The Police are getting good reviews. So is Stevie Wonder. But if reviewers in Charlotte, N.C., are any indication, it is the reunited Van Halen that is the coolest show of the year.

To some, Van Halen was going to be a great show no matter what. Hardcore fans just wanted to see David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen back together again, and they snatched up tickets without any other concern. A show at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in November sold out in minutes, prompting a second night to be added for December. There are also multiple nights in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Anaheim.

To others, though, like snarky music bloggers, VH ran a chance of imploding before the tour launch. And if the volatile personalities made it to a stage, would they bring it?

“Early into their first concert together in more than 23 years – the show no one thought they’d see – Van Halen was doing its best to erase years of soap opera feuding, false starts and long-fading hopes for a reunion,” the Post & Courier of Charleston said of the tour opener. “And if there was any doubt they could live up to the band’s considerable legend or the unbelievable hype – and there was plenty of that – they were viciously putting those concerns to rest. And they seemed to know it.”

The band was said to have ripped through its 26-song set, with Eddie Van Halen and Roth all smiles (the latter was said to have a grin on his face all night). Wolfgang Van Halen – Eddie’s 16-year-old son – was given props.

Two nights later, VH visited the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina to the same applause.

“There’s just something so right about seeing Roth up there where he belongs again, even without the mane of hair he used to sport,” the News & Observer said.

“By the end of the very first song (a crushing “You Really Got Me”), Roth was scatting his vocal and Eddie Van Halen was duplicating it syllable for syllable on his guitar. That goofy sense of fun is exactly the dimension Van Halen lacked during those long, dark Sammy Hagar years.”