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Halloween all treats for Hagar fans
REVIEW

ANDREW S. HUGHES
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Dressed as themselves, former Van Halen members Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar dispensed two hours' worth of treats to an adoring Halloween-night crowd at the Morris Performing Arts Center.

By the time Hagar left the stage, the audience was ecstatic.

And it had every right to feel that way.

Just as he did at least once before at the Morris (more later about that), Hagar conducted the concert like a large, freewheelin' party with himself cast as the host with the most and everyone else's enjoyment foremost in his mind.

Like a good host, Hagar even circulated among his guests -- at least as well as he could from a stage.

With a riser full of fans behind the band, however, Hagar wasn't restricted to just the front few rows. For "Why Can't This Be Love," he made the full circuit through the riser, shaking hands and signing autographs, which meant Anthony capably took over the lead vocals for much of the song.

At other times, Hagar delivered guitar solos and vocals while facing the crowd behind him, but he didn't ignore the fans up front, either. On many songs, he stooped to the front row to sign autographs and even deliver drinks to one or two fans from the bar he kept off-stage.

Aside from the seating above and behind the band, the stage set included Pop Art paintings of limes, girls and drinks on the fronts of the amplifiers; a bar under a grass awning behind the amplifiers, staffed by several well-endowed women who served Hagar and Anthony drinks and sometimes danced suggestively with them; a large banner behind and above it all, among others, for Cabo Wabo, the tequila Hagar markets; and, presumably in honor of Halloween, a skull and a black cat on top of one amplifier.

Bassist Anthony started the concert with a fiery 10-song set of, for the most part, early Van Halen songs, with his band, The Mad Anthony Express. "Runnin' With the Devil" made for an appropriate opening number on Halloween, and guitarist Vic Johnson turned in the first of many credible facsimiles of Eddie Van Halen's signature style -- finger-tapping the neck, hammer-ons, creative use of effects pedals and speed, speed and more speed.

Anthony's bass simply thundered on "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" and was bone-rattling on "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love."

As a vocalist, Anthony sang with gusto and a real feel for melody in place of David Lee Roth, who had been the lead singer on Van Halen's early albums.

Like Anthony, Hagar smiled often and widely throughout his set.

The headliner built his guitar solo on "There's Only One Way to Rock" around a series of good, well-structured riffs -- nothing flashy, but appropriate to the song, while his solo on "Three Lock Box" featured a flurry of hammered-on notes with a slow, descending melodic run as its counterpoint.

The new song "Open" fit well within Hagar's pop-oriented hard rock framework, featured good harmony vocals from his band and contained near- constant lead playing by Johnson -- he was Hagar's guitarist, too -- that was similar in style to Eddie Van Halen's, which gave the song an undercurrent of turmoil.

As with several other songs, a hard-hitting "I'll Fall in Love Again" featured good harmonies from Hagar's band -- Johnson and Mona on bass -- and Douglas, who had taken on the role of percussionist.

On a song from Hagar's "Ten 13" CD, Douglas and Hagar's drummer, David Lauser, made full use of the percussion-drums combination to play counterpart to each other in terms of tones and rhythms.

Really, Hagar's only misstep was a cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" to start the concert. He can shout it, but he couldn't give it the emotional nuances Joplin did, that mixture of bravura and pain that makes her recording a classic.

When Anthony returned to the stage to play with Hagar, the two of them shared the same mic several times and appeared genuinely happy to play together.

At one point, Hagar said there was a little "controversy" backstage: He knew he'd been at the Morris in 1997, but he didn't believe the promoter when he told Hagar he had been there in 2003, too, even after he was shown photos from that show. For the record, Hagar played the Morris on July 14, 2003, and July 1, 1997.

"I don't care how many times we've been here," Hagar said after Anthony joined him to play bass on three Van Halen songs. "I don't care if we've never been here. I just want to say I'm happy to be here."

That came through loud and clear. Once again.