Heavyweight Champs of Rock 'N Roll: David Lee Roth & Sammy Hagar
Verizon Wireless Music Center
Noblesville, IN
June 2, 2002

In the interests of full disclosure, I should preface this review of the Sammy Hagar/David Lee Roth show on June 4, 2002 in Nobelsville, Indiana by stating that I've always preferred Sammy to Dave. I'm one of those Van Halen fans who thinks 5150 was the group's best album, that Dave's role in the band was an entertaining though slightly annoying sideshow, and that Sammy's vocals finally brought a worthy complement to the Van Halen sound. Having said that, there's only one conclusion that any fair-minded fan could come to having witnessed the Hagar vs. Roth "competition" that took place near Indianapolis on Sunday night

Roth won.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was playing before a hometown crowd (less than 6,000, according to the local Indiana paper), but in terms of both style and substance, Roth came out on top. I was only about 12 rows back, and having a bird's eye view of the entire spectacle, I can say that Dave has aged well, the hair notwithstanding. There were times when, if you let yourself get lost in the moment, you would've sworn you were back in the late 70's, when Roth was truly on top of his game.

The first such moment, for me anyway, came during the sixth song in his set. Up until that point, I had been listening as a Van Hagar fan: respectful, but waiting for the main event. Roth opened with Hot For Teacher, then ran through Panama, And the Cradle Will Rock, Mean Street and Dance the Night Away with minimal banter. While his band was tight, and delivered solid renditions of each, I knew I was watching the DLR Band, not Van Halen. To be fair, most of the crowd didn't seem to notice the difference, and Roth did seem to get stronger and more confident with each song.

But my epiphany came during Runnin' With the Devil. Once the first chorus was underway, I was struck by the realization that this was what it must have been like to see Van Halen during the Roth era. The music, the crowd, and most of all, Dave, combined to create a certain atmosphere that held throughout the rest of the Roth set. My mind went back to uniquely Rothian phrase: "Sam throws a hell of a party, and I am the party." After that, for all intents and purposes, I was watching and listening to Van Halen.

Roth followed with I'm the One, and the magic held. Even the subsequent rendition of Eruption, which would not have been confused for Eddie's playing by anyone paying attention, didn't dampen the ardor of the moment. Roth came roaring back with You Really Got Me, Beautiful Girls, So This is Love, Atomic Punk, Little Dreamer, and Pretty Woman. This six-song run, flawlessly executed, really captured the flavor of Van Halen back in the day. Yankee Rose, which followed, was not as strong, but Roth still held the crowd, and more surprisingly, me.

The momentum slowed a little with Ice Cream Man, largely due to the delay caused by Roth's strumming and tuning up. Once underway, however, he recovered his momentum, and continued with a blistering three-song run of Everybody Wants Some, Unchained, and Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love. Only the encore, Jump, was something of a disappointment, musically speaking. Even there, however, Roth livened things up with an impressive baton-twirling exhibition during the piped-in keyboard solo.

Simply put, Dave truly captured the spirit of Van Halen. While his banter was minimal, and his on-stage athleticism a bit diminished with age, the momentum of his set was undeniably steady and consistent, and for the most part, climaxed with the conclusion of the show. With only his performance to stand on, Roth delivered big-time.

* * * * *

And then there was Sammy. He certainly got off to a hell of a start, opening with Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, immediately taking the crowd back to the first Van Hagar appearance at Farm Aid in 1986. It was as good, if not better, than anything Roth had done in the preceding hours (one Rothian I had traveled with was absolutely floored). With a start like this, I knew the best was yet to come.

I was wrong.

Hagar followed with Runaround, which revealed the first hint of trouble for the evening. It was good, but it wasn't Van Halen. Whereas Roth's guitarist did a pretty good job of capturing Eddie's style, if not all the substance, Hagar's seemed to have trouble. It was competent, but it didn't flow, and it was the first disappointment of the night.

Nevertheless, Hagar recovered with killer renditions of Three Lock Box and There's Only One Way to Rock. He sounded good . . .real good. Then, having established his momentum, Hagar brought it to a screeching halt with Give to Live, whose tempo was completely out of place given the preceding songs.

