VH1 ONLINE
May 30, 2002

David Lee Roth Shakes It In Spandex, Sammy Hagar Bashes Eddie At Tour Debut

Former Van Halen frontmen go heavy on shtick, VH tunes at first date of
joint tour.

By Christina Fuoco

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio - The pervading feeling between dueling former Van
Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar may never be love, but fans
showed a lot of it Wednesday at Blossom Music Center.

Vintage Van Halen T-shirts peppered the fiery crowd. Fortysomething women
fashioned the Van Halen symbol with their hands as they shook their
shoulders to songs such as "5150" and "Panama." A group of teenage boys
wrote with marker "f--- Eddie" on their arms, referring, of course, to VH
guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

The admiration was mutual between the crowd and Roth and Hagar. Mop-haired
Hagar opened the show at 7:15 p.m. - the singers are alternating set order
during the tour - with a video retrospective that included interviews, clips
of magazine stories and Van Halen photos. It hit a snag midway through, and
kicked back to the beginning of the film. When it finished, a curtain was
drawn to allow a select number of fans to stand on risers behind the band in
an effort to maintain Hagar's tradition of creating a club atmosphere
onstage.

Bathed in red lights, Hagar kicked off his set with the apropos "Red."

"We're gonna turn this whole f---ing place red," screamed Hagar, who was
wearing a yellow T-shirt from his Cabo Wabo club that said, "Got Tequila"
across his chest. He quickly went into the Van Halen hit "Runaround," which
prompted the sea of fans to collectively mimic Hagar, who was whipping his
arm around in a circular motion.

At times, Hagar was a little too chatty between songs, often using long
stories to segue into the next tune.

"It's still daylight and I'm going to get drunk," Hagar said. He yelled
"Waitress!" and in response, a scantily clad woman arrived onstage to pour
him a margarita. "It's my first of the day, so make it a double," he
instructed.

He coaxed the woman, a "calendar girl" from a local radio station, to imbibe
with him momentarily. "It's OK to drink on the job. As a matter of fact,
it's mandatory."

After wrapping up "Top of the World," Hagar admitted that he was somewhat
nervous.

"I didn't know what to expect today because, well, you know why," he said,
referring to his tempestuous relationship with Roth. "All I got to say is
this is: f---ing killer. This is the sh--. That's what I'm talkin' about.
Waitress!"

Hagar took a potshot at Eddie Van Halen, who is now reportedly healthy after
receiving treatment for cancer. Among the groups of fans onstage was a
cardboard cut-out of the axeman, whose head the red rocker smacked after
saying, "You don't have nothin' to say? Didn't think so."

He further revved up the crowd by hitting a Cabo Wabo Tequila bottle piñata
with his guitar after singing "Mas Tequila." When the bottle opened, a
mop-haired green worm popped out.

Vocally, Hagar rose above a hoarse-sounding Diamond Dave, who needed a bit
of polishing. Hagar's voice soared to impressive heights during songs such
as "Eagles Fly," "Dreams" and the closer, "Right Now."

Roth was the antithesis of Hagar, who used videotapes of topless women at
one point as a backdrop for his show. The flamboyant original VH frontman
opted for a more "artsy" approach with his videos, repeatedly showing
different variations of cat-suit-wearing women and an armed Roth searching
the halls for those unknown. Interspersed with those scenes were shots of
Roth doing martial arts.

He couldn't measure up to Hagar's charisma, however. Aside from a few kicks,
Roth exchanged personality for shaking his spandex-covered lower body toward
the audience. His stage banter was minimal; he let his body and lyrics do
the talking for him. Roth, who botched the words to "(Oh) Pretty Woman,"
used a bottle of Jack Daniel's to mimic a sex act and, upon "completion,"
splashed the liquor on fans sitting close to the stage.

Using suspenders to keep up his spandex pants, Dave ended his set with a
martial-arts-style, baton-twirling number during an instrumental part of Van
Halen's hit "Jump." He bowed with the stick tucked under his arm, looking
like a majorette in a high school band.

Van Halen fans' "Sammy vs. Dave" battle clearly had a winner Wednesday
night: Right here, right now, Hagar was on "Top of the World."

Sammy Hagar set list:
* "Red"
* "Runaround"
* "Three Lock Box"
* "There's Only One Way to Rock"
* "Give to Live"
* "Top of the World"
* "Why Can't This Be Love"
* "5150"
* "Poundcake"
* "Finish What Ya Started"
* "Eagles Fly"
* "Little White Lies"
* "I Can't Drive 55"
* "Heavy Metal"
* "Mas Tequila" encore:
* "Dreams"
* "Right Now"
* David Lee Roth set list:
* "Hot for Teacher"
* "Panama"
* "And the Cradle Will Rock"
* "Mean Street"
* "Dance the Night Away"
* "Runnin' With the Devil"
* "I'm the One"
* "You Really Got Me"
* "Beautiful Girls"
* "So This Is Love?"
* "Atomic Punk"
* "Little Dreamer"
* "(Oh) Pretty Woman"
* "Yankee Rose"
* "Ice Cream Man"
* "Everybody Wants Some"
* "Unchained"
* "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
encore:
* "Jump"