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JUNE 5
CLEVELAND FREE TIMES
June 5-11, 2002

David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar
Blossom Music Center | Wednesday, May 29

The David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar concert was promoted more like a wrestling
match than a rock ‘n’ roll concert. Even before the start of the tour (which
kicked off at Blossom), you had Dave and Sammy on Howard Stern throwing more
mud than a monster truck rally and fueling rumors that the tour won’t last,
not because of low attendance but because of conflict between the two
ex-Halen vocalists. In true Sam vs. Dave fashion, we’ve got two reviews, one
that scores Roth the winner and one that gives the nod to Hagar.

Pro-Roth: His voice might have sounded good and his band might have played
well, but Sammy Hagar gave off a Jimmy Buffett vibe (Hawaiian shirts, clown
wigs and tequila) that forced me back to the VIP section and the coveted
beer stand.

As a kid, I always loved David Lee Roth-era Van Halen, but because of a
punk-rock allegiance, I never had the balls to go see the band when Diamond
Dave was at the helm. So now, a little more than two decades later, I
finally got my chance to see Diamond Dave.

And I was totally stoked. He came wearing gold pants and sporting his
trademark long blond hair. He immediately showed off a few martial arts
kicks. The set consisted almost entirely of classic Halen songs. Still the
Vegas showman, he put on an amazing show. Not as perfect as Hagar’s band,
his group still played well. “Unchained” felt a bit rushed, but the rest of
the material was delivered precisely. The pavilion was packed and the crowd
ate up every minute of Roth’s antics. For an encore, he played 1984’s “Jump”
and proved all skeptics wrong by doing all the patented stage moves, even
leaping off the drums with that famous splitso jump. Age has not yet got the
best of Double D. — Jack McLimans

Pro-Hagar: Sammy Hagar is a ham. During his 90-minute performance, he drank
margaritas, smashed a piñata made to look like a bottle of tequila, and
flirted with a waitress who came out to bring him cold beverage after cold
beverage. As entertainment, it’s low-IQ stuff — silly, stupid and sexist.
But it also set the bar high for Roth, the original Van Halen vocalist whom
Hagar replaced in 1985.

While Roth had all the best tunes to play (early Halen is hands-down
better), Hagar came out victorious in this battle of egos. Part of the
reason Hagar was better was simply because of his track record. He fronted
Montrose in the ’70s, started a solo career, joined Van Halen, and then
returned to his solo career. He’s been steadily performing since the ’70s.
Roth’s solo career never amounted to anything, and he hasn’t played
regularly in years.

And it showed. Hagar’s band flawlessly played everything from solo hits such
as “Mas Tequila” and “I Can’t Drive 55” to Halen songs such as “Finish What
Ya Started.” By the time the set ended with a flurry of confetti, Hagar had
made his point. He might not be able to do karate kicks, but his showmanship
is derived from the music, not the dance moves. And the clincher? Hagar
doesn’t wear a wig. — Jeff Niesel

DAILY SOUTHTOWN
Sam, Dave bring back Van Halen memories
Tuesday, June 4, 2002
By Eloise Marie Valadez
Staff writer

It was as close to a Van Halen reunion as fans would get anytime soon.

Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth landed their double-bill concert at the
Tweeter Center in Tinley Park on Saturday evening and led audience members
down a memory lane of two decades worth of rocking tunes.

Titled the “Sam and Dave” tour, the show placed each of the rockers in the
spotlight for a 90-minute segment of his signature music and Van Halen
favorites.

While the performance energy was explosive and revved up for both former Van
Halen frontmen, the concert overall didn’t come close to the dynamic sounds
they exhibited during their stints with Van Halen.
Hagar took the stage to audience cheers at exactly 7:30 p.m. and, from the
beginning, threw a high-voltage beach party.

Known to his fans as the “Red Rocker,” Hagar delivered a rebel rousing set
of his own hits as well as a handful of Van Halen tunes.

The singer/guitarist never stopped moving as he ran across the stage,
summoned drinks from his waitresses who were waiting behind the scenes (he
has his own brand of tequila), sprinkled sand from Cabo Wabo on the stage
and donned a number of T-shirts and beach towels taken from the audience.
Dressed in bright yellow print pants, yellow shirt, sunglasses and colorful,
jazzy looking sneakers, Hagar proved a rambunctious spitfire in concert. His
band, the Waboritas, provided a highly charged musical backdrop for the
rocker.

Included on his playlist were “There’s Only One to Rock,” “Mas Tequila” and
“Give to Live.”
The highlight of Hagar’s set, however, was the appearance of Van Halen
bassist Michael Anthony who performed a selection of the band’s hits with
the rocker.

Hagar said Anthony is making only a few appearances on the tour. Fans, who
welcomed Anthony with cheers, were treated to a performance of VH tunes,
including “Why Can’t This Be Love,” “Dreams,” “Top of the World” and
“Poundcake.”

