ON THE way to the main gate at madison square garden is a banner for a summer concert by chickenfoot, the band that michael anthony and sammy hagar founded. the thought that entered my mind is: where the fuck in the world is gary cherone.
EXCEPTING THAT van halen III outing (with gary cherone who should have had the presence of mind not to abandon extreme), i think it was very good judgment that van halen just ignored the 1990s alternative wave. i’m sure this is one of those “in hindsight” things and there are a lot of personal issues at that time with both david lee roth and sammy hagar. a “best of” was released and they played a venue with both former singers joining in, and then basically disappeared as alternative started to eat its own flannel-shirted self the moment nirvana imploded and bands pretending to be alternative took over. example: candlebox. at this time two other bands who really have melody on their side decided to push through with the thought of maybe we can sort of pretend to be alternative and our fans may not notice, you know, trade our spandex for jeans, our pumps for chucks, and sing a couple of half-assed songs with no guitar solos because guitar solos are so glam, dude. maybe wear flannel in a couple of concerts. ladies and gents, let me introduce def leppard and bon jovi who released around four albums each over the 1990s. what, you never heard of those albums? exactly. what van halen did was broke up with david lee roth buying a ranch and eddie van halen buying a gun and carrying it on a plane just for a bit of news item that he still exists. soon, everyone forgot.
FAST FORWARD to the year of our lord two thousand and twelve. indie is all the rage with the occasional nod to a certain lady gaga who needs to resort to shock wear just so she can hide her monstrous, unmade look that has the power to neuter even the most virile of men. amidst this scene, lo and behold, van halen releases an album! and tours!
ALL SEATS were filled with the usual people chance buying at the gates although i saw not a single scalper. word was, the ground tickets were resold for around 6,000 US$ a day after the tickets went online and was sold out in minutes.
KOOL AND the gang opened. dtnl. after a long wait as their equipment is being dismantled under the harsh lights of the house lights, van halen took the stage as soon as it blacked out and just like that, “unchained” is already playing. there were no dead air throughout the set, not even a second, not even during the guitar and drum solos. the theme (if ever there was one) on the promotional black and white video was carried to the concert. meaning, jeans and shirt excepting david lee roth who is the poster boy of sartorialismo before scott weiland strutted his looks.
DAVID LEE roth can still do high kicks (the split, well, how about i just say that these were reduced to just attempts at splitting). there were no trademarked jumps from eddie van halen.
HE FORGOT the words to chinatown (the teleprompter were below the stage level) and was cool enough to shout “o shit, i forgot the words!”
DANCE THE night away, and of course, jump were mindblowing. actually the whole show was mindblowing but these two songs stood out. i also enjoyed the new songs like tattoo and she’s the woman. it’s the guitars pounding through the giant jbl speakers.
IN THE end, the glitters rained and david lee roth brought out the giant checkered flag as used in the promotional video and one the most anticipated concerts in madison square country wrapped up. a bow and all four of van halen exited the stage without much theatrics the way they entered it.
OH, I managed to score an overpriced concert tee before size small run out.
