I never had the good fortune to see Van Halen live in concert, either with David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. From everything I’ve been told and have read, concerts from the Roth era were notoriously slipshod; you never quite knew what version of the band you were going to get. Hagar, on the other hand, was akin to the golden child of professionalism; each show was going to be on the same level quality-wise.
It took until shortly before Eddie Van Halen’s death from cancer in 2020 for the Roth era to be documented in a live release. With the seeming hard-on the brothers Van Halen had against former bassist Michael Anthony, you knew such a recording wasn’t going to come from their salad days. Instead, fans were given Tokyo Dome: Van Halen In Concert featuring Wolfgang Van Halen on bass and vocals.
With every date on the A Different Kind Of Truth tour recorded, it was left up to Roth to decide which show would be the featured event. This gig from June 21, 2013, made the cut. Whether it was the best show to showcase how Van Halen sounded at what turned out to be the end of their career or not, we’ll never know (unless the other dates were to somehow leak out—and, via bootlegs, probably have).
These songs balance the good with the bad. On the positive side, many hidden chestnuts from the Roth era get featured, like “Somebody Get Me A Doctor,” “Romeo Delight” and “Hear About It Later.” For their parts, Eddie and Alex Van Halen are still at the top of their games on guitar and drums, respectively (even if I miss the motorcycle “revving” effect on “Hot For Teacher”). And Wolfgang Van Halen seems to fit in well as a bass guitarist.
The bad? Roth's glory days as a vocalist are, sadly, long past him. And while he does a formidable job with these songs, the constant ad-libs of lyrics that have become staples is off-putting, and the strength of his vocals is simply not there. And, whatever feelings the band had about Anthony, his harmony vocals are sorely missing; it’s simply not the same without his presence.
Overall, though, the show featured on Tokyo Dome: Van Halen In Concert feels like it was phoned in, and is nothing special. This is the biggest tragedy to me. A Van Halen concert in the early to mid ’80s was supposed to be an event into itself, even if it seemed to be held together by bailing wire and chewing gum. It was the experience that made it special. Maybe someone who attended this show in Tokyo would confirm that this energy indeed was there. From what I can hear, though, it is sorely lacking, and no musicianship was going to bring it back.
Perhaps the fact that Van Halen never released a live Roth-era album until this time is a sticking point. Granted, it could have been a bigger issue comparing, say, a Fair Warning-era show to this... but at least one could have tracked the development of the band in terms of the live setting.
Cases could be made about no Hagar-era material making the cut... but, with no disrespect meant to Sammy, Roth had a catalog the band could select material from covering seven albums. When Hagar stepped in, he had to rely on both the old material and what he was crafting with Van Halen. Besides, I honestly couldn’t see “Diamond Dave” covering a song like “Cabo Wabo.”
I know I should be grateful that any live Van Halen material ever made it to the consumer... and there are some okay moments on Tokyo Dome: Van Halen In Concert. But it just has the feel of too little, too late for the Roth-era band, regardless of who was thumping the four-stringed instrument. This is one for the diehard fans, or anyone who absolutely has to put this alongside Van Halen III in their complete collection.