Van Halen ran into some technical difficulties during their tour stop at the United Center in Chicago on Friday night but didn't let the problems stop them from delivering.antiMusic's Anthony Kuzminski was at the show and in his review of the concert, Tony includes details about the difficulties the band were forced to overcome. He writes:
The only snag to the concert was that portions were plagued with sound problems. I mention this only because several other reviews have pointed out David Lee Roth's antics as a result of the issues. Roth had performed the first three shows of the tour with a head-microphone which proved to be unusable after three songs in Chicago. He went to get a wireless microphone only to have it handed to him without any sound. He surged to the front of the stage, picked up a wired microphone at the tip of the stage and made sure the show proceeded without missing a beat. As someone who had a front row seat to the side of the stage, Roth was upset because there appeared to be virtually no urgency to fix the issue. As a result, Roth's performance was impaired by the old school wired microphone he had to carry with him for the remainder of the evening which often tripped up Eddie in the process. If I were in Roth's shoes, I would have had the same reaction, especially the incapability of the crew to fix the issue for nineteen songs. Roth soldiered on in typical "Diamond Dave" fashion proving to be the ultimate showman with a rock solid voice. Roth never receives the credit he deserves as many in the audience long to see the voracious comic book hero from their youth enshrined in YouTube videos, but he's a legendary front man for many reasons, but is rarely given the props for his commanding voice and how well it solidifies with Van Halen. In Chicago, despite the handicaps placed in front of him, he largely went above and beyond attempting to give the crowd everything he had.
Read Tony's full review here.