"Sammy Hagar Calls Red Voodoo "The New Montrose" as Sacramento Rockers Bring Northern California Hard Rock Back"
(Artist Report)
Written by: Cody Denning
Sacramento's Red Voodoo are a young hard rock band with an old-school sound. Formed around 2018 by teenage frontman Dino Wild (also credited in earlier press as Dino McCord), the group takes its name from Sammy Hagar's 1999 album and draws on the Northern California rock of the late 1970s and early 1980s, along with acts like Van Halen and Montrose.
The story starts in Sacramento, in a city that wasn't exactly a hotbed for young hard rock acts. Rock ran in the family: Wild's father played in a Sacramento band called Teaser and gave him his first guitar at age three, and his first concert as a kid was Sammy Hagar in Tahoe. The lineup came together through a mix of luck and legwork. Wild met original drummer Nick Pesely at a Y&T show in Sacramento, Pesely knew guitarist Davin Loiler, and bassist Andrew "Rooster" Edwards was found on Craigslist. At the time, Wild was 17, Loiler and Edwards were 18, and Pesely was 21. The band took its name from Hagar's album as a nod to their hero, though Wild has pointed out that no other band was using it.
They started playing clubs in 2019, and in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, they released their debut single, "Rise Up!" Wild wrote it after a drive down the back roads outside downtown Sacramento, feeling low about canceled graduations and empty streets, repeating to himself that he had to rise up and be strong. The song was produced by Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon, who connected with Wild after the young singer reached out to him from class. Hannon invited him onstage at a Frank Hannon Band show in Sacramento, where Wild sang Tesla's "Getting Better" with him. A second single, "Bring It Back," followed in 2020.
Their sound was sharpened at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, where they cut their five-track debut EP with Grammy-nominated producer Jaimeson Durr, whose credits include work with Don Henley and Hagar. The 2023 single "Mystery Girl" became the lead single from that EP and has climbed toward 300,000 streams on Spotify. A second EP single, "Style," followed in March 2024 with a music video, setting up the self-titled debut EP, released June 7, 2024.
The current lineup features Wild on lead vocals, Loiler on lead guitar, Edwards on bass, and Richie Moreno on drums, who took over from Andy Nathan, the drummer during the EP era.
The band's biggest champion is Hagar himself, who has called them "the new Montrose" and said, "They fucking mean it when they're performing anything. They are hungry, and they're fucking good. They got what it takes. It's just a matter of time." Lit's Jeremy Popoff has also praised them. Red Voodoo have shared bills with Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper, Y&T, Lynch Mob, Everclear, and Slaughter, including Hagar's 75th birthday celebration at Cabo Wabo Cantina in 2022. They also became the youngest act to date to play the Monsters of Rock Cruise, alongside Alice Cooper and Buckcherry.
Red Voodoo are back on the road with shows in Roseville and Fresno this December, plus a spot on the Rock Legends Cruise 2027 out of Miami in February. For current dates and tickets, head to redvoodooband.com.
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(Sources)
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