Van Halen

Last night my husband and I went to see Van Halen on their 2008 World Tour.

That's right. A couple of 40somethings out and about, trying to recapture their wasted youth. As we were pulling into the parking deck at Philips Arena, it dawned on me how much time had truly passed.... gone were the Camaros and muscle cars from the early 80s, gone were the tight mini skirts and Big Hair. All of a sudden we were surrounded by middle aged people in mini vans and SUV's. Holy cow! We ARE middle aged people in an SUV!

Back to my story: both my husband and I are big VH fans from the 80s but never got a chance to see the band back in the day when David Lee Roth was the singer (we're both VH 'purists'.... neither one of us enjoyed the Van Hagar "chapter".... and we won't even mention the whole Gary Cherone debacle...)

I was a little concerned (given the history of explosive personality clashes between DLR and Eddie Van Halen) that the whole tour might IMPLODE before it ever reached Atlanta, but I was wrong. And I gotta tell you..... the show ROCKED. It was awesome. They played for over 2 hours. High intensity from start to finish. Eddie was at the top of his game; he can STILL make a guitar do superantural things. Neither he nor DLR had an ounce of fat on them (and truly, to do the kind of show they did last night, you'd really have to be in fantastic physical shape.) In fact, the band member who looked the most worn out at the close of the show was the adorable 16 year old Wolfie Van Halen, Eddie and Valerie's son, who is the "new" bass player for the band. (He did a great job.)

The show was awesome. I sang at the top of my lungs, danced, and in my mind was 15 years old all over again.