Hagar presides at rock festival

Geoff Carter

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 1:59 a.m.

Veteran rocker Sammy Hagar got a fair amount of goodies from adoring fans over the course of his marathon show at the Aladdin Sunday night.

The 49-year-old Hagar was given T-shirts bearing his likeness, the standard bouquet of flowers, a Nevada license plate reading "3LOCBOX" (a reference to one of his early hits) and a few homemade banners, most of which he tied around his waist like a wrap skirt and paraded around like a supermodel.

The only one he didn't put on had him scratching his head. It depicted one of Hagar's many guitars sitting in a rocking chair.

"You're gonna put some mojo on me!" he laughed, and added: "I'll admit it, man. I've been doing this (expletive) for 25 years, and I'm happy about this."

He should be. Prior to joining Van Halen in the mid-'80s, Hagar was an unremarkable artist. His songs were arduous, woozy collages detailing the glories of women, cars, drugs and rock 'n' roll. When he hooked up with the band, itself an adolescent monolith (albeit a fun monolith), something unexpected happened: both parties improved overnight. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen was finally able to write full songs, as opposed to support systems for guitar solos. Hagar wrote the most thought-provoking lyrics of his career. The partnership resulted in several terrific songs, including "Right Now," "Dreams" and "When it's Love."

Hagar fell out of the band recently, and while the cause of his departure is shrouded in mystery (the Van Halen camp insists he jumped; Hagar says he was pushed), last night the benefits of that ending were clearly visible. Hagar hard-fired the room with his ebullience, turning what could have been a routine greatest-hits package into something little short of a fiesta.

His 2 1/2-hour performance had nary an ounce of fat on it. His band -- guitarist Victor Johnson, bassist Mona, keyboardist Jesse Harms and drummer David Lauser -- never hit a bad note and went gamely along with the boss' every goofball aside. Hagar took every opportunity to gab nonchalantly with the crowd, telling stories, talking about the birth of his daughter and his bar in Cabo San Lucas, and even taking a few minutes to share a drink recipe. Hagar mixed the cocktail -- a "WaboRita" -- live on stage, and passed a few cups of it to the crowd.

"Take a sip and pass it around," he said. "There should be enough in there for a least a hundred people."

And, of course, he played the hits.

Hagar's high, raspy voice is still in prime condition, and the way he ripped through "One Way To Rock" and "Finish What Ya Started" was, for lack of a better word, inspiring. He slipped in several songs from his new record "Marching to Mars" among the older material -- a savvy choice.

The thoughtful anti-violence anthem "Who Has The Right?" and the touching "Kama" came across as so mature and informed that they managed to raise the standards of his old material. "I Can't Drive 55" and "Heavy Metal" are still pretty silly, but coming from this reborn, effervescent Hagar -- comfortable enough with himself to bring his mother on stage during the encore -- they became pure entertainment of the highest order.

Van Halen should have tried harder to keep Hagar in the fold. It's hard to tell what will happen in the wake of this divorce, but Hagar's doing the early running and doing it well. Before Hagar joined Van Halen, his management went on record as saying that that he was overqualified for the job. As it turns out -- 11 years later -- they are being proved right.