During the press conference Van Halen gave to announce their upcoming tour, returning frontman David Lee Roth asked the media, "We know what your expectations are, are you prepared for it to be better than it ever fucking was?" Coming from the loqacious showman, it was easy to write the statement off as hype. It was simply Diamond Dave doing his best impression of a salesman in an effort to sell the tour. Turns out the question he posed was not just fancy rhetoric.

Tonight's show at the Air Canada Centre did indeed exceed expectations, no small feat for perhaps the most dysfunctional band in rock history, a band about 25 years past their prime. When Roth last fronted the band, the year was 1985, and rumours of hostility between band members had been bubbling for years. During the tour for their most commercially successful album with Roth--1984--Roth was forgetting words to the songs and singing only bits of what he remembered. He and Eddie often appeared onstage drunk, leading fans frustrated at the band's sloppy performances. Twenty-three years later, nostalgia inaccurately turns those memories into the standard for excellence. But if you closed your eyes last night, during the bands opener "You Really Got Me" and follow-ups "Runnin' With the Devil" and "I'm The One", you could have deluded yourself into thinking you were hearing the original studio recordings. Dave was actually singing, Eddie had returned to the raw earthy tone earlier years, and drummer Alex Van Halen was his usual reliable self. It sounded--if not looked--like classic Van Halen, but with a twist: replacing original bass player Michael Anthony was Eddie's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. Gone were Roth's long blond mane and high-flying scissor-kicks. Gone was Eddie's feathered hair and bellbottom pants. But still present was that raw Van Halen sound, honed in the clubs on Hollywood's Sunset Strip in the 1970s. It was obvious the moment Eddie tore into the opening of the Kinks classic that the magic had never left.

As Roth succinctly pointed out, the band was "three parts original, one part inevitable". And so it was. Wolfgang did an admirable job holding down Anthony's bass lines and aping his underrated vocal harmonies, although it will take him some time to loosen up and develop a stage presence. Eddie--looking skinny but ripped--favoured his sunburst EVH Wolfgang guitar for most of the night, but played his famously striped "Frankenstrats" for songs like "Little Guitars" and show-closer "Jump". At 52, Eddie looks his age; his skillful hands resembling those of a carpenter's as he wowed the crowd with his fretboard wizardry and two-handed tapping. He may not have the speed-picking dexterity of his youth (opting for tremolo bar antics and artificial harmonics in spots he would normally pick), but he is as sharp as ever, certainly sharper than he was during the ill-fated 2004 tour with on-again off-again frontman Sammy Hagar. Alex, the backbone of the band, looks the same as he did 10 years ago, and plays like he did 20 years ago. His drum solo, often criticzed as being too long, was brilliant as usual, and is an important component of the Van Halen live show.

The biggest surprise of the night was Roth. Waving a giant red flag at the top of the stage during the show opener, Roth nailed the lyrics for each and every song. Never known as a strong vocalist, Roth displayed an impressive ability to hold notes, especially on songs like "Little Dreamer" and "Romeo Delight". The 53-year-old former gymnist no longer has the agility of his youth, but still let loose with some high-kicks and, despite the Liberace-style dinner jackets and the fact that he is looking more like David Letterman every day, still has the charismatic ability to charm and captivate an audience.

Among the classics Van Halen ripped through during their 2 hour and 10 minute set were "Ice Cream Man" (which was preceded by a nostalgic tale by Roth), "So This is Love?", "Panama", "Mean Street", "Everbody Wants Some!!", "Pretty Woman", "'Aint Talkin' 'Bout Love", and "Hot For Teacher". And they played it without a significant break, something younger bands don't even bother pulling off.

The middle-aged audience seemed surprisingly tame, and one has to question those who felt the need to go get a beer during Eddie's solos spot. It was a given that many of the fans would be looking to relive their past, and the band provided many opportunities to do so. The emphasis was on the songs, and despite two black and very cool-looking camera blimps (zeppelins?) and green laser lights, Van Halen let the music do the talking.

2008 marks the 30-year anniversary for the band, and if the tour goes into next year, it will be a good way to mark the occasion. The politics of Van Halen has and always will be fragile, so who knows what will happen if they manage to finish the tour without strangling each other. A studio album with Roth is a purely academic. Van Halen's legacy is as secure as ever. It took only six years to do so.

This tour is just the icing on the cake.