CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Their hair is a lot shorter but the undeniable chemistry is still there.

After 22 years apart, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen and original lead singer David Lee Roth were back on stage together for the L.A. hard rock band's much-anticipated reunion tour, which launched last night at the Charlotte Bobcats arena in front of some 18,000 fans.

Joining the duo, whose long locks used to be as much a part of their identity as their respective showmanship and incredible finger dexterity, was original drummer Alex Van Halen and Eddie's 16-year-old son Wolfgang on bass.

Wolfgang is replacing the band's fourth and final original member, Michael Anthony, who's touring next month with one-time Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar.

And while Wolfgang may be the odd man out, sharing the stage with three fiftysomething musicians, he displayed a confidence and musicianship well beyond his age, even venturing out on the band's S-shaped catwalk by himself to get closer to the crowd.

Eddie, meanwhile, was all smiles all night long, beaming like a proud parent at Wolfgang, hi-fiving Roth -- who grinned right back -- on more than one occasion, and performing scissor kicks while playing his guitar at lightning speed.

He was the undisputed star -- "The Maestro" as Roth called him -- of the night.

For example, when Roth and Eddie had a contest about who could make a better motorcycle sound with their mouth or guitar, Roth easily backed down saying: "I can't do that!"

If anything, it was Roth who was the weakest link of the evening, at least physically.

He still sounds decent enough and loves to tell a good story, like the long-winded but funny one right before he played acoustic guitar on Ice Cream Man, but his legendary limberness isn't what it used to be.

This was a guy who could high kick and jump with the best of them.

These days, the blond-streaked Roth mainly twirls a microphone stand while his clownish attire and "Diamond Dave" behaviour -- he wore tight black leather pants, two different top hats, several gold embossed jackets worthy of Liberace, and alternately twirled a chain during Unchained and a red flag like a gymnast during Jump -- isn't as engaging as it used to be.

Van Halen's two-hour-and-10-minute performance kicked off with a triple- shot of great classic rock -- their cover of The Kinks' You Really Got Me, I'm the One, which the band stopped mid-song to rapturous applause -- "It only took us 20 years to get this far," said Roth -- and Runnin' With the Devil.

In between, there were such classics -- all from the Roth-fronted years of 1978-84 -- as Romeo Delight, Beautiful Girls, Dance the Night Away, Everybody Wants Some, their cover of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman, I'll Wait, And the Cradle Will Rock, Hot For Teacher, Little Guitars, Jamie's Cryin', Panama, and Ain't Talkin' Bout Love.

Truthfully, it was hard to maintain the energy of that trio of opening songs, but the band definitely aimed to please with a hits-heavy set list and backed by impressive green laser lights, an enormous video backdrop and confetti raining down on the audience by the very end.

"I can't tell you all how excited we are to be here tonight," said Roth.

The unseasonably warm temperatures outside -- in the low 30s Celcius -- did little to dampen the enthusiasm inside the arena as fans held up everything from signs to flags to hand-drawn pictures.

Like most big tours, Van Halen's 29-date road trip started in a relatively small market before travelling to Greensboro, N.C. tomorrow, Philadelphia on Monday and Wednesday and then crossing the border to Toronto for two shows on Oct. 7 and 12.

The other Canadian dates are Vancouver on Dec. 5, Calgary on Dec. 7 and Edmonton on Dec. 9, the latter the final date of the tour.

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VAN HALEN

Charlotte Bobcats Arena, Charlotte, N.C.

Sun Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

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