A dose of nostalgia, a pound of guitar
By TIMOTHY FINN The Kansas City Star
This wasn't “1984” or “5150.” Nor was it the best of both worlds or the top of any world. But as someone up front with a hand-lettered sign declared, it was about time.
Van Halen came to Kemper Arena on Monday night, the version featuring Sammy Hagar, the lead vocalist it regurgitated a few years ago. If you need a song to fit the theme of Monday's two-hour, 23-song set, it would have to be “Finish What Ya Started.”
The setlist this evening spanned 26 years, songs from the band's first album, “Van Halen” (the Kinks' “You Really Got Me”), to the new songs on its most recent, a greatest-hits collection called “The Best of Both Worlds.” And though none of the songs sounded as crisp, lean or clear as they used to, that didn't seem to matter much to the crowd, which was in the mood for a loud, heavy dose of nostalgia and a big helping of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen. They got both.
The band opened with “Jump,” the biggest hit off its most successful album, “1984,” released at the commercial peak of the David Lee Roth era. The song began with its signature keyboard progression, which came either from a tape or from somewhere offstage. From there it jumped to “Runaround,” from the 1991 album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,” and then to “Humans Being,” a cut it put on the “Twister” soundtrack.
Hagar was the front man this evening, but he wasn't the center of attention, and the setlist, which included few of his VH standards, reflected that. Instead that role went to Eddie Van Halen, the cancer-surviving dean of rock-guitar gods, who looked almost unnaturally lean, pale and sinewy. No one performed with more childish enthusiasm than he did, especially when he brought out his teenage son, Wolfgang, for a duet during Eddie's solo. (Wolfgang got a big hug and a kiss when it was over.)
Maybe it was the effects of time, disease, surgery, addiction and rehab; maybe it was the sound, which was muddy much of the night; but except during part of his solo, Eddie's guitar didn't smoke and crackle like it used to.
The boys kept the pot percolating all night. The only lulls were Hagar's dreadful two-song, solo/acoustic set in the middle of the show, which earned a polite response, and the three new songs (they ought to drop one or two of those). Even Michael Anthony's solo on the Jack Daniels bass got a huge hand; he punctuated that by downing one of those tiny airline bottles of Jack – a compromise between these new days of temperance and the old days of excess.
The cuts that prompted the biggest outbursts from the crowd were the older ones, like “Unchained,” which goes back to the “Fair Warning” album; “Why Can't This Be Love?”; “Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love”; and “Right Now.” During that song, the famous video aired on screens behind them (“Right now a 13-year-old is downloading this song ...”).
The highlight of the encores was “Panama.” Hagar's pipes don't reach as high as they used to, and the sound was a little off (Eddie's guitar work was murky again), but this crowd wasn't being too picky at this point. When your favorite band settles its gripes, buries its grudges and gets off its deathbed for a reunion tour, you can't let little things like precision get in the way of a good time.
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THE SETLIST
Van Halen with Shinedown
Jump, Runaround, Humans Being, Up for Breakfast, bass solo, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Poundcake, It's About Time, drum solo, Top of the World, Unchained, Why Can't This Be Love?, Eagles Fly, Deeper Kind of Love, Learning to See, Best of Both Worlds, guitar solo, Dreams, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Right Now. Encores: You Really Got Me, Panama, When It's Love
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THE SETLIST
Van Halen with Shinedown
CONCERT REVIEW
• Reviewed: Monday, July 26, at Kemper Arena
• Audience: 10,000 (approx.)
Link (may only work the first time viewed, subscription site)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...9255000.htm?1c
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Brilliant!!!
