Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen performs Saturday night at US Bank Arena. (Enquirer photo/MEGGAN BOOKER)

Some groups play small halls in order to "reconnect with their audience," but Van Halen was meant to play bigger venues. As Saturday's performance at U.S. Bank Arena made clear, they're not ashamed to be full-blown rock stars. The flashing and swirling lights and video screens seemed de rigeur, as did the guzzling of Jack Daniel's.

Overall, the music Van Halen music played - as well as its attitude - differed little from the David Lee Roth era. Sensitive, introspective reappraisals of earlier work were absent. No MTV Unplugged "Layla," no reworking of the Great American Songbook.

Van Halen came out rocking, launching into turbo-charged versions of "Jump," "Runaround" and "Poundcake." As would be expected for a band that has released little material lately, the group stuck to well-known songs. One could also predict that virtuosic solos would be sprinkled throughout the show, and to some extent this was a meat-and-potatoes Van Halen concert.

One wishes it were more so. Some of the more sugarcoated songs that Sammy Hagar has written - "Eagles Fly" and "Why Can't This Be Love," for example - seemed bland in comparison to the rest of the set.

One can understand why, after Hagar joined the band, Eddie Van Halen tried to take a stronger songwriting role. This prompted Hagar to pack his bags, but later return. At times during the show one could fully understand why the newly sober Van Halen arranged an intervention.

To his credit, though, Hagar nailed some of the more hard-rocking Roth era, no easy feat.

The highlight was an extended guitar solo that Eddie Van Halen took near the end. Flowing between haunting baroque passages and power chords that echoed off the walls of the arena, his solo was imaginative, intricate and often subtle. It was also soulful, especially when he cranked up the distortion and hammered the strings.

His solo fired up the band, especially Hagar, who sang "I Ain't Talking Bout Love" and "Panama" with authority. The band sounded tighter than it did earlier in the show, and more inspired.

Finally, Van Halen seemed as good as it was in the late 1970s.