POP REVIEW : ROCK ROMP WITH ‘KING LEER’ ROTH

If you should find yourself with amnesia wandering around a strange city, one good way to learn your location would be to find a David Lee Roth concert. Take a seat and it won’t be long before Diamond Dave is telling you at an assertive volume how great it is to be in fill in name of city.

And if you didn’t catch it the first time, hang on a second. Pretty soon Roth will loudly realize that this must be fill in name of city because everybody looks so great and everybody kicks asphalt. And when he hoists the bottle of Jack Daniel’s, chances are good that he’ll mention fill in name of city in his toast.

When the name of the city is Los Angeles, Roth gets to add a hometown touch to the proceedings, and that’s what he did on Friday at the first of his two shows at the Forum.

Wearing a David Lee Roth T-shirt and performing in front of a huge backdrop of David Lee Roth in face paint and feathers, Mr. Humility was playing his first local concerts since noisily leaving Van Halen in 1985. But if you’re expecting a big change from the ear-busting, fist-raising hard-rock celebrations of old, lower your expectations. Roth stuck strictly with the tried and true.

Of course the very idea of a new direction rarely comes up in the world of teen-libido metal rock. But even in Van Halen’s early days, Roth’s ability to charm with his bluster brought a freshness and humor to the format.

And his recent transformation into an all-around celebrity and MTV’s favorite cartoon character suggested that he might come up with a terrific blend of camp, comedy, rock ‘n’ roll--maybe even some of the torchy old pop music he’s been doing on his own.

But perhaps realizing that his audience wouldn’t know what to do with anything that’s not a cliche, Roth repressed his Louis Prima tendencies and delivered metal to order. Having turned in one set of strutting hard-rock roosters for another, Roth was his old self, for better or for worse.

On the better side, he remains rock’s King Leer, the lovable satyr who can get away with the corniest stuff with a wink and a conspiratorial grin. But after all these years, his soliloquies are getting tired and predictable, and he didn’t seem especially inspired verbally at Friday’s show: He never did spin out on one of his outrageous orations.

Many on hand were expecting some darts in particular to be aimed at his former buddies in Van Halen. But it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to take digs at a group when you’re performing eight or nine of its songs, which Roth did. His newer solo material was interchangeable with it, making you wonder why he bothered changing bands.

The show’s most entertaining moment came when Roth left the stage and suddenly materialized on a platform in the middle of the floor seating area, where he basked in the crowd’s surprised adulation like Hulk Hogan in the ring after pinning another villain.

Actually, Friday’s concert could have been billed Vai Halen, acknowledging Roth’s new guitar sidekick Steve Vai. The raw-boned musician’s playing was fleet, fancy and ferocious, and his presence assertive.

But these weren’t enough to justify all the stage time Roth allotted to Vai and bassist Billy Sheehan for showy, noisy instrumental duels. With Roth absent, the show bogged down and drifted--it was like watching the Chicago Bulls’ reserves play while Michael Jordan sits on the bench.