up with the levels of Eddie’s guitar and Wolf’s bass was barely audible. The audio engineer nailed it with Alex Van Halen’s kit though, bringing life to each piece. After jumping into my personal favorite, ‘Hot For Teacher,’ and then ‘Panama,’ the walls nearly imploded during Alex’s six minute, mind-boggling drum solo. The light show was nothing to phone home about, but the performances these guys put on after so many years apart, and for their age, was as impressive as their physical shape (Botoxed pecs?).
The whole experience was everything I had hoped for and more. It was even well orchestrated on the venue side of things. It only took about 6 minutes to evacuate the sold out crowd. All in all, not a bad night for a broke bastard.
Article Published in the 2-21-08 Issue of EU Jacksonville
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