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There's life in the old warhorse after all. After six years of inactivity, hard rockers Van Halen patched up their differences with once-and-future lead singer Sammy Hagar and trotted out two hours of hits for an appreciative packed house of approximately 14,000 at America West Arena Thursday night. The band had been given up for dead after acrimoniously parting ways with Hagar in 1996 and releasing the stinkeroo CD, “Van Halen III,” two years later with former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone on the microphone. The group had an important choice to make to repair their tarnished reputation and re-establish themselves as an arena headliner: reunite with original vocalist David Lee Roth or second frontman Hagar? Those who caught the co-headlining “we used to be in Van Halen” tour the two did together in 2002 know VH made the right decision as Diamond Dave has become a cartoonic shadow of his former self and Sammy mopped the floor with him. “Roth just doesn't have it anymore,” said Rick Ross, 44, of Phoenix, who caught the pair at Cricket Pavilion. “At this point, Sammy's the right choice.” That said, there's really no comparing the two eras of the group. With a young, charismatic Roth at the helm from ’78-’85, Van Halen was a great, swaggering rock ’n’ roll monster. With Hagar (’86-’96), they hit greater commercial heights but became hopelessly bland. The difference was laid plain during the live show when the band played Roth's menacing, gritty rocker “Unchained” and Hagar's sappy “Why Can't This Be Love?” back-to-back. At least Sammy now has the good sense to sing some of Dave's songs live — something he once refused to do — including show opener “Jump.” While he lacks Roth's once-formidable stage presence, he's enthusiastically energetic and has a better voice. Regardless of who's singing, Van Halen revolves around the fretwork of the masterful Eddie Van Halen. Shirtless and fighting fit at 49, the grinning guitarist leapt wildly about the stage, obviously glad to be doing so after having survived a recent rough patch that included divorce, hip replacement surgery and a bout with tongue cancer. Though tilted in Hagar's favor, the concert bounced between songs from each era of Van Halen, much the same way the new, two-disc greatest hits compilation “The Best of Both Worlds” does. Highlights included “Poundcake” and “Ain't Talkin’ ’Bout Love.” The two (of three) new songs on the collection that the band performed — the moronic “Up for Breakfast” and nearly as bad “It's About Time” — were tuneless, turgid disasters. Still, they weren't nearly as awful as that outdated, execrable rock star conceit, the solo section, which found each of the four band members performing alone at different points in the show. In a nice gesture, Hagar dedicated his “Eagles Fly” to local promoter and cancer survivor Danny Zelisko, but each solo turn was a momentum killer. “They were great for bathroom breaks and that's what I used them for,” said Dawn Valles, 33, of Chandler. Van Halen closed strong with “Right Now,” following which the band members basked in full house lights, grasped hands and took a group bow. Tellingly, the first encore consisted of Roth-era nuggets, a cover of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and “Panama,” fueled by one of Eddie's most memorable riffs. Naturally, the closer was a Sammy song, the power ballad “When It's Love,” and, just as naturally, it was anti-climactic. Set List:
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