By Shay Quillen
Mercury News

This time, they left the Jack Daniel's whiskey and the Cabo Wabo tequila on the shelf.

Van Halen's show Sunday night at HP Pavilion - its first in the Bay Area with singer David Lee Roth in more than 20 years - revealed a fun but thoroughly professional hard-rock band whose ethos has evolved from "lock up your daughters" to "bring along your sons."

Over two hours and 10 minutes with nary a power ballad in sight, a newly sober Eddie Van Halen expertly spun out his epochal guitar riffs while brother Alex pounded out rhythms and Eddie's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang, the band's newest member, competently reproduced the bass and vocal parts of exiled founder Michael Anthony. For this, he received several kisses on the cheek from his dad. (In keeping with the familial theme, Wolfgang's mom, actress Valerie Bertinelli, was spotted in the crowd.)

Meanwhile, Roth was positively aglow at his chance to be part of this family reunion, and to be back in front of an enthusiastic crowd made up mostly of folks old enough to have seen the band in its 1978-85 heyday, many with sons in tow.

Now free of the long blond mane that let him assume the role of '70s sex god, the clean-cut 53-year-old front man was revealed as a showbiz pro, a born performer who would have been slinging one-liners and doing song-and- dance in the Catskills if he'd been born 25 years earlier.

Roth's glee at being back in front of an adoring arena crowd threatened to overwhelm the music on the opening "You Really Got Me," a Kinks cover from the band's 1978 self-titled debut. Roth was so busy working the crowd that he hardly had time to sing the song, and an attempt to trade vocal licks with Van Halen's guitar was forced and awkward.

But the quartet soon got into a nice groove on the early numbers "I'm the One" and "Running With the Devil," before taking things up a notch with an extended "Romeo Delight" that incorporated, for no apparent reason, a bit of the Who's "Magic Bus."

Clean, simple staging echoed the band's straightforward musical approach. The four musicians worked at the center of the stage, with a platform curving up behind the drum riser and a catwalk swirling out into the front of the house, creating a giant S from above. A massive video screen behind gave everyone a front-row seat.

Roth's voice has barely lost a step in the past quarter-century, and he remains a whirlwind of energy, though his flying kicks now appear carefully calibrated to avoid pulling a groin muscle.

It was refreshing to hear great rockers such as "Atomic Punk" and "Everybody Wants Some" bashed out by a scrappy little power trio with a still-strong vocalist. The band was less successful when it was playing along to prerecorded synth tracks for material from its last album with Roth, "1984," though a headlong version of that album's drum-and-guitar- crazy "Hot for Teacher" was one of the evening's most exciting moments.

Roth emerged alone with an acoustic guitar to deliver a Garrison Keillor- style rap about the band's suburban roots before launching into "Ice Cream Man," the blues novelty from the group's first album. The band kicked in after the first verse.

"Panama" followed, and then a 15-minute Van Halen guitar showcase that could have served as his audition reel for the guitar god hall of fame. Guitar heads in the crowd could follow along with every hammer-on as the entire video screen was taken up by Eddie's fretboard and his fabulous fingers.

After a well-deserved ovation, the band roared through "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love" and left the stage, only to return a minute later for the obligatory "Jump," the original band's only No. 1 hit, complete with confetti and a disco ball. Again, the synthetic backing track detracted from the band's power.

Ky-Mani Marley, reggae great Bob Marley's third-most-talented son, delivered an opening set that grabbed the audience's attention only when he was performing uninspired covers of his dad's best-known songs.

[Return to Current Headlines]