So let's talk about that DLR show

Set of Van Halen classics at M3 Festival draws mixed reviews

If you’d asked me a few days ago whether or not I’d buy a ticket to see David Lee Roth live, my answer would have been an unequivocal no. Despite the fact that Diamond Dave was my first rock concert way back around 1986, and I enjoyed it immensely, I haven’t been a fan of the weird and wacky stuff that he’s done as he’s gotten older. I’d be concerned that I was walking into a deranged lounge act rather than a rock show.

But then the video from this weekend’s M3 Festival started to trickle out, and I have to admit that I was intrigued.

For the Hagar fans out there with the vein popping out in their foreheads waiting to tell me how this sucked and how much better Hagar is, save your breath. I’ve heard them all, and there’s no argument that’s going to convince me the polished pop of the Hagar era was even close to the raw rock ‘n’ roll of those early records, much less better. Go pop on 5150 and enjoy, but I won’t be joining you.

Back to the show.

The first thing I noticed was that DLR has put together a solid and impressive backing band. Yes, it took four guys, sometimes six, to match the classic harmonies of Michael Anthony and Eddie Van Halen, but they still sounded fantastic. If you take Dave and the emotions out of the equation, I don’t think anyone could deny that.

When Roth started singing, I was expecting a bit of a Vince Neil-level trainwreck, but I was pleasantly surprised. Did he sound like he did at 25? Absolutely not, but how many of us can do the things we did at 25? I know I can’t, and I’m a lot younger than Dave. To me, it sounded better than pretty much any video I’ve seen of him in quite a few years.

Were there some cringy moments? Sure. “Unchained,” in particular, stands out as a bit of a mess as DLR kind of wandered around the stage mumbling incoherently as the band and backing vocalists carried the song. But for the most part, I thought the show was pretty good.

It looked like Dave and the band were having fun. It seemed like the crowd was having fun. What more can you ask for?

While most of the reaction to the show that I’ve seen have been positive, there has been a very negative contingent who are mostly Sammy fans, and that’s fine. He’s out there doing his thing, too, and with a really good band backing as well. Would it be cool if Dave, Sammy, Alex, and Michael could get together and do some sort of tribute with some killer guest guitarists? Yeah, it would be great, but I don’t think that’s likely. That being the case, it’s nice now that fans of both eras get to pick their poison — or see both.

So, would I buy a David Lee Roth ticket? If I knew that I were going to get the show that he put on this weekend, yes, absolutely. It may not be perfect — or even close — but it looked like a hell of a lot of fun to me.

Would you?