Van Halen tight but Roth corny, bombastic

Air guitar was invented because of Eddie Van Halen, the penultimate guitarist of 1980's pyrotechnic hard rock flash. His sound made Van Halen a commercial powerhouse regardless who was singing. In fact, singers were so nominal to his playing, he regularly chewed them up and spat them out. Hiring, firing, re-hiring, re-firing: This is the rhythm the guitarist knows by heart.

At the Allstate Arena Tuesday, Van Halen the guitarist and Van Halen the group worked at opposite ends of the spectrum. The band -- brother Alex Van Halen on drums, son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass and the group's original lead singer David Lee Roth -- was too often tedious, corny and bombastic. Yet Eddie Van Halen, a 52-year-old cancer survivor and recovering alcoholic, looked fresh, acted playful and played with astonishing rejuvenation. Sparring often with his 16-year-old son, a babyface who replaced original bassist Michael Anthony, there was less patriarchy in their relationship than a youthful engagement between equals.

In the era of blockbuster reunion tours, this was up there with The Police and Genesis. In fact, Van Halen plays a second sold-out show Thursday at the United Center. This line-up -- "three-fourths original, one-fourth inevitable," according to Roth -- is the first to feature the lead singer in 22 years. As a result, the band concentrated on the years leading up to Roth's 1985 firing, which meant fans were treated to over two hours of deep cuts such as "Atomic Punk" and "Beautiful Girls" instead of the commercial hits the band enjoyed when Sammy Hagar took hold of the microphone into the 1990's.

Roth, whose lounge lizard characteristics clearly made him the band's most popular lead singer, was this reunion's weak link. Simply put, he hasn't made the transition particularly well. His wily hair, high scissor kicks and sexual bravado is gone, replaced by the sparkly jacket, leather pants, stiff mannerisms, whitened teeth and comedy shtick of a phantom Liberace. His voice struggled to bellow like he used to; on "Panama," it forced him to sing in a lower register. Except when he stuck his face into theirs, the band appeared to mostly ignore his continual comic mugging and especially the times -- "Dance the Night Away" for one -- that he forgot lyrics.

Whereas Roth could have stepped out of a Catskills nightclub, Eddie Van Halen, bare-chested, looking trim and wearing camouflage pants and red high tops, became the show's driving force. He performed with boyish enthusiasm, jogging in circles, hopping up and down, dropping to his knees and meeting up with his son to mutually shred. His guitar playing brought songs to a sudden halt, drenched them with sustained moods and became platforms for his frenetic style, including playing his frets like a keyboard or recreating the sound of a car engine through roughly sawing through the strings.

There was fun to be had watching fifty-something men play adolescent camp like "Hot for Teacher" and "Everybody Wants Some." The band did not try to be serious; they played their oldest songs with bravado and amusement. The truest moment came when Roth and Van Halen improvised, turning "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" into "Spoonful" by Howlin' Wolf. Even though the night was a demonstration how men can be boys, the song's creepy take on the temptation of drugs, flashed just momentarily with exactly the opposite.