Van Halen Re-Do

On March 7th I am going to do something unlike anything I've ever done before and that is to go see Van Halen live for the second time in six months. It's unusual for me to go to high-ticket rock concerts in the first place these days, much less to the same act twice in one year. But Van Halen is not your garden- variety rock band and the circumstances surrounding these two shows are anything but ordinary.

Let's back up to the show on September 29, 2007 in Greensboro, NC, the second show of Van Halen's highly anticipated reunion tour, the first tour with David Lee Roth in over 20 years. I knew immediately that I wanted to go to this show if they came to NC, and with their second stop only an hour away, the deal was sealed. That night represented a convergence of my childhood past, my young adulthood past, my present, and my future, and its overall significance--more than the sum of its parts--continues to be revealed.

I could rehash the parts in detail, sure, like how they played all the hits I was hoping they'd play, how difficult it was to hear clearly from where we were sitting, or how elements of the evening were 'out of tune' both on and off the stage. More important and interesting to me, though, is an examiniation of how we all got there, how two of us are going again, and what it all means to me.

My childhood past
I've already mentioned here how I liked Van Halen growing up, thanks to an older brother, MTV visuals, and neighborhood hype praising the virtues of teenagers who could successfully play the intro to Jump on the synthesizer. When my dad turned 60, I orchestrated a life-in-music photo montage selecting only one song for each decade my dad had been alive. Jump was the song I selected for the 80's. Out of the hundreds, no thousands, of pop hits that personified the 80's, at least from my family's experience, none other worked better than Jump. I was ten, eleven, twelve, when I first started listening to Van Halen, only a stone's throw older than my kids are now. Kids that age inherently like pop music--and pop music that rocks, they like even better. Van Halen was our music, unlike the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Dylan, Mamas and Papas, and Fleetwood Mac that my dad played at home and in the car. MTV was ours. Big hair, skin-tight pants, bandanas and Eddie Van Halen's guitar-shredding talent were ours. It doesn't matter what music came before or after, or how old we get, Van Halen belongs to Generation X. I owed it to my early-adolescent self to go to that reunion show in Sept. of last year. My older brother Daniel did too.

My young adulthood past
Like I just said, no matter how old Genexers get, or how old (or young!) we were ten years ago, an allure of Van Halen from1984 will always swirl. Already a college graduate and only a year away from getting married, I was at the Pink House party mentioned here, and, along with everyone else, waxed nostalgic about a David Lee Roth/Van Halen tour. If I thought it was fun fantasizing about seeing Van Halen live with some old college buddies at that party back in 1997, imagine what a big deal it is to me that four of us actually did go see Van Halen live together ten years later. We owed it to our young adult selves from ten years earlier; before marriages, kids, real jobs and responsibilities, dying parents; in other words, before the confines of real life. But the four of us, two spouses, my brother and his girlfriend--we did go. We made it happen. Because Van Halen was ours. Wrap your head around that.

My present
It is no secret that I have a penchant for looking people up from my past and getting back in touch and while we're at it, becoming friends with their wives; you know, connecting. And this internet thing makes it so easy. So yeah, I've done a lot of that in the last few years. One of my best friends has said about getting back in touch (via MySpace, Facebook or blogging, for example) that once you get over the actual period of catching up (where you work, if you're married, if you have kids, etc.), there's really not a whole lot else to say to some of these people from your past. I disagree. Maybe it's me, or maybe it's the people I'm back in touch with, but the Van Halen crowd is more relevant to me now than they ever were in the past. And who doesn't enjoy being relevant? Relevant because we have families and spouses, or wish we had families and spouses, and jobs and illnesses and real-life pressures that come along with being thirty-something. We also enjoy similar music (like Van Halen-duh) and Tarheel basketball, have wacky senses of humor and dreams for the future. And each other in the future.

My future
So here I am making plans to go see Van Halen for the second time in six months with the wife of an old friend. An old friend I feel I know better now, just like I know the others on the first Van Halen trip better now. An old friend's wife I've only laid eyes on four times ever yet feel sure will become an old friend herself. On March 7, the day before my birthday, the 5th anniversary of the day my mom died, I will be going to a Van Halen re-do. And why not? No one gets it right 100% of the time.