ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2015, Volume 16 | Page 19

DARLING’S WATERFRONT PAVILION • Bangor, Maine • July 30, 2015 XFINITY CENTER • Mansfield, Massachusetts • August 1, 2015 I could have easily turned this review into an argument about who’s the best front man for the mighty VAN HALEN. But does anybody ever really win that argument? Is it even worth wasting your breathe trying to figure out who’s been the best choice with the mic to front one of the world’s greatest Rock bands? Is it Sammy or Dave? Should we even consider Gary Cherone? Who’s the better singer? Sammy or Dave? Shouldn’t we include the awesomely talented Gary Cherone in that discussion, even though his tenure was oh so brief? The Van Halen fans vs the Van Hagar fans vs the VH III fans…the Van Halen brothers and company have taken on many forms in the band’s history, and it’s legion of fans are always ready and willing to argue about which version was and is the best. What can be said with absolute certainty is that Van Halen – whichever version is your favorite, has given us catalogs of great music and vivid memories of awesome stage shows since the late 1970’s. A few weeks before my 18th birthday and a month before graduating high school, a friend’s older brother took us to see a newer band that everybody was talking about. That would be the first time I ever witnessed Van Halen live, at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland Maine--May 16, 1981. I seized the opportunity to smuggle in my old Pentax ME Super camera with as many rolls of film as I could stuff into my pockets. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was actually the start of my other life-long addiction--concert photography. It