Reunited Van Halen parties like it's 1984

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Their mullets may be shorn but hard rockers Van Halen are partying like it's 1984 on a sold-out U.S. tour with original frontman David Lee Roth - one of several baby-boomer bands back on the road this year.

Propelled by 53-year-old Roth's clowning and guitarist Eddie Van Halen's virtuoso rubber-band licks, the band barreled through a two-hour set Thursday with hits like "Runnin' With the Devil" and "Hot for Teacher," recorded before Roth quit more than 20 years ago to pursue a solo career.

That was fine with the fans who wanted no surprises.

"I don't want to hear any new music," said art curator Anne Shires, 32, who said she paid $260 for a floor seat.

Sales of recorded music have plunged over the past decade, but rock fans long out of college are more willing than ever to pay top dollars to see the now-wrinkled musicians who provided the soundtrack to their youth.

The Police and Bruce Springsteen, who battled Van Halen at the top of the charts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, are also playing to packed houses this fall.

"Every artist now realizes that by and large their major income comes from touring and merchandise sales, and not from recorded music sales," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, the trade journal of the concert industry.

DEMAND EXTENDS TOUR