By NATE CHINEN

Of the handful of new songs that Van Halen played at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, one managed to sum up the spirit of the band’s reunion tour. It was “The Trouble With Never,” a typically full-throttle contraption: grinding riffs, bashing drums, deviously catchy chorus. And as David Lee Roth spit out the lyrics, it was easy to apply them obliquely to his situation in the band: years of estrangement and acrimony with the brothers Van Halen, followed by a recent strategic détente.

“Every Einstein’s assigned/A Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber,” he sang. Which was meant to be funny, and probably a little pointed. The bigger message of “The Trouble With Never,” telegraphed by its title, took aim at a certain kind of declarative vow, like those made by Eddie Van Halen over the years when people speculated about Mr. Roth’s return. Maybe that’s reading too much into the song, but at one point, after an especially ferocious guitar solo, there was also a spoken interlude over a slowed-down groove, culminating in the aside, “Selective amnesia is only a heartbeat away.”

Van Halen — with Eddie on guitar; his brother, Alex, on drums; and Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, now filling Michael Anthony’s spot on bass — has been through this sort of thing before. After parting ways with Mr. Roth in 1985, the band installed Sammy Hagar as lead singer and scored four consecutive No. 1 albums. That partnership was followed by a less charmed affiliation with Gary Cherone. The first reunion tour with Mr. Roth, about five years ago, was a commercial smash and an effective reminder that the most committed fans still see him as the enduring face of the Van Halen franchise: its Connery, its Shatner.

What’s different this time around is the existence of a new studio release, “A Different Kind of Truth” (Interscope). The album has a respectable spark, and yet the show included only four of its tracks; on one, “China Town,” Mr. Roth momentarily forgot the lyrics. The rest of the set list consisted of well-honed nostalgia, without any trace of material from the Hagar era: selective amnesia, as the man said.

From a crowd-satiation standpoint this was fine. The band’s center has always been Eddie Van Halen, who still deserves his exalted stature among rock guitarists. Even his heavier riffs came threaded with filigree, and his solos were bold in their extravagance. The one solo that didn’t come fastened to a song, late in the show, featured not only his proprietary tapping technique but also a drift of cascading arpeggios, rendered beautifully strange by his finessing of a volume knob. There could have been more of this.

But then the band had a lot of songs to get through: “Runnin’ With the Devil” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” as well as signature covers of “You Really Got Me” (The Kinks) and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (Roy Orbison). “Panama” was churning but precise, and “Hot for Teacher,” with its double bass drum cadence like a jack rabbit’s pulse, was urgent and galvanizing. “How ’bout a little candy from a stranger, hot stuff?” Mr. Roth ad-libbed, adding a weirdly predatory layer to the song.

Since we’re back on the subject of Mr. Roth: At 56, he continues to convey both a busy work ethic and an insistent effortlessness. Looking trim in sequins and shiny fabrics, he covered the breadth of the stage with fluid footwork, though his trademark high kick was scarce. His voice suggested a similar constriction, coming across strongest in his barking, regular-guy mid-range. In a band so heavy on virtuosity, he’s touchingly mortal.

But he’s still selling a fantasy. Halfway through “Jump,” the inevitable finale, some confetti cannons fired at the foot of the stage, and he dashed off, returning with a giant checkered flag. He waved it to and fro, signaling a crossing of the finish line. Who the winner was he didn’t say, but he looked as if he’d been waiting for that moment all night.

Van Halen performs on Thursday at Madison Square Garden and on Saturday at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.; see all tour dates at van-halen.com.