Mammoth WVH’s new single Take a Bow dropped last week, and a few days later (on June 28), Wolfgang Van Halen and band took to the stage in Lisbon, Portugal to give the song its live debut.
The studio version of the song is notable for being Mammoth WVH’s longest yet (thanks in part to a deliciously shreddy solo).
However, it has also turned heads because Wolfie recorded it using Eddie Van Halen’s legendary Frankenstein electric guitar, as well as one of his dad’s original Marshall head and cab setups.
While the gear might be a little too precious – OK, priceless – to warrant frequent tour outings, Wolfie and band appeared to have little issue bringing his recording and its prodigious solo to life onstage at Lisbon’s Altice Arena.
Fan footage from the gig shows Wolfie – armed with a matt black version of his forthcoming EVH SA-126 semi-hollow – whipping up the crowd through the tune’s riff-y opening minutes, before leading into the solo with a series of pitch-perfect bends and pinched harmonics that appear disarmingly clean and, dare we say it, breezy.
The clip’s vantage point is a little distant (and pan-happy) when it comes to WVH’s actual fretting, but the audio quality is good enough during the guitar solo to evidence its confident execution.
As with the much-anticipated studio version of the solo, Wolfie’s live outing lures you into a false sense of security before it ramps up in technicality, climaxing with some awe-inspiring two-handed tapping runs – utilizing that classic Van Halen index finger tapping technique in the process.
Van Halen has said the song represents “one of those evolutions” for him as a player, but it is also, for lack of a better phrase, really fun.
Take a Bow follows previous singles, Another Celebration at the End of the World and Like a Pastime. All eyes now turn to the second Mammoth WVH record, Mammoth II, which arrives August 4.
