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Yeah, well, I didn't particularly want Ed's kid in the band, either.
It had a freak show element to it, particularly for the first Roth reunion tour, where the kid just looked totally out of place onstage.
But the kid being in the band is partly an extension of Ed's "fuck you" stance to the fans which he has taken to one degree or another since Hagar left in 1996, where what Ed wants comes first. I could sort of halfway understand it in 1996, when Ed decided in the end that he didn't want to do a nostalgia tour with Roth and opted to do an album and tour with Cherone. It wasn't what I wanted to see and hear, but Ed felt he needed to move forward. Now, why he couldn't have moved forward by just writing and recording a new album with Roth in 1997, I dunno, since Van Halen III ended up playing a set comprised half of CVH tunes anyway...
Fast-forward to 2007, and it's like, FINALLY Roth gets back together with the band. Ed being Ed, he can't go the extra step and get Anthony back in the band as well, and just flat out give us the CVH reunion we all want: his fuckin' kid has to be in the band, too. But that's where Ed's head has been at since 1996: as a fan of the band, you can either take it or leave it on Eddie's terms. Ed wants to play with his kid, thus his kid has to be in the band, and if you wanna see Ed and Roth play live Ed's kid in the band is part of the package.
As I said, first Roth reunion tour, the kid just looked weird/totally out of place even being there onstage. I couldn't even hear him at the show I saw well enough to even tell if he was playing decently or not. The 2012 show I saw, I could hear him better, and he sounded okay. Both shows, most of the time I forgot he was even onstage, because my attention was focused primarily on what Ed and Dave were doing.
Overall, the Roth reunion turned out to be just okay. Simply put, they all waited far too long to make it happen, frittered away too many years dicking around...it was about as good as one could have expected given their age and decades of self-abuse. However, one always gets the feeling it could have been a WHOLE lot better if they had done it in 1996.
It had a freak show element to it, particularly for the first Roth reunion tour, where the kid just looked totally out of place onstage.
But the kid being in the band is partly an extension of Ed's "fuck you" stance to the fans which he has taken to one degree or another since Hagar left in 1996, where what Ed wants comes first. I could sort of halfway understand it in 1996, when Ed decided in the end that he didn't want to do a nostalgia tour with Roth and opted to do an album and tour with Cherone. It wasn't what I wanted to see and hear, but Ed felt he needed to move forward. Now, why he couldn't have moved forward by just writing and recording a new album with Roth in 1997, I dunno, since Van Halen III ended up playing a set comprised half of CVH tunes anyway...
Fast-forward to 2007, and it's like, FINALLY Roth gets back together with the band. Ed being Ed, he can't go the extra step and get Anthony back in the band as well, and just flat out give us the CVH reunion we all want: his fuckin' kid has to be in the band, too. But that's where Ed's head has been at since 1996: as a fan of the band, you can either take it or leave it on Eddie's terms. Ed wants to play with his kid, thus his kid has to be in the band, and if you wanna see Ed and Roth play live Ed's kid in the band is part of the package.
As I said, first Roth reunion tour, the kid just looked weird/totally out of place even being there onstage. I couldn't even hear him at the show I saw well enough to even tell if he was playing decently or not. The 2012 show I saw, I could hear him better, and he sounded okay. Both shows, most of the time I forgot he was even onstage, because my attention was focused primarily on what Ed and Dave were doing.
Overall, the Roth reunion turned out to be just okay. Simply put, they all waited far too long to make it happen, frittered away too many years dicking around...it was about as good as one could have expected given their age and decades of self-abuse. However, one always gets the feeling it could have been a WHOLE lot better if they had done it in 1996.
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