Eddie Van Halen

In 2007, it was a pleasant surprise how well Van Halen seemed to jell in concert during a reunion tour with original frontman David Lee Roth. Five years and one shockingly solid new album later - the recently released "A Different Kind of Truth" - it was a surprise that the show Sunday at the TD Garden, while jaw-droppingly good in many respects, didn't quite rise to the ecstatic heights of 2007. (It's possible that the excitement of fans finally receiving something they had long wanted in 2007 heightened the sparkle factor as well.)

In 2007, it was a pleasant surprise how well Van Halen seemed to jell in concert during a reunion tour with original frontman David Lee Roth. Five years and one shockingly solid new album later - the recently released "A Different Kind of Truth" - it was a surprise that the show Sunday at the TD Garden, while jaw-droppingly good in many respects, didn't quite rise to the ecstatic heights of 2007. (It's possible that the excitement of fans finally receiving something they had long wanted in 2007 heightened the sparkle factor as well.)

Van Halen will tour in 2012. The rock band has posted a video on its website announcing that the first tickets will go on sale Jan. 10. The black-and-white video shows guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, along with original lead singer David Lee Roth and Eddie's son, Wolfgang, on bass. The ticker at the bottom of the video reads: "Van Halen on Tour 2012. First tickets on sale January 10. " No other information is posted on the website. Van Halen, with its flamboyant frontman "Diamond Dave," was one of the most popular rock bands of the 1980s, but Roth left...

Robert "Kool" Bell was as surprised as everyone else when Van Halen asked veteran funk-soul-pop hitmakers Kool & the Gang to be the openers for its current tour, which hits the TD Garden on Sunday night. As suspected, it was VH frontman David Lee Roth's master plan to have the purveyors of wedding reception staples like "Celebration" (as well as funkier hits like "Misled") get the party started. We recently chatted with Bell (below, third from left)

Robert "Kool" Bell was as surprised as everyone else when Van Halen asked veteran funk-soul-pop hitmakers Kool & the Gang to be the openers for its current tour, which hits the TD Garden on Sunday night. As suspected, it was VH frontman David Lee Roth's master plan to have the purveyors of wedding reception staples like "Celebration" (as well as funkier hits like "Misled") get the party started. We recently chatted with Bell (below, third from left)

Eddie Trunk has been talking "all things hard rock and heavy metal" as cohost of VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" for eight seasons. Tonight, the ninth season kicks off with an hourlong interview with Axl Rose, the man Trunk has considered the great white whale of guests for his Saturday night horns-up chatfest with Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine. (Guns N' Roses hit the DCU Center on Nov. 25.) The special Friday edition of "TMS" caps the network's "National Metal Day" celebration.

WORCESTER - In the great, unspoken battle of the reunion bands, Van Halen emerged the clear winner in 2007. Other Johnny-come-back-latelies may have had more impressive intellectual credentials, exhibited more slick professionalism, or even managed to herd all the original members onstage, but few matched the gleeful energy and six-string pyrotechnics emitted by guitar god Eddie Van Halen last night at the DCU Center. And few setlists could transport you back to hazy, fevered summer nights of feathered hair, fringe leather jackets, and killing time in parking lots...

"We're baaaaack!" was the battle cry. "Hot for Teacher" was the song. David Lee Roth was the singer - a man no one expected to see high-fiving Eddie Van Halen on a concert stage in this lifetime. But Van Halen, in near-original formation, has returned from the land of acrimonious break-ups and substitute frontmen for a reunion tour that will surely satisfy rock fans hungry for that vacuous '80s feeling. Variety was never the hallmark of Van Halen's catalog, but they've produced a boatload of lighter-raising grooves and winningly mindless anthems.

WHO Lindsey Buckingham WHAT The Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter-guitarist is back with a splendid new solo album, "Seeds We Sow," that finds him stretching in several different directions. We recently chatted with Buckingham about "Seeds," his recent work with Stevie Nicks, covering the Rolling Stones, and his good-natured appearance alongside "himself" in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. WHERE Buckingham plays the Wilbur Theatre tomorrow night at 7. Tickets are $22-$45 at 800-745-3000 and www.ticketmaster.com.

It looks like a typical Saturday night at the club: The band is belting out high-energy sounds and the crowd is sweaty from dancing with abandon. Only it is not the midnight hour, but Sunday afternoon at the Plough & Stars in Cambridge, and the audience is decidedly tilted to an older crowd that may not rock like they used to, but won't miss out on a thriving music scene they say keeps them vital. For many boomers, rock music is a defining element of their generation and remains an essential source of both entertainment and inspiration.

Van Halen will tour in 2012. The rock band has posted a video on its website announcing that the first tickets will go on sale Jan. 10. The black-and-white video shows guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen, along with original lead singer David Lee Roth and Eddie's son, Wolfgang, on bass. The ticker at the bottom of the video reads: "Van Halen on Tour 2012. First tickets on sale January 10. " No other information is posted on the website. Van Halen, with its flamboyant frontman "Diamond Dave," was one of the most popular rock bands of the 1980s, but Roth left...

Eddie Trunk has been talking "all things hard rock and heavy metal" as cohost of VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" for eight seasons. Tonight, the ninth season kicks off with an hourlong interview with Axl Rose, the man Trunk has considered the great white whale of guests for his Saturday night horns-up chatfest with Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine. (Guns N' Roses hit the DCU Center on Nov. 25.) The special Friday edition of "TMS" caps the network's "National Metal Day" celebration.

WHO Lindsey Buckingham WHAT The Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter-guitarist is back with a splendid new solo album, "Seeds We Sow," that finds him stretching in several different directions. We recently chatted with Buckingham about "Seeds," his recent work with Stevie Nicks, covering the Rolling Stones, and his good-natured appearance alongside "himself" in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. WHERE Buckingham plays the Wilbur Theatre tomorrow night at 7. Tickets are $22-$45 at 800-745-3000 and www.ticketmaster.com.

WORCESTER - In the great, unspoken battle of the reunion bands, Van Halen emerged the clear winner in 2007. Other Johnny-come-back-latelies may have had more impressive intellectual credentials, exhibited more slick professionalism, or even managed to herd all the original members onstage, but few matched the gleeful energy and six-string pyrotechnics emitted by guitar god Eddie Van Halen last night at the DCU Center. And few setlists could transport you back to hazy, fevered summer nights of feathered hair, fringe leather jackets, and killing time in parking lots...

Reprinted from late editions of yesterday's Globe. "We're baaaaack!" was the battle cry. "Hot for Teacher" was the song. David Lee Roth was the singer - a man no one expected to see high-fiving Eddie Van Halen on a concert stage in this lifetime. But Van Halen, in near-original formation, has returned from the land of acrimonious break-ups and substitute frontmen for a reunion tour that will surely satisfy rock fans hungry for that vacuous '80s feeling. Variety was never the hallmark of Van Halen's catalog, but they've produced a boatload of...

Billy Joel had intended to release an autobiography this year but decided against it when he thought it would be falsely marketed as a salacious tell-all. But Wednesday night he told plenty to a packed house at Durgin Hall on the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus. Billed as "Q&A … and a little music," a high-spirited Joel, 62, performed for a shade over two hours, gamely answering questions about his life and career, poking fun and telling jokes along the way, and playing snippets and several full-blown renditions of many of his songs - and telling the tales behind them, including hits...