Live-Review: VAN HALEN im Staples Center in Los Angeles (14.12.2007)

Have you seen a guitar god? A gen-u-ine get-down-on-your-knees-worship-at-the-altar-raise-your-hands-to-the-sky- I-can`t-believe-he`s-playing-what-made-him-famous guitar god? That rare deity who takes mere wood and steel and creates sounds, tones, and moments that knock the air from your lungs with the flick of his wrist. The music you know from those revered albums collected, spun, memorized.

Tonight you`re in a gigantic cavern joining thousands of disciples to form a human ring around the resplendent altar. United to experience the music in all its blinding Technicolor glory. And when that guitar god appears on stage from the ethers of that cavern, you`re shocked. He exists. This singular entity who created, played, and recorded these immortal songs. And he returns to do it again. Live. For the mortals.

The riff grabs your attention, stifling any chatter in the crowd. Notes fly, flutter, and finesse their way from his nimble fingertips to your hungry ears. He has your attention. He wants you to realize and understand you haven`t heard this. He hits another note. This is why you are here tonight.

In your hands, the guitar confounds, frustrates, disappoints. But his blessed hands surge with magic. A lightning bolt with fingers. You watch with keen attention as they unlock the secrets of the strings. Each note explodes like a geyser of oil that rumbles up from deep within the earth. Every delicate movement and each powerful motion holds you in suspense. Where is he taking you? On a journey through a galaxy that exists here. Now. Only those within these sacred cavern walls receive salvation, this restorative rock’n’roll tonic. The audience drinks it up and splashes around in this momentary sonic dimension. Like a fisherman, the guitar god lets out enough slack to keep you in a trance. Until he snaps his music back to this planet. You cheer. You yell. You clap. You do whatever you can to express your admiration.

I have seen a guitar god. His name is Eddie Van Halen.