MammothWVH brought their Mammoth II Tour 2024 to the Wind Creek Events Center in Bethlehem, PA. For this leg of the tour they had instrumental progressive metal band Intervals filling the opening spot. This was the opening date of this leg, MammothWVH had just returned home from Europe where they were opening for Slash and Myles Kennedy and the Conspiritors. Wolf Van Halen, whom is the bands lead singer, guitarist and mastermind, mentioned several times how great that tour was but how happy they were to be home again.
The night started off with the band Intervals. I'd seen and heard quite a bit about this band before this nights performance but admitidly had never listened to them. The band is led by Aaron Marshall and has had dedicated touring members. They played a jam packed 8-song set that would get anyones heart racing. After the first song Aaron went to the mic and said we are going to stand up here and play too many notes for you, and he wasn't lying. Their songs were fast paced, bass thumping, intricate works of art. The crowd was pretty into the set and headbanged accordingly.
Closing the night was MammothWVH consisting of Wolf Van Halen (lead vox, lead guitar), Frank Sidoris (guitar), Jon Jourdan (guitar), Ronnie Ficarro (bass), and Garrett Whitlock (drums). I've been following Wolf's journey for most of his life. I grew up a fan of his mom from watching her in One Day at a Time and of course what rock fan didn't love Van Halen growing up in the 80s. Wolf is a talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. He wrote and played all instruments on both of MammothWVH albums. This proves his immense talent but there are still a lot of naysayers that like to trash him on social media. Wolf is not his dad, he never claims to be and always takes the hazing in stride. His comebacks are world class the best is when he called someone a grape, it was actually hilarious.
Onto the show. The band played 15 songs split between their two albums. During the set they debuted two tracks that they had never performed live before, "Erase Me" and "Better Than You". Both songs were off of Mammoth II. "Erase Me" caused quite a stir from the audiece as everyone seemed eager to hear it live, it did not disappoint. It has a catchy like and a big chorus that jsut got everyone engaged. "Better Than You" was more drum driven and layed back but still fun to hear a song on its first run. My favorite performance was and always will be of "Distance". Wolf perfomed this solo and acoustic. It's a tribute to his dad and it gets me every time whether live or just hearing it on my playlist. His perfomance was heartfelt and heartwarming. I'm sure Eddie is super proud of him.
They finished the night with an encore of "Another Celebration of the End of the World" and "Don't Back Down". The first was a high adrenaline, high speed, rock and roll ripper. The crowd who'd been rocking out now for several hours all of a sudden got their second wind, dancing and head banging along. Closing with "Don't Back Down" which was another ripper. MammothWVH wasn't going out without leaving it all on the venue floor. This show was an incredible way to close out a Saturday night.
MammothWVH is definately worth giving a listen and more than worth seeing in concert. They will be on the road for quite some time. They have dates with both Metallica and Foo Fighters in the coming months. Get out there and support quality, live, music.
Comments