Twenty years ago rock music changed; Van Halen’s keyboard helped propel the group’s album 1984 to diamond status, having sold over 10 million copies. The band’s original lead singer, David Lee Roth, soon departed the group, only to be replaced by Sammy Hagar. After another decade of success, and making it through the grunge era, Hagar left the band in a fashion similar to Roth’s years earlier. Roth rejoined the band only long enough to help release Best of Van Halen: Volume I.
The band enlisted Gary Cherone, the lead singer of the defunct band Extreme, though his tenure was short lived due to loss of fan support with the band’s new sound. Two years ago the band was dropped from their Warner Bros label after lacking a lead singer and any new recorded material over the few previous years. The summer of the same year, 2002, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar went on tour together, despite a mutual disgust, and played music from both their own days with Van Halen as well as music from each of their own personal libraries.
Surprisingly, in March of this year the Van Halen band officially announced an upcoming summer tour with the Sammy Hagar reunion. The original band of Eddie and Alex Van Halen with Michael Anthony, and their second lead singer Hagar began their tour in early June.
Van Halen graced the Capital Region on June 26 to an excited, but surprisingly only half full Pepsi Arena. For about two hours the band played their classic rock songs from both Roth and Hagar eras including “Jump,” “Right Now,” and “Panama,” as well as new Hagar recorded Van Halen songs due out on a Best of Van Halen: Volume 2 album.
The show was an incredible production. The band supplied their own stage, as well as generators in order to supply power to the enormous light rigging and sound equipment. The show turned out to be one of the most extravagant and possibly the loudest that I have ever been to. On top of all that, Van Halen played like a band at the peak of its success. The fans cheered and the entire band appeared to have the faces of children on Christmas.
Though they did mesh well together, they are no longer the band they once were. Time has taken its toll on the members. They all look weathered, and though maybe mentally happy and healthy, their bodies do not respond quite like they used to. Sammy has a great stage presence, but you can tell that he’s not a 30-year-old up there. When he jumps, it takes effort.
Despite anything the show may have been lacking, I was incredibly excited to see a band that I thought I would probably never get a chance to see, and I did not feel let down by the performance. Eddie Van Halen is still one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and the Van Halen band will definitely leave a legacy once they part, whether it is following this tour or years from now.
