Stuart Derdeyn, The Province

VAN HALEN
Where: GM Place
When: Wednesday night
Grade: A-

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Van Halen Kicks A--!

That was the very first T-shirt I saw coming up the stairs. The second one to draw my attention was the giant guy with "Got Roth" on the front of his T along with "David Lee Roth IS Van Halen." Well, he certainly is an essential ingredient.

But there is that guitar player.

Seeing Eddie Van Halen pull out his bag of tricks just might never grow old. The guitarist's arsenal of creative techniques and sonic vocabulary on the six strings is still astounding. He doesn't so much approach his leads as he uncoils them, striking out in all directions with one underlying goal: The Killer Riff.

Beginning with "You Really Got Me," the group tore into the show like it had something to prove. The already shirtless and sweaty Eddie drove into the Kinks' classic with gusto, Roth nailed one of his signature tornado kicks in the first 90 seconds and Alex Van Halen pounded like a neanderthal on a wooly mammoth's skull.

What of young Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son and the replacement for the band's longtime bassist, Michael Anthony?

Well, besides the fact that Baby Rock is living out just about the coolest family vacation anyone could ask for, he was also up to the job. Particularly nailing all of those three-part harmonies that make a tune like "Dance the Night Away" rise over the ordinary.

Not that the sold-out crowd would've been bothered by the group pulling out some of its few filler tunes from the Roth era. A more devoted group of motorcycle enthusiasts, working dudes and headbangers would've been hard to find. Where Sunday's Spice Girls reunion was at about a five-to- one ratio of girls to boys, last night at GM Place was the exact reverse. They came to pah-tay with their fave pardy rawkers. Which meant the occasional flaring of tempers and heated exchanges -- or worse.

Hey, did you know that they have emergency seat covers to deal with those nasty occasions when a tad too much of that whiskey you took home decides to free itself? Now I do.

Standing or staggering, one thing was for sure. There was no embarrassment in playing air guitar along with "Little Dreamer" or that sledgehammer progression in "Everybody Wants Some." This is the band that made many an OK guitar player just retire their instruments altogether and leave the solos to the experts.

There certainly were a good many opportunities to hear Eddie cut loose, too. In a set list that heavily favoured the group's first four albums, the quartet pulled out surprises such as "Atomic Punk" and "Somebody Get Me a Doctor," alongside classics such as "Unchained" and "Beautiful Girls." Roth and Van Halen looked fighting fit and like they were having a genuinely good time on stage together. Ever fighting the urge to release his inner lounge singer, Roth just couldn't stop smiling: at his fellow players, at the audience, at the idea of being back on top again.

From the clean and crisp sound mix to the well-shot megatronic video screen, there wasn't a thing out of place last night. Well, OK, Alex Van Halen has a drum kit straight out of Freaks & Geeks with not one, not two, but six bass drums, and the stage had this big runway that hardly was used. Minor quibbles.

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