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After performing in the UK as support to Alter Bridge, Motley Crue and Def Leppard, and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, Mammoth WVH finally played their first headline show in England at Birmingham's O2 Institute. The show had been upgraded from the smaller room to the main hall in the venue due to huge demand and the crowd are eagerly awaiting the debut of Wolfgang Van Halen and his band here tonight.
After a short but sweet half-hour set from The Dust Coda, Wolf and his band hit the stage to deafening cheers from the audience, opening with 'Mammoth', which their fans sing along to very loudly right from the off, followed swiftly by the technically challenging 'Right?', with its rapid, machine gun-like riffs. Wolf sang and played every instrument by himself on his two studio albums, but has an extremely fine, very musically accomplished band of musicians who help him to perform his music live, consisting of guitarists Frank Sidoris and Jon Jourdan, the very-animated bassist Ronnie Ficarro and drummer Garrett Whitlock. Garrett, in particular, really shines on this track, nailing the complex drum parts perfectly.
Before the third song, Wolf steps up to his mic to speak but doesn't get chance to even open his mouth as the audience are cheering him so loudly. He is completely taken aback by this reaction, which happens several times during the show, and he smiles widely at the huge outpouring of affection for him, just saying that it's 'ridiculous!' He finally gets to introduce 'Mr. Ed', simply by saying 'This is a song about a talking horse', referring to the old TV show, rather than the obvious reference to his late father. The material is an impressive mixture of heavy riffs and modern sounding rock grooves but still maintains a strong sense of melody and powerful choruses.
We get an almost equal mix of material from each of his albums tonight, including the upbeat 'Like A Pastime', the dark and brooding 'Optimist', the slower but relentless 'Stone', and the recently-introduced 'Better Than You'. One of the many highlights is the goosebump-inducing 'Distance', the first song Wolf released and which is a tribute to his dad; it is extremely emotional. He also introduces 'Think It Over' as his dad's favourite song of his. 'Epiphany' features the words 'I've never felt so alive' in the chorus, which must be how Wolf feels tonight as he continues to receive rapturous applause and cheers. He turns this into an audience challenge at one point, getting the people in the balcony and on the floor to compete against each other to see who can cheer the loudest. He also has a bit of fun later as he asks everyone to boo their tour manager Mik as he has heard that people from Birmingham don't like people from London.
The main set ends with 'Take A Bow', including a spellbinding bit of soloing from Wolf, which the fans eagerly lap up.
Before the first encore, Wolf tells us that they will never forget their first headline show in the UK, before the band starts an extended intro to 'Don't Back Down', during which Wolf introduces each member of his band. When he finally gets to Ronnie, the one he introduces last, he announces that today is Ronnie's 40th birthday, so he gets everyone to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him, while a crew member brings out a caterpillar cake with candles on it, which Ronnie enthusiastically blows out. The band then launch into the main song, with its heavy, chugging riffs and singalong chorus which receives ear-splitting responses.
Before introducing the last song, a woman in the audience shouts 'We love you Wolfie', to which he responds 'I love you too', and the fast and furious, steamrolling track 'Another Celebration At The End Of The World' brings a totally unforgettable show to a close, with more jaw-dropping soloing from Wolf. Mammoth WVH will be filling arenas in their own right next time round for sure. A completely unbelievable night.
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