Van Halen - Oakland, CA 03.06.2012

Van Halen
Coliseum Arena
Oakland, California
June 3, 2012

Zoom H2

Quality: B++

Unchained
Runnin’ With The Devil
She’s The Woman
The Full Bug
Tattoo
Everybody Wants Some!!
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Chinatown
Hear About It Later
(Oh) Pretty Woman
Drum Solo

You Really Got Me
The Trouble With Never
Dance The Night Away
I’ll Wait
And The Cradle Will Rock… (w/'Smoke on the Water' riff)
Hot For Teacher
Women In Love
Beautiful Girls
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Eruption/Cathedral/Guitar Solo
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
Jump

Notes: Van Halen returning to the venue where it recorded the famous 1981 videos. Pretty good show overall, seems like the band enjoys getting out there and playing. Roth's voice was a lot better than the last time I saw them in D.C., but is still a little funky. Roth's schtick is a bit odd throughout the night, from the weird stories, baton twirling, dogs, poses,etc; the dude has lost a few marbles along the way. But the band is tight and Eddie is great, right behind Jimi as the best ever. He did flub a few notes, most notably the intro to "Women in Love" but overall he is a marvel, still most exciting guitar player out there. Hard to miss him if he is in town especially with Roth at the mic with the classic material.

Here is a review from the Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_20777357/review-van-halen-triumphs-oakland

There was good reason to be concerned when Van Halen abruptly postponed some 30 dates on its current tour.

The band's troubled track record does, after all, speak for itself. And what it says, in summary, is that Van Halen is one of the more volatile acts in rock 'n' roll history.

It seemed like a safe assumption that the postponement -- which, thankfully, didn't delay the two Bay Area dates -- signaled there were problems brewing within the group. A clash of titanic egos made for a more plausible explanation than the one vocalist David Lee Roth provided, which was simply that Van Halen needed some time to rest. Yet even if ol' Diamond Dave was right, who wants to go see a band running on fumes?

Any worries, however, were quickly put to rest once Van Halen took the stage on Sunday at the Oracle Arena. Far from looking tired, or at odds with each other, Roth and crew delivered a thoroughly energetic, cohesive and (gulp!) professional two-hour set in Oakland. Hopefully, that will again be the case when Van Halen performs Tuesday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

The single most striking aspect about the concert was that the band members really, truly appeared to be getting along. It could be seen in their smiles and heard in their laughter. They weren't just simply going through the motions, on their way to another substantial payday, but rather seemed fully engaged in the moment. If they were faking it, the four players -- Roth, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, bassist Wolfgang Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen -- deserve Oscar consideration.

Working a bare-bones stage set, with the only real prop being the massive video screen located behind the musicians, Van Halen used the opening track, "Unchained," as a kind of mission statement. The band wouldn't hold anything back as they charged through two dozen songs, ranging from the very early hits to tracks from the new album "A Different Kind of Truth."

Roth was buzzing with manic energy, acting every bit like a kid who'd just emptied out a candy store and then washed down his take with a case of Red Bull. He threw plenty of his famous roundhouse kicks, with his foot arching high above his head, and strutted like a peacock as he led the band through such exuberant fan favorites as "Runnin' With the Devil" and "Everybody Wants Some!!"

Roth proved once again that he's one of the greatest showmen in rock 'n' roll history -- and, by far, the best of the three frontmen to lead Van Halen during its 40-year career. If he'd been born in an earlier era, Roth would've surely been a song-and-dance man. At 57, he's got the moves like Jagger, a still-strong singing voice and an incredible knack for shtick and stories.

His performance is the single biggest reason why Van Halen is able to rise above some substandard material, which basically includes all of the new songs performed in Oakland. The fact that "Tattoo," a track best suited for illustrating the importance of the "skip" button on CD players, was chosen as the new album's first single probably tells you all you need to know about "A Different Kind of Truth."

Yet, it's wasn't just new cuts like "She's the Woman" and "China Town" that brought the set list down in Oakland. Even some of the old hits, like "Dance the Night Away" and "Somebody Get Me a Doctor," sounded pretty pedestrian. In general, Van Halen's songbook hasn't aged nearly as well as that belonging to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and many other classic rockers.

The band does, however, have the personnel. Alex Van Halen is a monster drummer, Wolfgang (son of Eddie) Van Halen is a more than serviceable replacement for former bassist Michael Anthony and Diamond Dave is Diamond Dave.

Then, of course, there's Eddie, who is nothing less than a magician on the frets. His signature solo on "Eruption" -- which he played late in the show on Sunday -- should be on every classic rock fan's bucket list.

Kool and the Gang -- the funk-soul-R&B band known for such '70s hits as "Jungle Boogie" and "Ladies' Night" -- was the inspired choice for Van Halen's opening act. One can only hope this will start a trend and we'll see more genre-hopping tours in the near future.

DL