David Lee Roth performed with his new band pubicly for the first time on Thursday (September 26) as he prepares for his upcoming Las Vegas residency.
One of the attendees shared video of the invite-only show at SIR rehearsal studios in Los Angeles, featuring Roth and his backing musicians running through snippets of "Atomic Punk" , "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" , "Dance The Night Away" , "Runnin' With The Devil" and "Panama" .
Roth 's residency at the House Of Blues at Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay kicks off on January 8. He recently told the Atlanta radio station Rock 100.5 that he "started getting ready" for the Sin City run last October. He described the show's format as: "I am Las Vegas. I include hard rock. I include classic rock. I include rodeo. I include Gaga . I include mud wrestling. I include UFC , mixed martial arts. Our music has been part of all of that. If you say David Lee Roth to anybody, I pretty much get the phone call answered at least the first time... This is interactive in its most basic sense. The experience is not just the music and the show — it starts with two pieces of key lime pie for breakfast… David Lee Roth is Vegas, baby. We include it all."
In a separate interview with the Van Halen News Desk , Roth shot down suggestions that his Las Vegas residency will simply see him covering VAN HALEN 's classic songs with a new backing band.
"We do not sound like VAN HALEN live. You have not heard this," he said. " VAN HALEN live is lead guitar, bass, drums, sing. Here, we bring it the way a record brings it. To do that requires two or three guitars. We have five people hollerin'. It's big rock sound. It's not 'Just A Gigolo' . It's not brass band. That was a quickie vacation. This is not a tribute band."
He continued: "I wrote these songs. I structured these songs. We bring the respect and dignity to what we are doing the same way that the Lincoln Center brings to the Beethoven Festival with the latest Philharmonic. It's a new orchestra, and a whole new sound."
At press time, Roth 's backing band hadn't been revealed. But he promised "a changing set of 26 instantly recognizable songs," pulled primarily from the VAN HALEN catalog.
"You only need five songs," Roth said. "You must have five songs in order to play Las Vegas. It says that in the Bible, or the Torah, or somewhere, we're pretty sure. Well, I have 20 songs... There is an attitude to Las Vegas. It's where we go to celebrate whatever 'living life large' means to you."
Tickets for "David Lee Roth: Rocks Vegas" start at $63.50 and are on sale now.
The full itinerary: January 8, 10-11; March 18, 20-21, 25, 27-28.
