DAVID LEE ROTH ROCKS VEGAS!

I saw Vegas shows #2 & #3 (like the VHND reviewer).

Was Dave great? No

Was Dave entertaining? Yes

Did people have fun and enjoy the show? Yes

Was Dave as good as, better than, worse than, previous VH tours? I couldn’t tell you. Certain songs were very good/great, and others should be removed from the set. I’ve seen Dave on those previous tours, so I know what I’m going to get.

My biggest problem was with Dave’s comment, “We do not sound like Van Halen live. You have not heard this. Van Halen live is lead guitar, bass, drums, sing. Here, we bring it the way a record brings it. To do that requires 2 or 3 guitars. We have 5 people hollerin.’ It’s BIG ROCK sound.”

I (mistakenly) took that to mean that we’d be hearing the songs like we heard them on the record (tape, CD, whatever), and that’s not what was delivered.

Did I have fun? Yep. Am I sorry I went? Nope.

http://lasvegasmagazine.com/interviews/qa/2020/mar/13/during-a-wild-phone-call-david-lee-roth-talks-abou/

During a wild phone call David Lee Roth talks about his Las Vegas residency
By Brock Radke
March 13, 2020

One of rock’s most definitive frontmen is having a moment. David Lee Roth is back on the road again in 2020, opening for KISS on the band’s epic End of The Road world tour and frequenting festivals all year long as well. But Diamond Dave might be most excited about his new Las Vegas residency show, returning to the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on March 18. I caught up with Roth, or more accurately, tried to keep up with him, during a wild phone call as he made his way back to Sin City.

Q: You’ve been touring with KISS since January. Is that set pretty similar to your Vegas show?

A: I have a band that is beyond stellar and we’re capable of playing everything from the local millionaire’s birthday party to the Super Bowl. I can play Willie (Nelson’s) Farm Aid and I can play Las Vegas and I can open for KISS, which in itself is an audience that arrives with expectations. KISS is one of the original Cirque du Soleil-level rock bands. It starts with the music but escalates into millions of dollars worth of bang for your buck that moves from city to city. (Opening for them) requires reading the audience and taking a chance. If all you do when you arrive in Las Vegas is simply play your concert set from the local arenas, that’s not what we came to Las Vegas for. We want more. There are plenty of casinos (around the country) to go play in, but you earn your way into Vegas right now.

Q: So how would you describe what you’re doing in Vegas at the House of Blues?

A: For me, it’s a little bit closer to what (John) Coltrane or Billie (Holiday) was doing on the jazz stage. We take chances here, big chances. It’s the high bar. We call it genius by midnight. In jazz, if you reach for it, there’s no in between. There’s in between in baseball; I say he made it, you say he don’t. In the high bar, there’s no equivocating. You either made it or you didn’t, but it’s glorious in its effort.

Q: There was certainly plenty of Van Halen classics in your first Vegas shows earlier this year.

A: It’s a universal kind of sound that allowed us to do things (like) when Van Halen was brand new, to open for Black Sabbath in 22 cities in England, and two weeks later, we worked with Journey at the height of its Steve Perry (heyday). We’ll be opening for Metallica on this tour and then we’re playing with Rage Against the Machine at the Firefly Festival. It’s a universal and timeless sound. Nobody ever looks at Bruce and goes, “Wow, Springsteen, what a great ’70s act.” I don’t think anyone is looking at what they hear in our music and finding a time capsule.

Q: How has the experience of touring and performing live changed for you?

A: I’ve come to value it eminently. That’s a space like a boxing ring. How many people have literally sacrificed their health to get to it, and then again to stay with it, whether it’s a theater, an opera stage, a ballet floor? There’s so much great talent and ambition and energy out there now, so much more than when I started. I value that effort and I value that which I have more than I ever have before. The injury rate for my job is like the NFL–100 percent. But I’m looking at 40 summers and a full house. Are you kidding me? We’re going to play to half a million people by Hanukkah.

Q: How did it feel to be back on the Vegas stage in January? And did you get the energy from the audience you were expecting?

A: A lot of folks depend on the audience for energy and I reverse the ratio. You are coming for your fix. When you walk out of my show, you will feel young, skinny, invincible and invulnerable. Ladies will feel eminently desirable and all men will feel like they’re the perfect example of sexual perfection. Small children will inexplicably stop crying when you walk by and smile, and tiny house pets who refuse to obey will paw your leg for the next directive. That’s on a bad night. You should see what’s gonna happen for you on a good night.

