Trend Treader: Let’s Hear It for The Boy

Runnin' with the boy crush: David Lee Roth gets a smooch from Eddie Van Halen.

Pardon the title's reference to an ingratiating pop song from 1984, but why does it seem like that dystopian year marked the last time some of this season’s most highly anticipated acts were on tour?

As you’ve probably learned by now, the enormously successful hard rock band and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Van Halen, plan to reunite this fall for their first live appearances together in more than 20 years. The lineup will be composed of brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, original singer David Lee Roth, and Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, a 16-year-old guitar prodigy.

That’s right: Three men and a baby. Might as well jump!

Roth, now in his 50s, promised at yesterday’s press conference that the 25 dates in North America would be a precursor to a world tour and a new album – unlike The Police, who vowed a mere one-time affair before they embarked on a tour that has included headline slots at Live Earth and the Virgin Festival this summer.

Like the immortal character in The Police’s smash, “Roxanne,” other giant man bands of the 80s want to put on the red light and attract your cash now. Matured rockers such as Genesis, Squeeze and Crowded House also are together again, give or take a member here and there lost to bitter feuds, infirmity or just plain death.

Sounds like the urge for male bonding must be “Something So Strong," indeed.