Feel the power of 1984, when Black Jacket brings Van Halen album to life Friday

The unique thing about a Black Jacket Symphony’s Van Halen 1984 show is that the entire house is always packed with Van Halen fans, both in the crowd and on the stage.

“It’s an authentic show,” said TJ Hitt, who sings both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar parts for BJS. “I think everybody involved is really huge fans of Van Halen.”

You can join them Friday 8 p.m. at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, when BJS recreates the entire album of 1984, with rock hits like “Jump,” “Panama,” “I’ll Wait,” and “Hot For Teacher.” Tickets are $35, and they’re available at mpaconline.org or by calling the box office at 334-481-5100.

1984 was a landmark for Van Halen — a quintuple platinum album that had the band at the peak of its power, just before Roth left over creative differences.

“It’s the turnover between the David Lee Roth era and the Sammy Hagar era,” Hitt said.

There are some obvious challenges to recreating it live on stage, note for note. Probably the biggest one was to find someone who could recreate guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s sound. They found such an artist in Allen Barlow.

“The guitar parts on this are incredible,” said Jason Rogoff, BJS technical director. “It’s quite an exercise for our guitar player every single night. Just to watch him, and you can see it on the big screens that we have as part of the production. Seeing the intricacies of what he’s doing at the speed at which he’d doing it is pretty incredible.”

Hitt said it’s a labor of love for Barlow.

“He’s a huge Van Halen fan,” he said. “We’ve talked the entire run, every night afterwards, about how much Van Halen meant to him growing up.”

While the first half of Friday’s show is 1984, the second half is full of Van Halen’s other greatest hits, which includes Hagar songs from his decade with the group.

Black Jacket Symphony tailors band performers to meet the needs of each classic album they recreate. Hitt said he was super honored to get the call toe be part of this one. As a club singer, he was often compared to both Hagar and Roth.

“It’s fun to be able to do both of them,” Hitt said.

He said the energy of the Roth songs is hard to match, though. When Hitt found out he’d be doing Van Halen for BJS, he went into training like a boxer.

“I’d run around the park,” Hitt said, singing the whole time to the point of exhaustion. It was the only way he could think to be ready for such a full throttle performance. “My neighbors probably think I’m crazy.”

Keep up with their tours online at blackjacketsymphony.com.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Feel power of 1984: Black Jacket brings Van Halen album to life Friday