From Jim Liotta (JmLVH)

https://www.dailygazette.com/life_and_arts/still-kicking—roth-overdelivers-at-proctors-concert/article_0db239b2-302a-4fc7-a88c-ea86d1643664.html

Still kicking – Roth overdelivers at Proctors concert
Ted Remsnyder 4 hrs ago
Thursday, May 28, 2026

SCHENECTADY — David Lee Roth’s reputation preceded him before he arrived at Proctors Theatre on Tuesday night and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Several social media clips showing Roth performing on his spring tour had gone viral for the former Van Halen singer’s shaky lead vocals, so expectations were tempered heading into his Schenectady date. But reputation be damned, Roth overdelivered in a two hour, 10-minute show filled to the brim with Van Halen hits and Roth’s circus ringleader antics.

The last time I saw Roth at The Chance rock club in Poughkeepsie in 2003 was the only instance out of hundreds of concerts that I’ve attended that I walked out after several songs due to the dreadfulness of the performance.

That show, which was moved from the nearby 3,000-capacity Mid-Hudson Civic Center to the 900-person The Chance due to low ticket sales, started with Roth spraying the crowd with a bottle of Jack Daniels and went downhill from there.

With a county-fair level band butchering the Van Halen catalog and Roth leering at the crowd, the following approximate conversation transpired between myself and my father after three songs.

“This sucks,” I said.

“Do you wanna leave?” he asked.

“Yes.”

The 2003 version of Roth came off like a lecherous lounge lizard desperate to hold onto the glory days of the 1980s, but time has softened the former Van Halen singer. The 71-year-old Roth that showed up to Proctors on Tuesday has adopted more of a dirty grandpa persona, with the overall atmosphere of his show morphing from sleazy to fun over the decades.

The theater was roughly half-full for Roth’s Tuesday night show, but that didn’t stop Roth from giving an arena-level frontman performance that had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Fortunately there was no opening act on Tuesday, with Roth and his band taking the stage at 7:52 p.m. and blasting into “Panama,” a stone-cold classic from Van Halen’s “1984.”

Roth doesn’t sing much these days, preferring to yelp, scat and talk his way through the Van Halen songbook, with Roth adding long, ribald stories in the middle of most songs, touching on topics from eight-tracks, Bill Clinton and roach clips, and that was all in the first song.

While the vocals were sometimes spotty, the setlist on Roth’s current tour is undeniable, with the show eschewing all of Roth’s solo career to focus entirely on the slew of Van Halen hits that Roth made with the band in his original run as lead singer from 1972 to 1985.

Roth also had the assistance of four male backup singers who covered him in the verses and belted out Van Halen’s classic choruses.

During “Little Dreamer,” Roth was in fine voice, though he struggled a bit through the back-to-back dose of Van Halen summer anthems in “Beautiful Girls” and “Dance the Night Away.”

After a multi-year hiatus from touring after his last tour with Van Halen ended in 2015, Roth launched a nationwide tour last year with a new solo band, with the trek now spilling into a second year with two dozen more dates.

Following the 2020 death of Eddie Van Halen and the semi-retirement of his drummer brother Alex Van Halen, Roth is the only member of the original group out there pumping out the hits from the band’s golden era. While Sammy Hagar and original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony tour frequently together, the Hagar setlist mostly sticks to his era with the band.

So even at a reduced performing level, there’s still value to Roth hitting the road and giving the crowd the red meat Van Halen standards they desire.

Guitarist Al Estrada did his level best on Tuesday of replicating Eddie Van Halen’s parts, with “Jamie’s Cryin’” and “Unchained” crushing in the back half of the show.

There was no Roth merch for sale at Proctors, not even a simple tour shirt with Roth’s face on it, adding to the ramshackle feeling of this tour.

There was a good amount of filler in the show, mostly from Roth’s elongated mid-sing rants, but most were entertaining, particularly an excursion during “I’m the One” where he complained about the rising cost of both gasoline and egg salad sandwiches.

In an odd way, the artist that came to mind frequently throughout Roth’s Proctors show was Bob Dylan. The similarities may end here, but entering a Dylan or Roth show in 2026 requires a shift in expectations. If you go into a Dylan show expecting his voice to sound like it did on the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue, you’re bound to be disappointed. But if you can tune into the wavelength of Dylan’s vocal rhythms and cadence at 85 years old, there’s a lot of joy still to be had at modern-day Dylan shows.

Roth was full of joy at Proctors, with a smile plastered on his face for the two-plus hours he was on stage on Tuesday, with Roth closing the night with Van Halen’s biggest hit “Jump.”

For whatever his vocal limitations are these days, a Roth solo tour is simply a good excuse to hear those Van Halen hits pumping out of a live PA, and that’s enough to justify keeping this show on the road until the wheels fall off.