May 10, 1979 review: Van Halen in the Aud

 


The 29th stop on the tour that turned Van Halen into stars. They poured all their flash and energy into it. 

May 10, 1979 

Van Halen’s Sideshow Turns

Teen Concert into Real Circus

Harvey Weinstein celebrates the seventh anniversary of Harvey and Corky Wednesday night by stepping onstage to announce that Van Halen has sold out. Mark that one down in your history books: First time Memorial Auditorium has sold out without anybody sitting in the orange seats.

         Realistically, there’s something like 7,500 hyperactive teenagers in T-shirts and denims, primed in the parking lots and ready now to let off steam with the hottest new hard rock band in the land.

         Van Halen does not disappoint them. The quartet from Los Angeles lays out 90 minutes of hard-driving, big-megawatt sound with plenty of flash and panache.

         Inspiring most of the excitement is singer David Lee Roth. His hair is long, blond and shaggy. His red pants are low-cut and held up by suspenders. He dashes and leaps from one end of the stage to the other, kicking his legs high and tantalizing the girls with a wag of his skinny hips.

         Roth is the latest in a long succession of sassy blues-rock frontmen. He likes to stir things up. He’s free and easy with certain four-letter words and at one point he refuses to continue unless the security force abandons the barriers in front of the stage.

         He lives to regret it. Fans snatch at the scarf hanging from his pants and drag him to the floor. One of the stagehands has to rush in and retrieve him.

         “Somebody here tried to pull my pants off,” he remarks.

         Guitarist Edward Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony bounce around gleefully with their cordless instruments, sometimes stalking each other like infantrymen.

         At one point, Roth and Van Halen reach around Anthony to play his bass for him. Later on, Van Halen throws himself repeatedly against his speaker cabinets. The crowd loves it.

         All this physical play is accompanied by extravagant lighting. The best special effect is saved for drummer Alex Van Halen (Edward’s brother), whose snares erupt in flames for the second and final encore.

         As for the music, the live show is no substitute for the records. In the studio, Van Halen concocts a buoyant blend of old-time blues, ‘60s pop and ‘70s heavy metal. In person, they’re all mud and thunder.

         Only those fans who have played Van Halen’s two albums to death could recognize one number from another. The vocals are virtually indistinguishable.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Van Halen in Memphis on June 7, 1979.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: The abrupt ending of this review is a clue that it must have gotten cut from the bottom. Probably lost was a mention of the opener for this show, Robert Fleischman, lead singer with Journey briefly in 1977 and with the band Asia in 1985-86.

Van Halen was hot already when they visited Buffalo for the first time in March 1978 as the opening act for Montrose and Journey in the Century Theater. My colleague Dan Herbeck reviewed that show and was impressed most by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing. September brought them back as openers for Black Sabbath in the Niagara Falls Convention Center.

For this, the World Vacation Tour, they were headliners on a succession of 97 arena shows. It began in Fresno on March 25, went to Japan for six dates in September, including the Budokan, and finally ended Oct. 7 in the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Here's what they did, according to setlist.fm, and they apparently performed the same set every night:

Light Up the Sky

Somebody Get Me a Doctor

(drum solo)

Runnin' With the Devil

Dance the Night Away

Beautiful Girls

On Fire

(bass solo)

You're No Good (Dee Dee Warwick cover)

Jamie's Cryin'

Feel Your Love Tonight

Outta Love Again

Ice Cream Man (John Brim cover)

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

(guitar solo)

You Really Got Me (Kinks cover)

Bottoms Up!

Wikipedia lists "Growth" and "Atomic Punk" as extra encore numbers.

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