The countdown is on for Thursday night in Charlotte: opening night of the Van Halen reunion tour. Admittedly, I was hesitant when this was announced, as fans of VH have been led down this path a few too many times in the past. I was even hesitant the morning tickets went on sale, wondering whether to fire up Ticketmaster and try to get tickets. While hitting the inevitable reload button quite a few times for the first ten minutes, I was still contemplating not getting any. Alas, when I finally hit the purchase button, there were no regrets.
Sure, it'd be great if it was a full-on reunion with Mike Anthony, but as a fan of the band (and even more so, of the namesake guitarist) since I don't know when, it wasn't something I was gonna miss. I got to see the 1984 tour - the final one with Roth. I got to see the 5150 tour with Hagar on vocals. Though that was a really great show by, essentially, a completely different band, there really is nothing that can touch Van Halen with David Lee Roth.
And by all accounts, the band is sounding and (dare I say it) looking great. I say that because I had tickets for the last "reunion" tour with Hagar, but that date was wiped out due to a hurricane or some other sort of global warming calamity. Probably a good thing, as that tour was reportedly a mess, and Eddie was REALLY a mess near the end of it. 
A setlist, supposedly picked by Eddie's kid, Wolfgang, has me pretty psyched. Some of my favorite tunes from both Fair Warning and Women and Children First are being played. We'll see how it all goes over, and I'll post some sort of report here, for sure. The twitter will probably go live, too. Google Maps is being referenced as I write this and some pre-show entertainment is being planned.
And while on the subject of "the rock," I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite 90's bands play in town last week. Staight Outta York, LiVE played the Bi-Lo Center and, as always, put on a really good show. I've seen them countless times because of a contact hat has since dried up, but never really close to home. So it was cool to see them again - with just a 10 minute drive. They have never failed to impress when a dose of straight up rock is needed. And free tix never hurt the cause.
Here's a few photos from the show:
Rattlesnake
Zed
Not me - I have a self-imposed prohibition onposting self-pics on the blog. I took the pic, though.
**Updates:
Forgot to mention that I'll be doing my best to drink the beer "provided" by Stb. Thanks again, man. I guess I'll be sharing, too.
Being that this the first show of the tour, the band has been in Charlotte for a few days rehearsing in advance.
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