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Strung out
After 6-year gap, Van Halen is outta sync
Be careful what you pray for.
For years, Van Halen fans have been hoping the band would reunite with whichever big-name lead singer Eddie could stand to be with for more than five minutes.
On Tuesday, a recently reconstituted version of the group, with Sammy Hagar on the mike, hit the stage at the Meadowlands. It was the first Van Halen road show with that lineup in nine years and the first with any singer in six.
We should have been left to our memories.
The performance revealed a group as disjointed musically as they've ever been personally. While the foursome certainly seemed to give their all, they never coalesced as a band. Hagar was in horrible voice, and the sound system pummeled much of the sound to mulch.
While there were no dancing trolls or exploding drummers, there was something a wee bit Spinal Tappish about the whole thing.
Certainly, the show didn't want for a dramatic back story. First, there were the complicated hiring issues, with the band having a) canned their last singer, the ghastly Gary Cherone, b) once again shunned their first vocalist, David Lee Roth, and c) hired back the yutzy Sammy.
There were also medical issues: Eddie was playing in public for the first time since beating tongue cancer.
Small wonder he reacted so emotionally to the crowd's rousing ovation for his trademark extended guitar cadenza.
He cried.
Twice.
It should also be said that, at 49, Eddie looked great. He still has the ripped bod of his youth.
But you knew the band was in trouble when even an uplifting song like "Jump" stumbled. It had almost no lift, and what little there was came from prerecorded synthesizers.
For large portions of the show Eddie Van Halen seemed to be playing in his own world, concentrating more on his admirably zippy leads than on enhancing the rhythm of the band or fleshing out the melodies.
That left bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen to bash and flail, together creating a great sense of fury but little groove or momentum.
In hard-rocking numbers, like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" or "Best of Both Worlds," the punch of the pieces came through more than their swing. In their most pop-oriented songs, like "Dreams" and "Right Now," Hagar couldn't navigate the high notes that highlight their melodic sweep.
As personally sweet as Eddie Van Halen's comeback may have been, the 10-minute solo that inspired his emotional outburst only indulged his greatest excesses. One section, which started like an sonic exploration of the heavens, ended up more like an exploration of Eddie's navel.
As with the whole show, you wanted to cheer the return of a good band, but — as a unit — they didn't seem quite there to receive the applause.
Strung out
After 6-year gap, Van Halen is outta sync
Be careful what you pray for.
For years, Van Halen fans have been hoping the band would reunite with whichever big-name lead singer Eddie could stand to be with for more than five minutes.
On Tuesday, a recently reconstituted version of the group, with Sammy Hagar on the mike, hit the stage at the Meadowlands. It was the first Van Halen road show with that lineup in nine years and the first with any singer in six.
We should have been left to our memories.
The performance revealed a group as disjointed musically as they've ever been personally. While the foursome certainly seemed to give their all, they never coalesced as a band. Hagar was in horrible voice, and the sound system pummeled much of the sound to mulch.
While there were no dancing trolls or exploding drummers, there was something a wee bit Spinal Tappish about the whole thing.
Certainly, the show didn't want for a dramatic back story. First, there were the complicated hiring issues, with the band having a) canned their last singer, the ghastly Gary Cherone, b) once again shunned their first vocalist, David Lee Roth, and c) hired back the yutzy Sammy.
There were also medical issues: Eddie was playing in public for the first time since beating tongue cancer.
Small wonder he reacted so emotionally to the crowd's rousing ovation for his trademark extended guitar cadenza.
He cried.
Twice.
It should also be said that, at 49, Eddie looked great. He still has the ripped bod of his youth.
But you knew the band was in trouble when even an uplifting song like "Jump" stumbled. It had almost no lift, and what little there was came from prerecorded synthesizers.
For large portions of the show Eddie Van Halen seemed to be playing in his own world, concentrating more on his admirably zippy leads than on enhancing the rhythm of the band or fleshing out the melodies.
That left bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen to bash and flail, together creating a great sense of fury but little groove or momentum.
In hard-rocking numbers, like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" or "Best of Both Worlds," the punch of the pieces came through more than their swing. In their most pop-oriented songs, like "Dreams" and "Right Now," Hagar couldn't navigate the high notes that highlight their melodic sweep.
As personally sweet as Eddie Van Halen's comeback may have been, the 10-minute solo that inspired his emotional outburst only indulged his greatest excesses. One section, which started like an sonic exploration of the heavens, ended up more like an exploration of Eddie's navel.
As with the whole show, you wanted to cheer the return of a good band, but — as a unit — they didn't seem quite there to receive the applause.
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