Finishing What I Started

More evidence continues to pour in that the Van Halen concert last Thursday in St. Paul was not overly influenced by Democratic party politics. First, Scott writes in from Oklahoma:

Saw the mighty VH in Oklahoma City just three days ago.  Same story.  No left-leaning backdrops in the land of oil wells and JC Watts.  I too only witnessed "Carnal Knowledge" era pics from the Right Now video.  It helps to remember that Sammy Hagar was an outspoken proponent of the original Gulf War and told that leftist MTV reporter Kurt Loder that he was a Reagan Republican in a 1991 interview.

As for the show...  Dry Run kicked ass!

Well, Scott always has been a sucker for a good tambourine and ululating song. Next, Jim Styczinski has been checking the donor databases and reports:

Intrigued by the Van Halen controversy, I went to my second favorite web site, Political Money Line, and ran through the members of Van Halen. The only hit is Sammy Hagar:

HAGAR, SAMMY R. MR.
7/11/2003 $2,000.00
NOVATO, CA 94948
F.W.O. INC./ENTERTAINER -[Contribution]
BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC

Finally, the irrefutable proof. Star Tribune music critic Chris Riemenschneider hated the show and the kind of people that showed up to watch it. Excerpts of his review:
 
Turns out, an eight-year hiatus was the best thing that ever happened to the Sammy Hagar-fronted Van Halen. It made them a little bit dumber.

Thursday's two-hour concert by the '80s guitar-god band at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center was such a macho, fist-pumping, nostalgia-riding affair, it mooted all the endless debate over how Hagar compares to original VH singer David Lee Roth. The 14,722 fans on hand were excited enough -- and in many cases, intoxicated enough -- to be happy with either version of the California-reared group.

The fun almost seemed forced in parts. Once feuding, the band mates did so many bear-hugs, hiney-kicks and hand-holding gestures, their beefier, ball cap-wearing fans could've feared something less than manly was going on.

When a reporter resorts to whiny, gratuitous stereotyping like this, you know it offended his liberal sensibilities.