Photograph & Review By: Diane Fleischman

Fresh off the European leg of the tour, Mammoth WVH returned home to the States and landed at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem for a sold-out concert.

With a commercially successful sophomore album released last year, one would think that there would be more emphasis on the latest release with this show, but in this case, the set list was set up “even-steven” between both albums, which worked very well.

After “Intro”, the band kicked off with “I’m Alright” and “Right?” , followed by “Epiphany”, one of the singles off the first album. There was this gentle humbleness that surrounded Van Halen, his vocals were strong, plenty of the rawness,  shredded guitars, and pounding drumbeats, that made the songs so much better in live performance. Throw in a few brilliant fret tappings, and it is just astonishing the talents of Wolf Van Halen.

Van Halen also debuted two songs from Mammoth WVH II that were never performed live before, “Erase Me” and “Better Than You”. He stated, “I was a little bit nervous.” And the crowd roared with approval.

About halfway through the set, Van Halen grabbed an acoustic guitar, center stage, and gave the band a well-deserved break.  Perhaps a small glimpse into Van Halen’s sense of humor, as he said that he was going to play the song we expected to hear and started to sing the first few lines of “Wonderwall”.  After the joke, he explained that he wanted to play “Distance” on acoustic, as that’s how it was written. The band returned, and dove into “Think it Over”, as Van Halen shared that this was his father’s favorite song.

The set closed with “Take a Bow”, and the band returned for a two-song encore, “Another Celebration at the End of the World”, and “Don’t Back Down.”

The strength and power of this band is undeniable. As different as fingerprints, Wolf Van Halen has a clearly defined musical style with plenty of soul and pride as he continues his family legacy. It is purely exciting to see what will come next.

The opening band for the night was Intervals, an instrumental metal band from Toronto.

Mammoth WVH continues touring throughout this year between the United States and Europe.