While Hagar’s vocals have held up pretty well, David Lee Roth’s ability to
hit the high notes has diminished.

Fans also welcomed Roth to the stage with open arms and shouts, but the
singer, known for his high screams, gutsy vocal delivery and flamboyant
antics on stage, didn’t quite hit the mark this time around.

Appearing in skin-tight, black, leather pants, the long-haired and buffed
rocker was still high energy in his performance, throwing in his signature
karate-like kicks (though not as many nor as high as in the past) and risque
mannerisms.

Audience members, though, were eager to hear Roth’s Van Halen hits, and his
segment was filled with them.

Early on, Roth did well with “Hot for Teacher,” “Panama,” “Runnin’ With the
Devil” and “Dance the Night Away.”

Near the concert’s end, his parched performance of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”
didn’t cause near the sparks of his Van Halen renditions.

Other tunes performed by Roth included the blockbuster “Jump,” “So This Is
Love,” “Unchained” and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.”

For Van Halen admirers in the audience, the Hagar-Roth pairing seemed to
satisfy a hunger to hear the old rockin’ hits again.

Now, bring on Eddie!

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR
June 3, 2002

Roth hot, Hagar solid in Van Halen classics

By David Lindquist

The rock ‘n’ roll showdown between Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth featured
heavy hits but no defeating blows Sunday night at Verizon Wireless Music
Center.

So, because neither of the ex-Van Halen vocalists stumbled, any selection of
a “winner” remains open for debate.

Hagar, who drew the closing assignment for this date on a tour of
alternating headliners, turned in a technically flawless performance and
even brought out Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony on a handful of
songs.

Roth delivered sustained thrills and isolated moments of greatness during a
performance dominated by Van Halen classics.

The California band never experienced a downturn with Roth, who subsequently
saw his solo career unravel.
Hagar hit high peaks with Van Halen, but there were diminishing returns
across his 10-year tenure. Still, unlike Roth, Hagar has had a fruitful
career both before and after Van Halen.

The odd couple fits rather easily into a Biblical parable: Roth as the
prodigal son who returns to a big party; Hagar as the steady-working and
less-flashy brother.

Hagar wants to be a party animal, as evidenced by his namesake tequila
breaks, clown wig and onstage cheering sections for fans. But rehearsed
revelry and genuine excitement rarely intersect.

Roth, who last played Indianapolis as a low-key opener for Bad Company in
1999, put a charge in the audience through his physical appearance alone.

He seemed to have stepped directly from 1982 — rocking a peroxide mane,
black vinyl pants and a shirtless physique that would shame Axl Rose or
Anthony Kiedis.

While the voice came and occasionally went, Roth rebounded with a dream set
list that probably eclipsed what Van Halen played on its “1984” tour.

Consider a finishing sprint that included “Ice Cream Man,” “Everybody Wants
Some,” “Unchained,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” and “Jump” in succession.

Unexpected twists defined the Roth era of Van Halen. “Ice Cream Man,” as it
warps from acoustic ditty to razor-sharp electric assault. “I’m the One,” as
a cocktail of punk rock and vaudeville tossed right over the pop-metal
plate.

Hagar’s era was one of professional craftsmanship, uplifting lyrics and
salacious innuendo. Minus Eddie and Alex Van Halen, Hagar maintained those
qualities with “Dreams” and “Poundcake.”

Even without a clear winner or loser, the night provided plenty to dissect
along personal preferences. In short, Roth was hot and Hagar was solid.
At 5,500, the show attracted virtually the same size of audience that showed
up for Van Halen’s post-Hagar tour stop in 1998.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

June 3, 2002

Frontmen sizzle and fizzle.

Everyman Hagar still thrills; Roth’s flash out of style

By Brad Cawn
There’s good news for disgruntled former Van Halen frontmen everywhere: If
David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar can make amends, there’s hope for the happily
washed-up rock star in all of us.

An interesting marriage of convenience was on display Saturday: an odd
couple with no love lost between them, who yet needed each other to fill out
an amphitheater the size of the Tweeter Center. They also needed Eddie Van
Halen’s songs to make it work. He was quite the phantom menace this evening
— the subject of veiled insults from both vocalists, his touch was all over
the separate set lists. And despite the ambivalence of the stars, guitarists
Brian Young and Victor Johnson both faithfully reproduced every lick and
riff from the VH canon.

Roth, who guided Van Halen through its early breakthroughs, looked
particularly ancient this evening, seeming none too dissimilar from Ricardo
Montalban’s titular figure in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

Roth flubbed his lines and karate kicked the air, totally oblivious to fact
that what was once considered “flamboyant” is now meek and corny by even the
most lenient standards. Time has passed him by.

