Diamond Dave shines with
new solo disc
By MIKE ROSS -- Express Writer
DLR BAND
DLR Band
(Velvel/EMI)
It's amazing David Lee Roth didn't think of this
before.
If Van Halen can swap lead singers like worn-out
boots, why can't the band's best and original singer
just replace everybody else and make an album that
sounds like the old Van Halen? That's what
Diamond Dave has done here as he's never done
before. It's a hard-driving blast of testoster-rock
brimming with laughs, energy and exuberance. It's
riddled with heavy metal cliches, but the precarious
balance of excess and absurdity works like a
charm, mostly.
Step 1: Get a guitarist who can wank like Eddie. It
takes two to fill his boots - John Lowery and Terry
Kilgore. Their busy, technically impressive work is
front and centre, right behind Roth's
larynx-shredding histrionics, of course. And the
rhythm section is probably the most cohesive he's
ever assembled. This music sounds more like a real
band than another solo album - hence the name, I
guess.
Some of the songs are tainted by bitterness, like
Relentless, which comes off like the whining of a
has-been. And the unremarkable Wa Wa Zat (also
the name of his record label) is basically just a
maudlin rehash of the past. It's when Dave dwells in
the present, the immediate, that he shines. The
opening brisk boast of Slam Dunk - basketball as
metaphor for rock stardom - is a winner. And in
songs like Lose the Dress (Keep the Shoes) and
Weekend With the Babysitter (sample hilarious
lyric: "Little Elvis is combat-ready") you get flashes
of the old Diamond Dave.
If the world is ready for a comeback of this sort of
'80s classic rock sound, the DRL Band may just
take the lead with this album. If not, well, there's
always another tell-all book to write.
