A year ago, Van Halen started recording at the famed Henson Studios in Hollywood. Formerly A&M Studios, the complex was originally built by Charlie Chaplin, the silent film legend, in 1917.
Wednesday Night, Feb. 1, Van Halen returned to the site to play a focused, exhilarating, approximately 70-minute hit-crammed set for a couple of hundred guests on the studio's tiny yet historic soundstage.
On the heels of the release of a new album, 'A Different Kind of Truth,' and major tour, the band unveiled part of its stage set in the small room; a series of intense, high-definition video panels that projected larger-than-life band images and video.
But it wasn't the dazzling visual effects that thrilled the packed house - it was the energetic, extremely entertaining set put on by the iconic band. 'A Different Kind of Truth' will be the first time David Lee Roth is featured on a Van Halen studio disc since their '1984' album. It's also the first album to feature Eddie's son, Wolfgang, on bass. Van Halen's classic ruled the night's setlist, but the new songs meshed very well with the standards.
David Lee Roth, resplendent in an electric-blue satin shirt and a black and blue quilted suit studded with rhinestones, sashayed, strutted, pranced and preened around the small stage for all he was worth. He's more self-deprecating now than in years past, with a showman's broad touch and wide-eyed grin to match. He jumped, whirled, mugged and was marvelous.
Wolfgang Van Halen -- the 20-year-old son of Eddie, and nephew of drummer Alex, who replaced original bassist Michael Anthony in 2006 -- was solid and sturdy in a role he
