Van Halen 2/25/08

They still got it.  They haven't gotten fat and pathetic.  As a matter of fact Diamond Dave has abs of steel.  Alex looked like he could be a Rolling Stone but his brother still busts out solos like it was 1978 and even used a power drill on his guitar strings for "Runnin with the Devil."  Wolfgang Van Halen (the new 15 year old bassist son of Eddie) is a bit of a portly fella, he must get that from the Bertinelli side.  Hey, Michael Anthony (original bassist), what did Eddie's five fingers say to your face... SLAP!!!!!!  The stage set up was pretty cool in that it had an S shaped catwalk that started above and behind the main stage floor and snaked around into the crowd about 25 rows deep along with a gigantically wide TV screen behind it all.  Alex's drum set nearly wrapped all the way around him with a huge gong directly behind him that I don't recall him actually using.  They started out the greatest hits filled night with "You Really Got Me Now" and Dave showing off the toe-touch spinning kicks that he has down to science by now.  One surprising thing was seeing DLR break out his acoustic guitar and play the first half of "Ice Cream Man."  I didn't know he could do that.  They played some of there hokier songs like the previously mentioned tune and their cover of "Pretty Woman" and their original "Dance the Night Away," but not their cover of "Dancin in the Streets" thank God.  For the most part they played their harder hitting songs like "Panama," "Unchained," and "And the Cradle will Rock..."  They saved "Jump" for the single song encore.  As campy as that song is (and the even worse music video), it has a lot to do with the person I am today.  When I was 5 years old, my older brother, Brian, used to play it on his keyboards for me and I would watch him and think I was seeing God himself.  There was no turning back after that.  Strangely, there wasn't anyone playing keyboards on stage for "Jump" or "I'll Wait" or any other song for that matter.  Over all I feel like I got my money's worth, even though it was rescheduled twice, and it was a MILF paradise.  Eddie and David Lee Roth seemed as if they were getting along well.  We'll all just have to wait and see what the future holds for the boys.