David Lee Roth wants to know how Summerfest is doing

David Lee Roth wants to know how we’re doing so far.

David Lee Roth wants us to sing that shit.

David Lee Roth wants us to know there’s no I in team, but there is a U in pussy.

David Lee Roth wants to know how we’re doing so far.

David Lee Roth wants to totally fuck that country chick that played before him. She was hot!

David Lee Roth wants to know how we’re doing so far.

David Lee Roth want to apologize for what he said about that country chick and instead tell a story about how when he was a kid he wanted to fuck Betty Rubble, and how just last night he had a dream about fucking Uhura from Star Trek.

David Lee Roth wants to know how we’re doing so far. Come on! Sing that shit! You know the chorus!

So went Saturday’s David Lee Roth show at Summerfest, an unruly, confounding, occasionally good, occasionally awful, never-boring two-hour jaunt through the id of the former-and-forever Van Halen frontman. “I’m a musician, Dave’s a rock star,” Eddie Van Halen said in 1984. “Happy hour is 5 ’til February!” Roth said in 2026, not long before he launched into an extended story of an old girlfriend named Amazing Grace who used to wear nothing but a cowboy hat and boots while dancing to Tom Petty’s “Breakdown.” A rock star, indeed.

Roth’s headlining BMO Pavilion set was part of his current “Don’t Love Me, Rent Me” tour, his first series of shows in five years. On the menu this time around? Nothing but Van Halen hits and deep cuts: “Panama” and “Jump” bookended the show, while classic rippers like “Romeo Delight” and “D.O.A.” filled out the generous middle. No solo hits like “Just A Gigolo” or “Just Like Paradise.” No grunge-victim would-be solo hits like “A Little Ain’t Enough.” Just Roth-era Van Halen, courtesy of a crack band of musicians and one rock star. Still an important distinction, that.

But could the rock star still sing? Not really. Roth “talk-sang” more often than not, and spent most of the show riffing on everything from the babes he used to bang to James Brown and Shakespeare. Could he still pull off those gravity-defying high-kicks? Obviously not. Though trim and still in possession of a full-ish head of hair (“I’ll be the blonde that has more fun tonight, bitch!”) the 71-year-old Roth mostly took it easy. He endlessly paced the stage, a toothy grin permanently glued to his face, mugging and mincing while getting in his steps. He futzed around with his mic stand, sometimes straddling it, sometimes limboing beneath it. He talked. And talked. And talked some more. The ticketed BMO fans enjoyed themselves. The standing-room curiosity crowd in the back noticeably thinned as the night wore on.

One of Roth’s monologues landed, however. Sitting on a stool and plucking away on an acoustic guitar, he prefaced “Ice Cream Man” with a story of Van Halen’s early days. Roth, Eddie, and Alex would get paid about $100 for a week’s worth of shows, and the friends would celebrate their big payday by going to Denny’s and ordering everything on the menu. It was a simple but affectionate story, and provided a glimpse of a quality “remember the good times” show that could be chiseled from the “Rent Me” excess.

Instead: David Lee Roth wanting to know how we were doing so far—a question he posed after nearly every song. Roth wanted a lot Saturday night, but so did the audience. It was hard to tell if either left satisfied.