Chicago’s Wrigley Field has been many things throughout its 93-year history. But until 2005, none of those things had been musical.

It wasn’t until September of that year, when Jimmy Buffet paraded the world’s largest traveling beer garden into arguably the world’s most famous one, that the historic baseball diamond was soundtracked by something other than celebrity renditions of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The two-show stint at the Friendly Confines was booking genius. Promoters capitalized on existing tendencies of Buffet’s feel good, Hawaiian shirt-clad army and Wrigleyville’s identical patronage.

But, somehow, this summer’s Police reunion tour upped the venue’s level of appropriateness.

The 1980′s hit machine came to characterize the decade’s bigger is better attitude. Forget Gordon Gekko, The Police knew more than anyone in the pop culture lexicon that greed was good. While the band was pumping out chart-topping singles and plastering itself over every media outlet, The Cubs were pinching pennies under the 1981 purchase of the team by the Tribune Co. And despite how fitting it would have been for the act to perform at Wrigley a quarter-century ago, it is even more so today.

The biggest complaint about Chicago Cubs fans, the first knock from those who don’t bleed blue, is that the Wrigley crowd could not care less about what’s happening on the field. The easy criticism about the Clark/Addison audience is that only being there – or more importantly, being seen being there – outweighs what’s happening on the base paths, that they get caught up in the mystique of the ballpark and the legend of the team and they let that cloud their opinion of what often has been bad baseball.

Sound familiar? It’s the same kneejerk critique of many reunion tours. That the attendees care more about reliving the past to the tune of some familiar background music by performers a shadow of their former selves, than watching a vital rock show. That the setting and charm of the night take precedent over the product.

Which is why arena vets Van Halen should be forced by rock’n'roll law to change their recently announced October gigs to Wrigley Field. In fact, every act embarking on a comeback should be required to perform at the ballpark. The FCC and RIAA could work something out to that extent; they seem to regulate everything else in the industry.

Just look at a few the groups that would have graced the Confines’ stage since the precedent-setting Buffet performance if this were mandated.

- Queen with former Bad Company vocalist Paul Rogers
- The Smoking Popes with former Duvall/Slapstick drummer Rob Kellenberger
- InXs with that guy from TV’s “Rockstar InXs” that sounds way too similar to the late Michael Hutchence
- The Smashing Pumpkins with stand-ins on bass and guitar
- Zwan, but under the name The Smashing Pumpkins

The list can go on from The Pixies, Urge Overkill, Asia to Dinosaur Jr. The decade has had no shortage of comebacks. But the reason that Van Halen, which announced an all-out reunion with estranged front man David Lee Roth on vocals and the 16-year-old son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen filling in on bass, should grace Wrigley has nothing to do with The Police or Jimmy Buffet.

Instead, it has everything to do with The Beatles. Heck, what in rock’n'roll doesn’t?

The Fab Four’s 1965 concert at the home of the New York Mets, Shea Stadium, has been a landmark performance for more than 40 years. At the time it was the first open-air stadium concert and generated more revenue by a larger number of fans than any performance in history. The image of the band walking across the diamond in their tan coats is iconic. That August gig is solidified as one of the greatest moments in live music, much like Queen’s set at Live Aid in 1985 or Radiohead at Glastonbury a dozen years later.

However, The Beatles’ second most famous baseball field concert – a year later at San Fransciso’s Candlestick Park – is the real reason Van Halen should venture to Wrigley.

That 1966 show was the Liverpudlians’ last concert sans the “Let It Be” rooftop farewell years later. It was the gauntlet of live music pitfalls. The band, which already was exhausted from years of globetrotting to the tune of 1,400 shows, couldn’t hear itself over the roar of the crowd. Unable to sing on key or even know whether they were playing the same songs as one another, the Candlestick performance was the last in a series of annoyances that turned The Beatles down the road to a break up.

If The Beatles couldn’t survive a ballpark gig, what chance does the always-feuding Van Halen have? Everyone can enjoy himself or herself while times are good. Remember, Roth and the gang tried this reunion before in 1996, but hung it up the moment things got tough. The familiar arenas and packed concert halls wont pose any new challenges to the Van Halen juggernaut. They’ve been playing venues like those for almost three decades. Yet Wrigley would present a slew of new obstacles and be trial by fire for the group. If they could get through that performance, then the rest of the tour would be smooth sailing. Well, no… but it would be smoother sailing, that’s for sure.

Additionally, venturing into new territory would discredit the in-it-for-the-money claims by the band’s detractors. Relevant artists should always want to take on new challenges, which is why reunion tours so often are maligned as ways for members to pad bank accounts while going through the motions.

It is the perfect setting for a comeback. At its best, Wrigley Field would be a way to get through the harshest conditions first, to a tailored audience, while snuffing one of critics’ biggest fires. At its worst, it would be a 40,000-person gig and a pretty fat single-day paycheck.

Not even the Tribune Co. could complain about those odds.

Northwest Herald, Aug. 17, 2007