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[THE CATMAN]

"OH MY GOD!!!"-Hot For Teacher

Setlist
01. You Really Got Me
02. I'm the One
03. Runnin' With the Devil
04. Romeo Delight
05. Somebody Get Me a Doctor
06. Beautiful Girls
07. Dance the Night Away
08. Atomic Punk
09. Everybody Wants Some
10. So This Is Love?
11. Mean Street
12. Pretty Woman
13. Drum Solo
14. Unchained
15. I'll Wait
16. And the Cradle Will Rock
17. Hot for Teacher
18. Little Dreamer
19. Little Guitars
20. Jamie's Cryin'
21. Ice Cream Man
22. Panama
23. Guitar Solo
24. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
25. Jump

Damn,that was one hell of a show!!
I was happy and sad at once.
Happy to see DLR back with the VH Bros. and sad that Mikey Anthony wasn't around to make it a full reunion.
I saw the original VH in 1981 ,1983 & 1984 and I have never ever seen Van Hagar in concert.
I've seen solo DLR only once was back in 2003 which he played 90 % VH tunes but it made my nipples hard to see and hear 3/4ths of the classic line jamming those tunes together again.

It was one great song after another with no bullshit talking between songs like a certain Mr. Paul Stanley does with his band.
LESS TALK, MORE ROCK!!
It was all about the music last night, even though Dave did do some storytelling about backyard parties and keeping beer in his friend's ice cream truck right before Ice Cream man.
Dave sounded great,Alex tore it up on the drums & Eddie fuckin smoked on guitar!
Wofie wasn't that bad on bass and vocals but he did seem kind of out of place on stage but he's still a "newbie".
Radio DJ & VH1 Classic host Eddie Trunk made a funny comment awhile back about Wolfgang looking like the winner of a "Get To Play Bass With Van Halen" contest.
Wolf and daddy Eddie didn't run around the stage like Michael Anthony & Ed would back in the day and even Dave kept the gymnastics very minimum, just a few high kicks here and there.
Ed and Dave look to be in great pshyical shape for guys over 50.

The Houston crowd gave the band a thunderous ovation right after the opener You Really Got Me.
Romeo Delight was great for us die hard Diamond Dave VH era fans.
Atomic Punk kicked some major ass!!
I could have done without Pretty Woman.
Little Guitars & I'll Wait seem to be the restroom break songs.
EVH looked like he got a little emotional when the crowd started to chanted "Eddie, Eddie" right before his solo, he bowed and then pointed to his eye which looked a little teary on the big video screen.
DLR seems to be getting along with the VH family,lots of smiling, hugging and laughing onstage.

I bitched about the 80 dollar ticket price for the upper level seats I bought but it sure in the hell was worth it.
I've spent more than 80 bucks at a titty bar before but I don't remember it being this satisfying afterwards.

I have a few audio bootlegs from this tour so I kind of knew what to expect and it was beyond my expectations
Maybe we'll see an official dvd from this tour comes out this year.

"ROCK ON"-.. And The Cradle Will Rock

[THE CATMAN]

Houston Chronicle Review
---------------------------------
Van Halen gives, feels the love in Houston

Van Halen has only its namesake rock-hero shredding through tunes on the band's current reunion tour. But Monday night inside the Toyota Center, Eddie Van Halen was joined by an arena full of air guitarists.

It was a nonstop exchange of adulation, energy and fist-pumping earnestness.

A trim, vibrant Eddie shared the love with brother Alex (drums); shy teenage son Wolfgang (bass); and an energized David Lee Roth, who presided over the evening like a merry, slightly manic ringmaster.

Guys in the crowd suddenly reverted back to adolescence. They snapped cell-phone photos, pounded on imaginary drums and sang along to everything from Beautiful Girls and Dance the Night Away to Jamie's Cryin'.

It was exhausting to watch, to listen to, to be in the midst of for more than two hours. But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The weak-kneed result is really a testament to the (mostly) veteran band's almost superhuman energy. The levels were cranked up to ten and never subsided.

The crowd was populated by middle-aged dudes in ball caps, button-downs and slacks, parents with curious kids and the requisite gaggle of breathless females. There were even a few vintage T-shirts and pairs of leather pants.

A sizable Van Halen blimp slowly circled the inside of the arena just before the band took the stage, flashing lasers at the crowd. The inanimate object drew more attention than living, breathing opening act Ky-Mani Marley, who mixed originals with covers of his legendary father's tunes. Harmless -- and completely forgettable.

Eddie and his guitar soon roared to life amid a flurry of smoke and spotlights. It gave way to a frenetic, bombastic You Really Got Me, the band's first single; followed by a frenetic, bombastic I'm the One.

Subtlety is not this band's bag.

The show was loud in every way, from Eddie's jaw-dropping, did-he-just-do-that guitar work to Roth's crotch-hugging pants. Earplugs barely helped, and Roth's early vocals were sometimes drowned out by the band.

But the crowd, who reached into the upper levels of the arena, didn't seem to mind. And the payoffs eventually came.

Somebody Get Me a Doctor morphed into a blistering blues duet between Roth and Eddie, and Unchained still had considerable glam sparkle.

During the thundering gallop of Everybody Wants Some, Eddie glided over to Wolfgang and planted a kiss on his cheek. It felt spontaneous and sweet.

Roth is still a showman, all karate chops and lip curls and vaudeville smiles. He sparkled through a succession of ornate jackets and unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a surprisingly taut, toned torso.

"First time I was here was almost 30 years ago," Roth told the crowd. "I got relatives who live here. I know all the suburbs around here. I know this place like the back of my hand."

He didn't engage in much more than pump-you-up stage banter, but spectacle has always been Roth's forté. He led the crowd through a forceful sing-along of Runnin' With the Devil and paraded around the expanse stage with a joyful, Jagger swagger during Mean Street, And the Cradle Will Rock and Hot for Teacher. (No classroom bikini babe, though.)

Vocally, however, Roth's limitations were frequently apparent. He tends to shout through songs when he's excited -- which is basically all the time. He sounded particularly strained during Pretty Woman and amid the laughably outdated synth strains of I'll Wait.

He was better during Ice Cream Man, which came with an overlong intro about teenage parties, a few acoustic guitar riffs and kicky tempo switches. The band blasted through solid versions of Panama and Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love before closing with (of course) Jump, its personal pop pinnacle.

Roth hoisted a huge, inflatable microphone above his head and paraded through blasts of confetti before joining his band of brothers for a final blow.

And even as they disappeared backstage, the smiles never left their faces.

[King Edward]

A couple of solid reviews. Let'a hope a recording follows. I'd love to hear (or see) this one.

[THE CATMAN]

http://blogs.chron.com/handstamp/archives/show_reviews/
Houston Chronicle Review w/ Photos