Van Halen - RRHOF Review

Velvet Revolver, or Guns n Roses sans interesting front man, "inducted" Van Halen in the meaningless corporate monolith of Rock and Roll last night. Since Eddie Van Halen is just beginning the road to alcohol recovery, him and his brother did not attend. Neither did David Lee Roth. Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony did attend and represented the band well--good on you guys.

So, VR played two songs: "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love" from the Dave years and "Runaround" from the Sammy years.

Two word review for VR: shit sandwich.

Holy mother of all things holy, Scott Weiland couldn't have been a worse pick as a singer to pay tribute to Van Halen. I like Slash and the rest of the band, but every single song Weiland sings sounds like "Plush." I love me some grunge, but that ain't Van Halen, and when Scott tried to do Runaround, I shifted in my seat for four minutes with an uncomfort that I felt that was almost identical to the feeling I got watching Mikey self-destruct on the answering machine in Swingers.

To be fair though, there aren't too many people out there that could pull off paying tribute to Van Halen properly. They had such a unique sound and chemistry that was intertwined with the particular personalities of the group, it is hard to pull off. Plus, Van Halen fans are so pissed off at what has become of this group, I don't think that we'll really give anyone a fair shake.

Anyone else see it? What did you think?