Van Halen in Vancouver

My review for you:

I've been spoiled by too many Keith Urban shows or other regularly touring acts, so when I saw Van Halen last night, I felt like I was watching a dated Vegas style show, that was NOT built for a stadium. Mr. Roth as he called himself, forgot lyrics, seemed to forget where he was in the show and couldn't keep the groove. His voice was shot. He sang about 60% of each song. But, he did dance on the small dusted dance floor at the front of the stage.

By the fourth song, the entire audience who had jumped up at the beginning of the show, began sitting down. You couldn't even tap your foot through an entire song. Shredding guitar solo's aside. And what the heck was with the song order of the set list....???

The poor sound guy had the vocals turned down to try and make it sound better but the sound was awful anyway. The band can play, even some individual moments of greatness, but they never really seemed to gel, and when they did, it was not at the same time.

It's like they popped out of semi-retirement and went on the road with no preparation or rehearsals and ended up with a cheap looking show. Except for Mr. Roth's skin tight sequined leather pants, hat, scarf (wtf?) and orange leather jacket. That must have set him back. Wasn't there anyone helping them put this thing together? Telling David the leathers pants are a bad idea and you need to have a great show? Your name is not enough!

The overhead video had confusing visuals and some overlayed video, but it didn't even seem to fit the show.

The highlight was when Mr. Roth spoke to the audience, but even some of his stories didn't seem to land. All of a sudden I understood why Van Halen went to Sammy Hagar.

There was a full house last night and t-shirt sales were brisk; but I heard an awful lot of disappointed mumbles as we filed out.

All in all, a strange evening. Thank God for Kool and the Gang. Celebration was great.

Your thoughts?