At this point, a contrived skit involving Hagar's bass player having to use the bathroom played out, whereupon Michael Anthony strolled out on stage to take up bass duties. It easily brought forth the largest cheer of the night, and should have given Hagar the momentum to "take the crown" for the evening. It did not. While it was great seeing Hagar and Anthony on stage together again, the subsequent Van Halen mini-set was marred by inadequate guitar work. Things got off to a good start with Top of the World (Anthony's vocals really made the difference), but Why Can't This Be Love was a bit weak. There then followed a truncated version of 5150, which lacked all of Eddie's signature guitar work. Poundcake came next, but was uninspiring. Finish What You Started had promise, recapturing the acoustic sound that Van Halen abandoned after the OU812 tour, but with Sammy's guitarist clearly not up to the complex guitar work in its entirety. Michael Anthony's appearance saved what would have otherwise been a pretty disappointing performance.

Anthony then departed the stage, and everything ground to a stop with an acoustic version of Where Eagles Fly, accompanied by new-age video on the jumbo-tron that had all the effect of a sedative. It took all the wind out of whatever momentum Michael Anthony had brought to the stage.

Hagar sauntered into a very competent version of Little White Lie, but which could not fully compensate for the drag of the preceding song. Sammy recovered somewhat with I Can't Drive 55, and Heavy Metal was perhaps the best performance of the night, and really restored the energy of the crowd. Sammy concluded with Mas Tequila, which was flawlessly performed, but perhaps better placed earlier in the setlist.

The biggest disappointment, however, was Hagar's encore: Dreams. Joined by Michael Anthony, what should have been a rousing finish was the lowest point of the evening. I do not exaggerate when I say it was the worst closing I've ever heard from any band. It literally sounded like everyone was playing the song in a different key. Moreover, given the pitch of the song, it was clearly at the limits of Sammy's vocal abilities, and coming at the end of the night, was out of his range.

* * * * *

I still prefer Sammy to Dave, and should make clear that Hagar at his best Sunday night was better than Roth. It's just that Hagar's best didn't include any of his Van Halen material, which was lacking in comparison to Dave's.

The Hagar show in Nobelsville was like a riding a Ferrari with a bad fuel injector. Lots of starts and stops, and no momentum. Roth's performance, by contrast, was like riding in a souped-up Chevy. Not as glamorous as a Ferrari, but it gets you where you want to go.

I wanted to go see Van Halen, and Dave got me there.

Review by Jon Jon Molinas

To be fair to Sammy I invited readers who were at the same show to give their "right of reply" in favour of Sammy. Here's the review of the same show by "StoneColdCrazy78".

To say that Dave won round four in Indianapolis would be an absurd assessment to say the least. To say Brian Young kicked Victor Johnson's ass might be a fairer read on the night. The dead on note for note mastery of Eddie Van Halen's licks that Brian put out could not be be equalled by Eddie if he were there.

At 7:30 Dave's band blasted out to Eruption and slammed through the same 19 song set they played in Cleveland in minimum amount of time. Dave's voice was rough. The bottle of tequila he had sittin' at the base of the drum kit seemed to help his vocals a bit. If not for the backing vocals this would have been a complete disaster.

Dave needs to straighten up or retire. The basics were sometimes missed. Holding the microphone close enough to his mouth. Singing lyrics. Remembering lyrics. His guitarists covered his ass big time. If he would have left a little time between in between songs and acknowledged the crowd a little more by saying more than "oh, here's another one we got" it could have been enjoyable.

19 songs in 80 minutes. It was a boring ass kickin from DLR's band, mainly due to Dave. The outfit was nice, I saw it on Freddie Mercury circa 1978.

Sammy, came out simply more polished and at the top of his game. Vocals were great. Victor Johnson is not Eddie Van Halen, and I don't think he wants to sound like Eddie, so with that in mind, I think he kicked some ass in his own style.

The set list was the same as Cleveland, except Red was replaced with Zeppelin's Rock And Roll and Right Now was dropped completely. Sammy got the crowd involved, and quite frankly did more with less.

The chemistry between Sammy and his band and the audience were amazing. It just wasn't there with Dave. Everything that was Van Halen in terms of that larger than life atmosphere is Sammy.

The only flaws I saw in Sammy's set came at the points that they put a microphone in front of Michael Anthony. His vocals were 10 times louder than anyone elses. But, that tells you how fired up the man must have been.

To best sum up the night, I brought a young lady who asked me during 'Hot For Teacher', "Which one is this?". Later that night after I told her that I was glad Sammy closed this show, she said, "If that Dave guy would have gone second I would have made you get up and leave." It's a shame really, Diamond Dave was just the raspy drunk on June 2. Hopefully it isn't that way on every tour stop.

Jun 22, 2001 - Notice
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