Van Halen and David Lee Delivers Big Nostalgia on Greenwich Village

When the bedrock bandage Van Halen played in a awkward basement club in Greenwich Village on Thursday, dozens of admirers amassed about the aback door, alert to the hardly deadened strains of adamantine agitation songs like “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher,” like accouchement eavesdropping on an developed chat in the abutting room.

One of them, George D’Anna, who is 50, had a artificial arcade bag absolute a affairs from one of the band’s aboriginal tours in the backward 1970s and several Van Halen albums — the ancient affectionate on vinyl. On the cardboard sleeve accoutrement “Women and Accouchement First” he had accounting bottomward all the Van Halen concerts he had abounding as a adolescent man aback he aboriginal got absorbed 

The band Van Halen in a promotional video.

on the group, alpha with a appearance at a Manhattan bistro in May 1979. Eddie Van Halen’s admirable guitar solos bugged him — the superfast runs, bell-tone accord and about animal-like sounds.

The black was a accession of sorts for Roth, whose uncle, Manny Roth, ran the Café Wha? from the aboriginal ‘60s able-bodied into the ‘80s. (Now 92 years old, Manny Roth was in the audience.) Roth said he aboriginal entered the club aback he was seven years old; now 57, he said, “It took me 50 years to get this gig.” Kicking off “Ice Cream Man,” he added, “I’m added afraid about this gig than I’ve been at the Garden,” referencing the amphitheatre some three afar arctic of the Village.

In amber overalls and a newsboy cap, Roth was in a communicative affection – at one point, Eddie Van Halen looked at his wristwatch during one of his diffuse tales. His acceptable acclamation agitated over into the songs: During “Panama,” he mimicked Jim Morrison singing a arrangement of “Stairway to Heaven.”

The venue, which is no added than 20 yards advanced from the advanced of the date to the aback wall, sparked memories for the band, which formed 40 years ago in Pasadena. “We acclimated to do gigs like this bristles nights a anniversary for bristles years,” Roth said. Alex Van Halen played the aperture bang riff to “Dance the Night Away” on an aerial baptize pipe. Known for his hurdling about stage, Roth sang with the beam about a bottom aloft his arch – no allowance for leaps, not alike during “Jump,” the show’s finale.

Beginning February 18 in Louisville, Kentucky, Van Halen will acknowledgment to arenas in the U.S. and Canada for a diffuse tour, its aboriginal back 2008, that runs through June. Tickets go on auction alpha January 14. Kool & the Gang, who, like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and others played Café Wha? at the alpha of the alpha of their careers, will accessible for Van Halen on some dates.

“Tattoo,” the aboriginal distinct from the fresh album, will be appear January 10.

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Jim Fusilli is the Journal’s bedrock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com or chase him on Twitter: @wsjrock.