Review

Roth falls short of glory days

ST. PETERSBURG - Things got off to a bumpy start for David Lee Roth Friday at Jannus Landing. A minute into his opening number, Hot For Teacher, a hit he enjoyed with his former band Van Halen, the singer was pegged in the eye by a piece of ice thrown by a fan inside the rainy courtyard.

By GINA VIVINETTO

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 18, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG -- Things got off to a bumpy start for David Lee Roth Friday at Jannus Landing. A minute into his opening number, Hot For Teacher, a hit he enjoyed with his former band Van Halen, the singer was pegged in the eye by a piece of ice thrown by a fan inside the rainy courtyard.

Or was he?

That was the question among more than 1,200 grumbling fans as Roth stormed off the stage. Many in the crowd insisted Roth wasn't hit at all. From all around Jannus came chants of "Refund!"

But, the cries turned to cheers as Roth walked back onstage in his skin tight silver lame pants and matching shirt. "I've only got two eyes," Roth admonished the crowd after a string of obscenities. Roth then launched into Van Halen's Panama.

Then he stopped again. Massaging his eye, he left the stage again. That's when a concert promoter stepped up and offered a $500 bounty to anyone who could bring him the fan who threw the ice.

Audience members complained of Roth's prima donna attitude. After all, Roth had already forbidden the opening act, Tampa Bay's Gunburner, from playing on the same stage. Roth eventually returned a third time, and though he looks much like he did back in his glory days with Van Halen, his voice is a ragged mess. Not that Roth seems to care about singing. He spent most of his time lifting his shirt, massaging his chest, sticking the microphone down his pants and rubbing his behind on poles supporting the stage's canopy. These were his "best stripper moves," Roth said.

Roth's stage banter was one concert cliche after another: the this-city-sure-can-rock sentiments, bragging about "not letting the raindrops stop us."Roth was particularly pathetic when he told a female fan that things for him haven't been going well lately. "Why don't you come back to the hotel with me. ... " Roth swigged from a bottle of booze before delivering Little Guitars, Dance The Night Away, Running With the Devil and other Van Halen classics.

Playing intimate venues after years of entertaining arenas and stadiums is probably hard on the ego. Are there worse things for a rock and roller than never having made it big? Yes, you could have made it so big once you can't bring yourself to let it go.