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Van Halen to Play Cafe Wha?, Report Says

By Andrea Swalec | January 3, 2012 1:35pm
Eddie Van Halen received Spike TV's 2009
Eddie Van Halen received Spike TV's 2009 "Guitar God" award in 2009 at the Guys' Choice Awards in May 2009.
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Getty Images/Kevin Winter

MANHATTAN — Van Halen fans, get ready to Jump.

David Lee Roth and other members of the legendary rock band are rumored to be playing a set at Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? on Thursday night, Rolling Stone reported.

A concert at the 115 MacDougal St. club would be Van Halen's first since the end of their 2007/08 reunion tour, which ended in July 2008.

Neither Cafe Wha?, which was originally owned by Roth's uncle Manny Roth, nor Van Halen's representatives immediately returned requests for confirmation of the concert.

The band has a new album on the way with Interscope Records, and tickets for a new tour will go on sale Tues., Jan. 10, according to the band's official website.

Specific tour dates have not been announced.

Van Halen recently hyped the album on an electronic Times Square billboard that was illuminated on New Year's Eve, according to the fan site Van Halen News Desk. The billboard showed the winged Van Halen logo, an image of a train and the date Feb. 7, 2012.

The album will be Van Halen's first since their 1998 release "Van Halen III." Roth hasn't sung on an album since their release "1984," the same year he left the band.

Sammy Hagar, front man for the band after Roth's departure, spoke about the album in a November interview with Rolling Stone.

"I heard this record is old outtakes from the old days. … I don't think it's a bad idea. It's kind of interesting. Bob Seger did it, and so did the Rolling Stones. I think it's an interesting thing to do in your old age if you can't come up with fresh, good stuff — or you can't get along," he said.

Rock legends Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen performed at Cafe Wha? at the beginning of their careers, according to the club's website.