Wednesday 14 May 2014

Get Your Ass in Gear - Clutch @ The Academy, Dublin, 9th of May 2014

Clutch

 

"Doctor or Lawyer, I'll Never Be"


Friday 9th of May 2014 marked the first time I got to see Clutch play live. And it was worth the wait. I remember hearing Clutch for the first time in 2004 while playing the Hitman: Contracts video game. Their song Immortal featured on one of the levels when you enter a biker bar. There's no better song to kill people to. It has the heaviness and the lyrics "I am immortal" are sung , and stick in your head, while you slaughter everyone. It makes quite an impact.

It wasn't until a year later that I really got into Clutch. The video to Burning Beard was played non-stop on Scuzz (the metal music channel from the UK that has kind of gone down hill in the last few years. You have to wait until night time to hear anything decent and even then you still have a lot of shit stuck in the middle. It's like a nightclub DJ who plays so much crap until they finally get to the 3 song attack of Queen, Bon Jovi and T-Rex and you think to yourself: "maybe things are picking up here" but then they go back to playing the same shit again) and myself and my friend, "E" let's call her, couldn't stop watching the video.



It was a crazy song that made no sense but it was something new and different compared to the Emo bullshit that was taking over at the time. I would have sacrificed many Emos to bring Nu Metal back and not have that asymmetrical hairstyle, woe-is-me, rich kid, "let's go on a black parade", what-the-fuck-is-a-black-parade? bunch of fuckers around any more. Needless to say I bought the album, Robot Hive/Exodus, as soon as I got the chance.

So 10 long years later we finally got to see Clutch play live. And they didn't disappoint.

"Life of a Drifter - Only Life For Me"

 

 I had spent the last two weeks leading up to the gig checking Clutch's set lists from their UK tour dates and while most bands will stick to the same set list for the duration of a tour, or even for a year or two, Clutch never played the same set twice. They may play the same songs a few of the nights but they were never in the same order. The only constant was that they played 19 songs in total. You never quite know what you will get so it's always best to listen to all their songs in preparation. Which isn't a bad thing as they have never written a bad song.

Supporting them was a band called Lionize. I listened to a couple of their songs beforehand and I enjoyed what I heard. But it's a different story when you see them live. They are great musicians and really impressive at what they do. I think I will be getting some more of their stuff in future.



Clutch kicked things off with The Mob Goes Wild. And appropriately enough the mob in attendance did go wild. They followed this with the already classic Earth Rocker and Unto the Breach. I'll stop here to tell you that if you haven't already picked up the Earth Rocker album then you must immediately go and get it. You can finish reading this if you like but you should definitely get the album as soon as possible.

It was nice to be at a gig where the majority of those in attendance actually knew the band they were seeing. Twice last year I had been to gigs where, during Orange Goblin, two people decided that a heavy metal band provided the best music to have a conversation to. They spent the whole time talking right beside me and Aishling until Ash dragged me away after I asked them if they were gonna continue to be ignorant assholes. The answer was yes.

At Red Fang last summer it was hipster central. I don't understand why these skinny jean wearing fuck nuts buy tickets to bands they have no clue about. They only ever know the one or two songs they heard on youtube the night before. In the end I put it down to the venue. Both of those gigs took place at notorious hipster hangouts. Luckily Clutch was in a good venue that while not exclusively for metal bands they do have a good mix so the hip-tards (hipstards? - comment below) avoid it because it's "too popular".




"You Can Have Your Riches, All The Gold You Saved"

Back to the gig now. I can't tell you what it meant to me to finally witness one of my long time favourite bands play a few feet away from me. To see Neil Fallon act out his lyrics as he sang them and a few times during the night we got to see him show off his guitar skills with the brilliant The Regulator, the sombre Gone Cold and the classic Electric Worry. He's got some cowbell skills too.




The rest of the band - JP Gaster on drums, Tim Sult on guitar and Dan Maines on bass - were, as you'd expect from a band that has been together for nigh on 25 years with no major personnel changes (they did once have a keyboard player for three years), all extremely tight and highly skilled. Tim can play those bluesy riffs like it's nobody's business.



It's hard to convey just how amazing Clutch are live. If they ever play near you then you owe it to yourself to go see them. And bring all your friends. If life was fair Clutch would be selling out bigger venues around the world. But life isn't fair so we're stuck with Robin Thicko rape songs and gyrating disease monkeys. Call me selfish, but I'd rather keep Clutch to myself than share them with the type of people who listen to that kind of stuff. And if you are one of those people then hit yourself over the head with something hard. Repeatedly. Not to forget that you read my blog but just because you deserve it. And I'm too far away to do it for you.

The Brain of Light

"Cause’ Ain’t Room For One Thing In Everybody’s Grave"

Here are the shirts we got at the gig from the nice merch guy who I hope got to finish his ham sandwich.
Also thanks to Aishling for the photos she took which I have used here. Check out her Facebook photography page and/or Photography blog page.



That will do it from me this time. Just my recommendation left:

Pumpkinhead

Ash wanted  to watch Pumpkinhead last week and I know it didn't disappoint her. She can't stop talking about it. You don't need to know if what she says is good or bad. Just know that she said something about it. It stars Lance Henriksen so that should be good enough for you.