Monday night isn’t stopping the people of Birmingham for showing up to the O2 Institute tonight for Mammoth WVH make their debut UK headline show tonight. Having supported Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators across England, Scotland and much of Europe, the Wolfgang Van Halen-led outfit are back in Birmingham for another round but this time, it’s more than a paltry half-hour. And when you’re riding high off constant touring from an excellent second album, it’s unsurprising that the gig has been upgraded twice due to demand.
Kicking the night off for a quick half-hour of their own is The Dust Coda. A well-known name on the underground scene yet they’ve somehow eluded me until now. I’ve only ever heard good things about them and by the time opener of “Limbo Man” is finished, you can see why. Blending classic and modern rock into a contemporary hard rock sound, topped with a layer of blues. Sounds like a lot of bands out on the circuit from the last few years, right? What The Dust Coda have going for them is themselves. They play with fervour, as if there’s someone in the dressing room ready to single-handedly beat the shit out of them afterwards if they mess it up. Thankfully, they don’t, not interacting with the crowd much to make the most of their short slot and let the music do the talking. Playing a mixture of their three albums, it’s the sort of furious incendiary hard rock which is perfect for tonight, delivered by four men who know their way round their respective instruments and work together as one solid unit.
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As AC/DC’s “Night Prowler” welcome Mammoth WVH onto the stage to a rapturous applause, which only increases when Wolfgang Van Halen follows the rest of the band out, it’s apt that their self-titled track kicks off the ninety-minute gauntlet. Taking the momentum built by The Dust Coda and building on it, they dig deep into both albums with the majority of their catalogue represented tonight. Indeed, given the reception each song gets at its end, it’s easy to see why the gig was upgraded twice. It’s exceptional music played by an exceptional band and playing to rooms this size under their own steam is well-earned.
When he’s not firing out stupendous riffs and solos with ridiculous ease, Van Halen is one of the most affable human beings you can think of. Clearly overcome with the constant cheers and applause, there’s one break where he jokingly asks people to stop so he can get a word in. And whilst this may be his band with many people attending for him being the focal point and his initials in the band’s name, it never feels like the four people around him are hired guns. The four of them join together with Van Halen and play as one. Guitarists Frank Sidoris and Jon Jourdan can more than hold their own with Van Halen, the three of them working together, adding texture and depth to the melodies. Certainly, you have to be a ridiculously good band to justify three guitars and if they dropped it to two, there would certainly be something missing rather than making it sound more raw and edgy.
Meanwhile bassist Ronnie Ficaro (and the birthday boy) is the most energetic of the five, constantly bounding across the stage and encouraging the crowd to clap at all the right moments. He lines up with drummer Garrett Whitlock, the pair of them creating rhythms which are beefier than your local butcher and whilst the drums may be a touch overpowering in the mix, the rest of the band are still able to make their presence known. With the deep dive into both albums, the material from Mammoth II stands out from the debut, only in the fact that it’s simply better. Mammoth WVH isn’t a bad album by any stretch but last year’s album is a touch more diverse and far more sure-footed. The dark and brooding prog-tinged “Take a Bow” and layered and bright Beatles-esque “Better Than You” show the experimentation to their full extent whilst “Like a Pastime” and “Optimist” have the chugging riffs covered and it’s the latter of these songs where the broader sound plays well with the extra reverb in the room.
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Despite playing flawlessly, the only letdown of the night is my two personal favourites of Mammoth II not featuring in the night with “Miles Above Me” and “Erase Me” missing in action (fingers crossed they feature next time) but if that’s the only niggle, you can’t really complain. The debut’s material may come across more straight-laced but the swagger of “Mr. Ed” and sludgy tones of “Stone” allow for an evening of light and shade, each of the fifteen songs of the night welcomed equally.
Appropriately “Another Celebration at the End of the World” closes out the evening for good with it featuring as the second song of the encore and displays Mammoth WVH at their full power. They might be a band with a whole load of classic influences and could easily be seen as that, there’s a whole depth of modernity to them, too. There’s enough sophistication in the music to keep it from being your meat-and-potatoes rock but it never becomes pretentious. They sound as massive as their name implies and at every turn, manage to balance everything to appeal to a broad spectrum of rock fans.
Mammoth WVH: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
The Dust Coda: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
