Mar 1

Mar 1 Show Review: Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey Perform Epic Co-Headliner in Sacramento

Mammoth WVH
Dirty Honey
Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA
February 25th, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

I think it’s cliché to say that “rock is dead”. I used to say it all the time, the way Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lester Bangs would recant it to young William Miller in Almost Famous. The statement is partially true; rock is not as popular as it once was…to the mainstream audiences. It’s not part of the pop culture zeitgeist like it used to be in the decades before. But it still exists, and the genre is still birthing some of the best bands its ever seen. Case in point: Mammoth WVH (the brainchild of musician Wolfgang Van Halen) and Dirty Honey, a four-piece rock band from Los Angeles. Both of these bands played a sold-out co-headlining show at Sacramento’s Ace of Spades, bringing forth what I will absolutely refer to as one of the best shows of the year.

The show was short and straight to the point. Each band played for about one hour to the sold-out crowd, with Dirty Honey taking the first slot. These guys came out of nowhere and immediately pulled me into their performance. It’s not just that they’re great performers; they’re really fucking good musicians. Their one-hour set was tight and polished, yet it showcased moments of spontaneity. Vocalist Marc LaBelle made the entire venue his stage, at one point climbing up on the bar and belting out verse after verse, not a single note out of place. I look forward to seeing how this band continues to grow and thrive over the next several years. I can only imagine where their music is going to take them.

While Mammoth WVH had only done one tour prior to this (opening for Guns N’ Roses on their 2021 arena tour), you would have thought that they’d been playing together for years. Van Halen commanded the stage as a pitch perfect vocalist, with a tightly focused band playing effortlessly through song after song from their debut self-titled album. I thoroughly enjoyed the tracks I’d heard from the album in the months leading up to the show, and I was happy to see that this performance translated from the album to the live set.

One thing I loved about both Dirty Honey’s and Mammoth WVH’s performance is that they all looked like they were having such a great time playing these songs. It’s one thing to play amazing songs and look bored as shit onstage; it’s another to embrace the music and show your true passion for the music. While it felt a little weird to be in a room with so many people after so many months of this pandemic, I was able to walk away from this show thoroughly satisfied, and honestly wishing that each of these bands could have played even longer. If you have a chance to see this tour in the coming months and you’re a fan of this music, buy a ticket and get to the show.

I’m looking forward to seeing where each of these bands goes from here. Whether they’ll be headlining arenas and stadiums in the future, that’s another story. I can only hope so.

Mammoth WVH Set List
Mammoth
Mr. Ed
Epiphany
Horribly Right
You’ll Be The One
Stone
I Don’t Know At All
Think It Over
You’re To Blame
Distance
Them Bones (Alice in Chains cover)
Don’t Back Down

Dirty Honey Set List
Gypsy
Break You
Heartbreaker
The Wire
Fire Away
Tied Up
Down The Road
California Dreamin’
Let’s Go Crazy (Prince cover)
Another Last Time
*SOLOS*
When I’m Gone
Rolling 7s