Review by John McIsaac - JohnM@hihmh.com

Well, I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to you, but Dave rocked the house in Portland last night.

I’m not gonna bore you with song-by-song details. The setlist was the same for this show as all the previous ones I’ve seen posted on this site. What I witnessed last night brought a tear to my eye twice for completely different but equally significant reasons.

First, those of us in the audience got to witness an hour-long, flawlessly executed, old-school, high-intensity, visceral and wholly professional ROCKSHOW. No gimmicks, no fancy lights and no tricks. Just 100-percent pure, unadulterated entertainment.

Dave, Todd Jensen, Bart Walsh and Ray Luzier played all the old favorites with big smiles on their faces. I’d read that it was like seeing a Classic Van Halen tribute band. That wasn’t so. It was a legendary rock frontman playing his own great songs, period. And Dave’s voice sounded terrific. No, he can’t do ALL the old screams, but hey, he’s 44 now. For those of us who love Classic Van Halen, it was awesome: We got all the showmanship kicks, tongue-wags, hip-shimmies and exaggerated facial expressions. Dave and the entire band were fit and completely sober, so the tunes sounded great too.

But the most emotionally moving element of the show was just how much David Lee Roth loves to perform. It certainly shows. Toward the end of the show, it was obvious to me and my wife how lucky he feels to be able to do this for a living. During the final choruses of each of the last two songs, several times he mouthed, "Thank you. thank you very much," off the mike to the audience.

After the encore, Dave stayed on stage a little longer than the band to bask in the limelight, and it was completely apparent that his prolonged curtain call wasn’t an ego massage, it was a great big thank-you to his fans. It was wholeheartedly received as such. Nobody’s gonna get rich off this tour. Dave is doing this for the love of good music, and that’s exactly why you should buy a ticket and go to his show.

Diamond Dave came, saw, and wowed 'em all at the Rose Garden Arena on Wednesday! I won't go on about the set list, it is the same as all the other shows on this tour. But, I was glad that during "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", he didn't do ANY Sammy or Gerry Bashing!

His gutairist IS right on the money with his Eddie licks, and the drummer was just as good as Alex =VH= ! The cool part of Diamond Dave's set was teasing his bass player, Todd Jensen, about behaving in front of his home town crowd! Yep, 'ole Todd hails from Portland (YEAH!!), and used to rock in a killer local band way back called SEQUEL!

The show was most excellent, and I have to tell you all that here during "Jump", he did not do any flying leaps off the drum riser! It looked like there wasn't any room to do that! There were people of ALL ages there, I saw a 40ish mom with her three little daughters a few rows ahead of me, and they all were happily shouting and yelling to Diamond Daves set!! There were actully a LOT of folks with their young ones at this show, due I'm sure to Bad Company headlining. But I KNOW that Diamond Dave has won over a new, young generation of fans here in The City of Roses!!

Take it from me cyber folks, do yourselves a rockin' favor and catch this show when they come to your town! Diamond Dave IS worth the price of your ticket! Rock On, Dave!!!

Hot For Teacher
Panama
Little Guitars
Dance The Night Away
Mean Street
Runnin' With The Devil
Eruption
You Really Got Me
So This Is Love?
Yankee Rose
Tobacco Road
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Unchained

Jump

DLR Solo: 02
Van Halen: 12

Total: 14

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