13 months later, and I just got a “cancelled” notice from TicketMaster.

Turns out the “last show” isn’t the last show after all…..

PRE SALE: 12/8
PRE SALE CODE: DLRVEGAS

Due to unforeseen circumstances related to COVID and out of an abundance of caution for those working and attending the shows, the David Lee Roth performances schedule for Dec. 31, 2021 and Jan. 1, 2022 have been cancelled. Refunds will be automatically processed, and ticketholders will be notified directly.

[NOTE from Ron - Many of the DLR cancel stories reference dates in mid-February. There were never any mid-Feb dates for DLR announced, this is a mistake on the part of the reporters. Those dates are for The Go-Go's, who moved their shows originally set for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at The Venetian Theatre back to Feb. 11-12.]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-lee-roth-jump-van-halen-retirement-1278209/

January 4, 2022 11:30AM ET
Flashback: David Lee Roth Sings ‘Jump’ at Possible Final Solo Concert

With his Vegas residency canceled, will this 2020 gig in Texas be Diamond Dave’s swan song?
By Andy Greene

David Lee Roth disappointed a lot of fans earlier this week when he called off his farewell concerts at the Mandalay Bay’s House of Blues in Las Vegas. He initially only postponed his New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day shows due to “unforeseen circumstances related to Covid,” pushing them back to Feb. 11 and 12. But the entire run was yanked yesterday with no explanation.

The shows were announced in October 2021. “I am throwing in the shoes,” he told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “I’m retiring … I’m not going to explain the statement. The explanation is in the statement. These are my last five shows … I’ve given you all I’ve got to give. It’s been an amazing, great run, no regrets, nothing to say about anybody. I’ll miss you all. Stay frosty.”

The initial plan was to play just five shows, but he added a handful of additional nights once those sold out. “I had no idea how many of you wanted to pay to see me go,” he said. “So I’m putting more tickets on sale, instead of doing the wrong thing and pissing more people off. I have industry professionals now ringing in, telling me, ‘Dave, at your age, you should be in the middle of your third retirement. Did you watch Rocky movies? He’s on his seventh. Same guy, Rambo — fifth. He’s about 14 retirements ahead of you.’ Just when I get out, they drag me back in.”

Roth’s solo career was put on hiatus when he rejoined Van Halen in 2007, but he resumed it in late 2019 when he announced plans to play Las Vegas and open for Kiss on their farewell tour. Nobody knew the state of Eddie Van Halen’s health at the time, but Roth hinted that the guitarist wasn’t in good shape and wouldn’t be returning to the band.

“I think Van Halen’s finished,” he said. “I’m the face of Van Halen from this point on, most likely. I’m not sure what’s happening with Ed, but he’s probably not gonna answer the bell this time. And it’s not my place to guess.”

He put together a crack band capable of re-creating Van Halen songs as accurately as possible without anyone onstage actually named “Van Halen,” but many fans and critics were less than impressed with the state of his singing voice. Gene Simmons was one of them.

“It bears noting that during Dave’s heyday, nobody did what he did,” he told Rolling Stone in August 2021. “He was the ultimate frontman. Not Plant, not Rod Stewart, nobody. He took being a frontman way beyond anything. And then, I don’t know what happened to him … something. And you get modern-day Dave. I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”

He later apologized for the remarks, but Kiss didn’t re-book Roth for the remaining dates on their farewell tour. That means the last time Roth played for a live audience was on March 10, 2020 when he opened for Kiss at United Supermarket Arena in Lubbock, Texas. He closed the set with “Jump.” Check out fan-shot video of the performance right here, and judge for yourself whether or not the headliner was justified in comparing him to “bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”

Right now, there are a lot of lingering questions regarding Roth. Why did a positive Covid test in early January mean that he couldn’t play shows in mid-February? Was he the one who had Covid? Why were the dates canceled outright rather than just postponed again? Was Roth serious about this farewell thing in the first place, or was it just a means to sell tickets? Should we consider him retired now?

We can’t answer any of these questions, but we have a strong feeling he’ll play live again at some point. Wrapping up his career opening for Kiss at an arena in Lubbock, Texas, doesn’t feel like Roth’s style. And if Rambo can have 14 retirements, so can Diamond Dave.