Photos | Review: Mammoth WVH Charm Baltimore “Like a Pastime” with Nita Strauss

From L to R: Wolfgang Van Halen (Mammoth WVH) and Nita Strauss (solo artist) play Rams Head Live! in Baltimore, MD, during the “Mammoth II” Tour on Sunday, November 19th.

Nita Strauss at Rams Head Live!, Baltimore

Who: Mammoth II Tour: Mammoth WVH; Nita Strauss

Where: Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, MD

When: November 19, 2023

Back in April 2022, when Wolfgang Van Halen of Mammoth WVH called the inside of Baltimore’s Rams Head Live! a ”Street Fighter level,“ it was a funny anecdote. Nineteen months later, Wolf returned to Rams Head with his four fellow bandmates… and said the exact same thing immediately after finishing the opening song. At that moment, attendees of both events realized that Street Fighter was far more than just a video game to the young Van Halen — it was a way of life.

Okay, fine, so maybe calling the Maryland stop on the Mammoth II Tour a “madcap martial arts tournament” is a bit of a stretch (or just a complete fabrication). However, it can’t be denied that the performances that Mammoth WVH and opener Nita Strauss laid down on that stage were just as fierce as arcade-style hand-to-hand combat!

Nita Strauss

Kicking off the first round of music, Nita Strauss and her solo band made their Rams Head Live! debut! Without delay, the amazing soloist set her fretboard ablaze with “Summer Storm” and the instrumental side of her catalog.

Right by her side, rhythm guitarist Johnny Young and bassist Christopher Dean kept up with every riff and every synchronized headbang! Towards the back of the stage, drummer Josh Villalta held the vicious melodies together with his ferocious fills. Keyboardist Katt Scarlett swayed between the rhythms and melodies, literally and figuratively, as her synth frills and her pigtails flowed to and fro. Actually, the instrumental half of Strauss’s set flowed so smoothly that newcomers couldn’t tell when one song ended and another began!

The strength and flow of this set only got more intense once Kasey Karlsen, lead singer of Deadlands, joined the stage. Having the gargantuan task of needing to bring songs recorded by the likes of Lzzy Hale and David Draiman to life on-stage, Karlsen didn’t even think of backing down! Her vocals provided the perfect balance of screams, falsetto, and belting that only an equally versatile guitarist as Strauss could counterbalance. Naturally, any battle over the hearts of the audience was won well before the final hits of the night, “Dead Inside” and “Victorious,” were played!

Mammoth WVH: Led by One

Up next was Round 2, which was quite the mammoth feat to accomplish with Nita Strauss freshly flattening the stage to smithereens! Fortunately, the headliner of the night literally had “Mammoth” as both their namesake, and their opening song!

Leading the wolfpack, as it were, Wolfgang Van Halen was in peak form. Although his stellar vocals and his mindblowing guitar skills are world-famous, his moments spent bantering with the crowd between songs showed how truly relaxed and charming this frontman had become!

For example, just after hammering down a titanium-clad outro for the song “Like a Pastime” off of the new album, Mammoth II, Wolf boasted proudly with his arms in a victory pose: “We can do METAL!” He also didn’t miss the chance to humbly promote the road debut of his newest EVH electric guitar, saying it had only been previously used in some of Mammoth WVH’s “stupid fuckin’ music videos.”

”Isn’t it pretty? It’s purple!” bragged the frontman. (The crowd comically had to take his word for it, as the red lights from the stage didn’t serve its plummy hue any justice!)

Mammoth II: Completed by Five

Now, supporting the tracks from both of Wolf’s multi-instrumentalist recording sessions on his band’s self-titled debut album and Mammoth II is no small feat. Thankfully, the rest of the band’s lineup, featuring rhythm guitarists Frank Sidoris and Jon Jourdan, bassist Ronnie Ficarro, and drummer Garrett Whitlock, are superstars in their own right!

Their rollicking chemistry on Rams Head’s stage was palpable. It was the point where, during Wolf’s solo acoustic rendition/tradition of performing his GRAMMY-nominated tribute to his father, “Distance,” the band’s absence served as an intimate contrast. Still, the full band also got to pay a lovely homage to the late Eddie Van Halen in the self-described “sequel” ballad to “Distance,” called “Waiting.”

Suddenly, the latter half of the set picked up in tempo! In a flash, deep cuts (including the relatively-rare entry, “Feel”) flew by, upping the heart rates of everyone in the building.

Walking off, then immediately returning for the encore, Wolf posed a pertinent question: “…why do we do that?” Tragically, there was (and still is) no real answer! Chalking it up to “showbiz, baby,” the quintet tore into ”Another Celebration at the End of the World“ and “Don’t Back Down!”

No matter how satisfyingly hard those back-to-back bangers hit, they still couldn’t counter the heavy post-concert depression that set in as soon as Mammoth WVH left the stage for real.

Follow Mammoth WVH on social media and music streaming platforms:

Website l Facebook l Twitter l Instagram

YouTube l Spotify l Apple Music

Follow Nita Strauss:

Website l Facebook l Twitter l Instagram

YouTube l Spotify l Apple Music l TikTok

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Post by Elizabeth Owens

Will you see Mammoth WVH and Nita Strauss together on their new American tour leg next February/March? Comment below!