First rock concert? Gotta be Van Halen

The legendary rock band will perform for fans, old and new, Saturday at the Kansas Coliseum.

BY TRAVIS HEYING

The Wichita Eagle

In the fall of 1980, my older brother, Craig, returned home from a trip to Rapid City, S.D. The next morning he spun tales of a wild experience from the night before.

It was his first rock 'n' roll concert.

There were explosions, he said. Loud guitars, gigantic drums and lots of girls. He was in sixth grade.

Six years later, when I was 13, Craig took me on that same trip to Rapid City to witness it for myself.

It was Van Halen.

I stood inside Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, wearing a new black concert T-shirt, and stared at the stage, too stunned to speak.

So when the members of Van Halen announced last spring that they were headed out on the road together for the first time in six years, my brother and I did what came naturally.

We loaded up his 7-year-old son, hauled him to Denver and made sure his first rock 'n' roll concert was Van Halen.

Standing on a chair to see, he wore a new Van Halen shirt and, like his uncle 18 years before, stood wide-eyed, too stunned to speak.

On Saturday, the legendary American rockers will bring their 25-year catalog of music to the Kansas Coliseum for generations of fans old and new.

Known for their internal squabbling and singer-swapping as much as for their music, Van Halen set aside a nine-year war of words and egos with singer Sammy Hagar to return to the road.

In July, the band released a two-disc greatest hits album featuring three new songs with Hagar at the helm.

While on a tour stop in Calgary last week, drummer Alex Van Halen said in an interview that the diverse faces in the audiences on this tour are a testament to the band's longevity.

"It means the music held up," he said. "It's probably one of the most rewarding aspects of making music."

The cliche says that rock 'n' roll is the elixir of youth. Like the Rolling Stones, Van Halen is clearly a case study in this theory.

Singer Hagar, who replaced original vocalist David Lee Roth in 1985, turned 57 last month.

"That guy's made of cast iron," Alex Van Halen said.

Guitarist Edward Van Halen has spent the previous four years battling tongue cancer. These days he jumps around on stage with an artificial hip.

Alex Van Halen admitted that getting old is a fact of life.

"At our age, you don't want to stop. Because if you stop, you might not get back up."

Speaking of stopping, the last date of the tour is Nov. 19 in Tucson.

The buzz on radio and the Internet is again predicting the band's demise, saying internal tensions have taken their toll.

Alex Van Halen tried to lay those rumors to rest.

"Our disagreements are about our music," he said.

The band plans to take a break after the tour and then enter the studio to begin work on a new album, he said.

With Sammy Hagar on vocals?

"With Sammy," he said.

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