Van Halen: This was swagger, this was virtuosity

Discussion in 'Entertainment' started by truebluefan, Mar 20, 2012.

  1. truebluefan

    truebluefan Administrator Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2010
    Messages:
    212,768
    Likes Received:
    821
    Trophy Points:
    113
    [​IMG]

    Van Halen

    At Air Canada Centre

    In Toronto on Saturday

    Reviewed by Brad Wheeler

    ‘Put the spotlight on him, and leave the spotlight on him,” was the stage direction from David Lee Roth. The man called Diamond Dave was your evening’s ringleader and glittering waddling dandy, and though he is not known as a sharer, his instructions were as they should have been: Shine it all on Eddie Van Halen, at age 57 still a wunderkind electric guitarist.

    Girl Gone Bad, a deep cut from the album (and year) 1984 served as a lively workout for the virtuoso. We caught it all: the fretboard tapping, some dive-bombing and a wild riff or two.

    Then the music segued into the good-time bump-and-grind of Beautiful Girls, and it was so clear that Van Halen, the undeniable California rock gods that first went ballistic in the late 1970s, was (and is) something much more than its invention and bombast. AC/DC told us that “girls got rhythm,” but Van Halen had it too, on the covers of Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman and the Kinks’ You Really Got Me, and on Panama too – all on the ACC set-list. Those hip-cocking beats and lubricated rhythms attracted a female audience to a guitar band like never before – lady fans still with them, judging by the St. Patrick’s Day turnout.

    The line about not having a care in the world, and that all “I need is a beautiful girl” is the clincher. Other bands might have expressed that wish for a “woom-mahnn” as a bluesy or mopey sigh. For Van Halen though, the dame was a given – a wink or a finger-snap away from happening. This was swagger, this was lechery. Everybody still wants some; now how ‘bout you?

    A well-amplified 150-minute show found today’s Van Halen as fast, furious and in fighting trim. A reunion tour in 2007 and ’08 with Roth and the Van Halens – Eddie, drummer Alex and the then teenage bassist Wolfgang (son of Eddie and the actress Valerie Bertinelli) – was victorious enough, but it seemed to be a first salvo toward something more significant. Now they are touring with the firebrand material of a new album (A Different Kind of Truth, represented by four cuts at ACC) and a leaner, more settled stage presence.

    Van Halen hit the ground running, beginning with Alex beating out the opening of Unchained, the muscular, roller-coasting biggie from 1981. Father and son next quickly appeared, followed by Roth, a grinning off-key shouter in exotically-leathered trousers and kerchief, pinstriped vest and shiny shirt. He gave us a high kick, but just for old time’s sake. Later, on the jubilant Dance the Night Away, his 360-degree-twirl was closer to a two-forty.

    Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...s-swagger-this-was-virtuosity/article2372971/
     

Share This Page