Blood and Ice Cream
Blood and Ice cream
Blood is thicker than water, and ice cream is sweeter than both. I am talking about Van Halen. Yep. The big hair band who had more singles than most of us can remember. I saw them in concert last night at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and I can’t stop grinning from ear to ear.
For some of the crowd, it was their 10th time seeing VH. They had seen Diamond Dave, Sammy, and now thirty years later Dave again. But for me, this was my first and only experience. It is not that I have not wanted to see the legendary Eddie Van Halen melt the crowd with his guitar playing, or that I shied away from hearing Alex play “Hot for Teacher,” or even that I had no interest in hearing either Dave or Sammy sing. It’s just that, until last night, I never had the chance to attend one of their concerts…and I am glad, because last night, for me, it all came together perfectly.
Last night was magical. The venue was one of the smallest they will play on this tour which has been called by the New York TImes as “The concert of the year.” This was the best show I have ever seen in my life! I can say that without hesitation. Van Halen was seamless, they were on fire, they were rocking the house, they had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands, and they were having the time of their lives.
I felt like a little kid watching David Lee Roth. He was like the Frank Sinatra of rock and roll. And I mean that in the most complimentary of ways. He sang with a passion and a confidence that took my breath away. He was certainly up to all of his antics and I loved him for every one of them. And as he strolled around the stage, waving flags, pulling on chains, showing off his Martial Arts skills, and loving on the band, his smile did not once leave his face. His sense of humor and ability to engage all of us in attendance, made us feel like he was playing right to each one of us. But Dave could not have done this without each one of the Van Halens who rocked on that stage with him.
Eddie was an alien. He reinvented the guitar solo…again. He turned a simple guitar swell into the most magical sound I have ever heard. He was musical. He was dynamic. He was soulful. He was everything you could want in a musician. And he was flawless. His unmistakable sound opened the show and did not let up. What one guy can do with one guitar is still beyond all of us who watch him play and listen to his heart as it sings through his guitar.
And then of course there is Alex, who I have now redefined in my head as “Mr. Rediculousness.” I mean really. Alex left me speechless. He laid down that insatiable groove and was relentless in doing so. When the screen showed his hands in action and his face, what we saw was a relaxed and cool Alex finding his way around a kit as if it was like breathing in the air around him. The first half of his solo consisted of the Alex Van Halen we all have grown to love and praise. And if that was not enough, after the first half was done, he stood up, smiled that unmistakable Alex smile, and held up a finger as if to say…”wait, I’ve got more.” And yes sir, he certainly did have more. Alex dove back into the kit with that same fever, only this time adding triggers. Who ever said drummers are not melodic has never listened to the likes of Alex Van Halen.
And then there is Wolfgang. Oh Wolfie! What can I say. FIrst, he is seventeen. Seventeen with the soul of a person who is 100. Wolfgang made my night. I was choked up watching him play that bass and sing those harmonies. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be him. Standing on a stage with my dad and my uncle and Dave. People who would have simply been family to me but legends to all of rock and roll. How would I handle myself in that very situation? I can only hope that I would have handled myself even a tenth as gracefully as Wolfgnag Van Halen. When GOD made him, he was showing off. Wolfie did not need to stand his ground or prove his point, he simply fit right in as if that spot on the stage had been waiting there for him all his life. I wanted to high five him most of all. I wanted to hug him. He made my year just by watching him go. He played that bass and sang those harmonies and rocked that stage only the way a Van Halen knows how.
Most of the buzz in the crowd was of the thirty years that was waited to see Dave back with the band. And as he entered the stage with his acoustic guitar and told his story about the ice cream man, we knew that blood is thicker than water, but Ice cream makes it all go down like silk.
