One of the more admirable qualities about that lip-smacking would-be gigolo in leather bell-bottoms, David Lee Roth, is that he could always laugh at himself.

And Roth did a lot of laughing Tuesday at the sold-out Allstate Arena, where the partially reunited Van Halen rocked songs that date back to the eight-track cassette era: an atomic cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," "And the Cradle Will Rock," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," "Jump."

Van Halen doesn't have this reunion thing down to a science yet: They ousted founding bassist Michael Anthony and replaced him with guitarist Eddie Van Halen's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. The kid did just fine, but his presence on this tour is emblematic of the ego wars that derailed the band in the last decade. During these wayward years, Van Halen briefly reconciled with its second most-famous lead singer, Sammy Hagar, for a $54 million tour.

This time the band ignored the nine top-40 hits it scored with Hagar in 1985-96, and focused on a different kind of nostalgia: the six albums it recorded with Roth, from 1978 to 1984. Though not a singer or musician on par with Hagar, Roth is a more entertaining front man, and the personality associated with the band's most durable songs. It was a much leaner show than the '04 Hagar tour, 25 songs packed into two hours with a minimum of pyrotechnics and only one drum solo (the band plays a second Chicago show Thursday at the United Center).

Roth didn't sing, exactly, but he did bark, yelp, and smile a lot. He was on his best behavior, focusing on the songs and deferring to the Van Halen family members. He even hugged Eddie Van Halen a few times; the least he could do for walking back into a job that pays the band about $1.5 million a night.

For the fans, it was the tour they'd been anticipating since they were sporting mullets. With the notable exception of Anthony, it was an adequate reincarnation of the band in its leering, pop-metal glory. The boys may be in their 50s now, but they still screamed about hot girls, hot teachers and runnin' with the devil like hormone-addled teenagers.

Roth's boys-will-be-boys shenanigans were balanced by the still awe- inspiring virtuosity of Eddie Van Halen. While the rhythm section clubbed away, the guitarist turned six strings into a mini-orchestra. The night's finest entertainment was on the big screen behind the stage, which showed close-ups of Van Halen's hands at work. In "Jamie's Cryin'," he alternated raffish commentary with a lost-in-space solo.

After recovering from cancer, hip surgery and alcoholism, the still-lean guitarist made sure that Roth wasn't the only one having a laugh on stage.

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