David Lee Roth – The Keswick Theatre – Glenside (A PopEntertainment.com Concert Review)

PopEntertainment
5 days ago
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Updated: 16 minutes ago

David Lee Roth – The Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA – May 19, 2026

About four songs into David Lee Roth’s recent gig at the Keswick, my 20-something photographer turned to me and said, “That’s got to be the horniest 70-year-old I’ve ever seen.” He meant it – and I took it – as a compliment.

Because even 48 years after the release of first Van Halen album, David Lee Roth is a force of nature. Oh sure, he can’t do the big jumps and kicks anymore, and his voice is not as strong as it once was, but in a strange way, it doesn’t matter. David Lee Roth is a showman, and he still puts on one hell of a show.

He knows how to skirt over his vocal limitations – the backing vocalists take most of the high notes. He lets his band shine around him. You’d think the guitarist would have been intimidated knowing this dude used to gig with Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai, but he pulled off the big moments like someone who has been studying Eddie’s technique his entire life as a guitarist, and he probably has.

Diamond Dave knows how to bond with the audience. He told long stories. He told dirty jokes. He talked about nostalgia and world events. He did the limbo (twice!) and a stunningly well-executed baton-twirling exhibition with a full-length mike stand. He talked about his dick, which was apparently nicknamed “Little Elvis.” He flirted with members of the audience. He even kinda flirted with his band.

Sometimes he was talking as much as singing, but even when it got into some weird stream of consciousness it was oddly fascinating and undeniably funny. Then he’d good-naturedly call out over and over again, “How are we doing so far?” Somehow the fact that on stage he periodically looked like Steve Martin parodying a rock star just made him even more likeable.

David Lee Roth isn’t taking himself seriously, but he’s going to do whatever he can to make sure the crowd has a good time. That kind of can-do attitude is kind of contagious. Since this is as close as we’re going to get anymore to seeing live performances by an original member of the first six Van Halen albums we may as well just give in and let him take us on a ride. (Sammy Hagar has also been doing a tour of the later Van Hagar stuff with original band bassist Michael Anthony, and they do a few Diamond Dave-era tunes as well.)

And, yes, this was a Van Halen gig. Roth did only songs from the band, none of his own later solo hits. (Sorry, fans of “California Girls,” “Yankee Rose,” “Just Like Paradise” and “Just a Gigolo.”) Even the two covers he played at this show – bluesman John Brim‘s “Ice Cream Man” and The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” – were originally recorded by Roth with the group on the first VH album.

The concert is a tight mix of hits and favorite album tracks from Roth’s time with VH. One slight complaint about the setlist, despite mentioning the title a few times during his between song patter, Roth never did play “Running With the Devil.” But that is pretty much the only substantial song from that period that he didn’t do, although I’d have also liked to hear “I’ll Wait” and “And the Cradle Will Rock,” but I’ll let it slide. He also completely ignored the 1982 Diver Down album, but as that album was mostly covers, it was no great loss.

I have to admit I was worried that Dave’s voice may have been a bit shot on the opener, a high-spirited version of “Panama” in which the singer missed a few notes. Interestingly, Roth’s singing seemed to get stronger as the show went on, with only occasional later hiccups like the slightly mangled high-sections in “Everybody Wants Some!!”

What he missed in vocal purity he made up for with sheer enthusiastic rock bravado. He followed up “Panama” with some fun album tracks – like “Drop Dead Legs,” “Romeo Delight,” and “I’m the One.” By the time he merged back into the hits with a party-hearty version of my personal favorite VH track, “Beautiful Girls,” the audience was all in.

Soon after that, the classics started coming hard and fast, from the melodic rock of “Dance the Night Away” to a crunchy version of the band’s breakthrough hit “Jamie’s Crying.” He followed those with such hard-hitting fan favorite album tracks as “Unchained” and “Mean Streets.”

Interestingly, he played the first couple of verses of “Ice Cream Man” unplugged on an acoustic guitar (who even knew Dave could play guitar?) before the band surged in and added the sprinkles.

Roth and the band sped into the final stretch with a series of classic hits. First came the dismissive proto-hair-metal blow-off screed “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.” Then he sneered and leered his way through the glammy schoolboy crush song “Hot For Teacher.” Following was “Everybody Wants Some!!,” the thudding and screeching, unapologetic, swaggering rock anthem about the universal desires for sex, fun, and rock-and-roll.

By the time he hit the synth-rock groove of the inevitable show closer “Jump,” Roth had rocked the joint for about two hours. Diamond Dave knows how to throw a party, so you might as well jump.

Jay S. Jacobs