By Michael Swanger

Photos by Darren Tromblay

A few years ago, when hip-hop replaced rock as the dominate form of music on television and the pop charts, and pundits debated whether rock was dead, a few celebrity musicians like the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan pleaded for the original Van Halen lineup to reunite in an effort to save rock music and “kick everybody’s ass.” But had they witnessed Van Halen’s show on Feb. 6 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, they might have recanted.

On tour to promote one of the most improbable reunions in rock history, given the bad blood since their split in 1985, the return of David Lee Roth to Van Halen last Wednesday seemed more than a ploy to cash in on fans’ nostalgia than an effort to revive rock. While on one hand it was difficult to ignore the excitement of seeing “Diamond Dave” onstage again with Eddie and Alex Van Halen, on the other it was painful to see the one-time rock warriors occasionally limp through some of the musical doors they used to kick down with attitude to spare.

By the way, don’t call this a reunion. As Roth acknowledged to an Omaha crowd a few nights before the Des Moines show, saying the lineup was “three-quarters original and one-quarter inevitable.” In Des Moines, it was clear the band missed the driving rhythms and stage presence of founding bassist Michael Anthony, whose shoes were left unfilled by Eddie’s pudgy-pimple-faced-goth-geek 16-year-old son Wolfgang.

On the upside, credit Van Halen for not making the more than 9,500 Generation X and Baby Boomer fans (and their children and grandchildren) sit on their hands while playing songs from a new album that few likely would have cared about, as is the case with so many veteran rock bands these days. Fans who shelled out big bucks to see and hear Van Halen perform their pre-1985 classic hits, sans Sammy Hagar, weren’t disappointed as the quartet ripped through a bevy of them like the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “Jamie’s Cryin’,” “Panama,” “Hot For Teacher,” “I’ll Wait,” “Somebody Get Me A Doctor,” “Dance the Night Away,” “Everybody Wants Some,” “Beautiful Girls” and the late bluesman John Brim’s “Ice Cream Man.” The band also performed a few obscure older tunes, like “Atomic Punk” and “Mean Streets,” though when played at half speed, seemed tame.

When Van Halen stayed on task and performed record-length versions of their hits they were very highly effective. Roth’s 53-year-old voice and near bare-chested physique were surprisingly spry, though by the end of the night it appeared as though he labored a tad to hit the high notes. Gone are the days of Roth’s high roundhouse leg kicks and wild stage antics, replaced by short hair, muttonchops, geeky grins, shiny matador outfits and little banter.

The same, however, can’t be said for the Van Halens. A shirtless Eddie, who hung close to a microphone in front of brother Alex’s drum kit most of the night, provided ample rhythm guitar and back-up vocals, but not much showmanship. His solos, when reigned in, provided the spark many songs needed — even when he quoted a few less hard rock blues licks (the kind he swore during the ’80s he would never play). But when they were excessive — like the schizophrenic 10 minute “Eruption” he smugly ho-hummed his way through with the help of boring volume swells — his playing was cliché, which one could chock up to the downside of being a legend after having inspired generations of guitarists who have advanced the ground he pioneered. The same went for Alex, who is starting to look like the exhumed body of the late jazz great Buddy Rich, and who relied on effects and double bass-drum beaters to bash his way through an uneventful 10 minute drum solo.

But by the end of the night, after two hours of sing-a-longs, all was forgotten by the confetti-draped audience as the band climaxed the evening with a rousing version of “Jump” from the band’s classic “1984” album. Whether or not Van Halen and Roth can save rock is doubtful, but at the very least they’re skilled at preserving its past. CV

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