But no matter: Roth is so beyond relevance that even he knows it, hence a
set culled entirely of pre-1984 Halen except for his own “Yankee Rose.” His
ever-thinning voice was buried deep in the mix and his band raced through 20
numbers at a NASCAR-like speed. Roth showed flashes of the old energy in the
opening for “Hot for Teacher,” then sleepwalked through most of the
blitzkrieg set (“Mean Street,” “I’m the One”), finally waking up for a taut
version of “Atomic Punk” before going limp again as he closed with “Jump.”

Hagar, on the other hand, hasn’t changed a bit; it might as well be 1982 for
the journeyman rocker. It’s become part of his charm, this innocent
impermeability: he’s still the regular guy who just wants to rock. There’s
never been anything flashy here, which is why, as vanilla as he is, he’s
still around.

He’s probably performed Saturday’s 17 song set a thousand times, a
predictably automatic mix of his early solo hits (“I Can’t Drive 55”), Van
Halen chestnuts (“5150,” “Dreams”) and his latter-day numbers (“Mas
Tequila”) done so affably that his charm sells the songs. Joined by Halen
bassist Michael Anthony, his four-piece band played it easy and simple:
flying through “Top of the World,” giving “Little White Lies” a bluesy
flavor and playing “Poundcake” to a backdrop of “Girls Gone Wild” videos.

His set begged the question: why quibble over the value of heavy-metal
nostalgia when it sounds so gosh darn pleasant?

THE FLINT JOURNAL
June 2, 2002

Review: Rock of aged – vintage Van Halen voiced

By Doug Pullen
JOURNAL ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

CLARKSTON – Take two jilted lead singers – Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth –
stir in a catalog of enduring hard rock nuggets, about 16,000 ravenous,
liquored-up fans, guest appearances by homeboys Ted Nugent and Kid Rock,
some scantily clad “waitresses” and the specter of a dominating Red Wings
victory, and you’ve got one rock ‘n’ roll celebration.

That’s what Friday’s show by Van Halen alumni Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth
at DTE Energy Music Theatre was.

The former frontmen of what once was one of the greatest hard rock bands
brought their hits and their emotional baggage to the capacity crowd, the
second stop on their improbable tour and a welcome salve for a summer that
seemed like it was never going to get here.

The clumsily named “Song for Song: The Heavyweight Champs of Rock and Roll”
tour (lawyers put the kibosh on the more logical “Sam and Dave” tour, though
fans have dubbed it the “Sans Halen” tour) looks like a cynical money-grab,
and sure box-office hit, on paper.

It proved to be a celebratory money-grab and a hit Friday night, maybe even
a kick in the pants to the guys the fans really wanted to see – guitar
wizard Eddie Van Halen, his drummer brother Alex, nice-guy bassist Michael
Anthony and one or both of these singers.

VH diehards have to settle for this monthlong tour, which opened Wednesday
in Cleveland.

Their beloved, and bewildering, Van Halen has been on a seemingly unending
hiatus for three years. You just know the group will be back some day. But
who’ll be out front singing and leading the charge?

If Friday’s crowd response was any indication, Sammy is the overwhelming
favorite. Finally happy after his firing six years ago, Hagar has found
peace with his own band, the Waboritas, the resumption of a moderately
successful solo career, his Mexican nightclub (shamelessly plugged
throughout his 90-minute set) and his popular line of tequila (ditto).

But it was obvious Friday night that after playing clubs and theaters for
the last five years, Sammy clearly relished the buzz of playing for a big
crowd. Hagar, who performed much of the set in a Red Wings jersey tossed
onstage by a fan, happily reminisced about the band in an occasionally
X-rated 18-song set that blended solo and VH songs, emphasizing the line
“yesterday is dead and gone” during an emotionally charged version of the VH
hit “Right Now” that was the evening’s high point.

It was a typically raucous outing for the self-styled Red Rocker, who was
introduced by Messrs. Rock and Nugent, who offered a Red Wings update.
Nugent returned for a ragged, rowdy encore of the Troggs’ “Wild Thing,” his
red, white and blue Les Paul horribly out of tune.

It’s a good thing Hagar went on last (the rivals are alternating from night
to night), because Roth’s performance had none of the emotion or
over-the-top explosiveness.

Though energetic, Roth’s 90-minute set was downright embarassing at times.
Despite the twirling leg kicks and drum riser leaps of old, he’s just not
Diamond Dave anymore. More like Cubic Zirconium Dave; or the next Ozzy
Osbourne. He’s lost the voice, most of the swagger and, it seems, the
desire.

It’s no secret that Roth’s career has been all downhill since he left Van
Halen. Despite a half-dozen solo albums, his 19-song set consisted almost
entirely of Van Halen material, a third of which came from the first VH
album, the one that introduced the sexy, gabby, charming showman to the
world nearly a quarter century ago.

While Hagar had no problem updating VH songs like “Finish What Ya Started”
(letting guitarist Vic Johnson funk up the chicken-picking guitar part),
Roth and his young backing trio sounded more like an average Van Halen
tribute band than a guy trying to reclaim his legacy.