Walking past the venue a few hours before Clutch’s set, a huge line of dedicated fans are queued up the street, eager to secure their place on the front row in Rock City to see a band renowned as one of the titans of contemporary American rock music.
Since their formation in 1991, the four-piece hard rock band from Maryland have released eleven studio albums and played to numerous sold out venues across the world. On Tuesday, Rock City was totally packed with the band’s local followers – indeed it’s rare to be elbow to elbow throughout a whole set here, but fans were crowded onto the floor, the bars, the balcony and even the stairwells.
“Darting from one side of the stage to the other, bellowing in his distinctive vocals and rousing the audience to sing-a-long, [Neil Fallon] is undoubtedly the engine of their live performance.”
But such is the dedication to this band, famous for their swaggering riffs and unwavering energy in the live arena. This energy is asserted most forcefully by frontman Neil Fallon, who storms on stage and, throughout the opening two tracks, doesn’t stop for breath. Darting from one side of the stage to the other, bellowing in his distinctive vocals and rousing the audience to sing-a-long, he is undoubtedly the engine of their live performance.
Although this latest tour is to promote the release of their latest 2015 album Psychic Warfare, it is easy to sense that the crowd were hoping for more tracks to feature from their extensive back catalogue. Indeed, towards the end of the set, Fallon comments, “Wow, a couple more of these and we’ll have played the entire new album.”
For the dedicated fans present – and to be fair, there are masses of them – this may come as a treat, but for the attendees who are newer to the group, it is a disappointment to see that many of their most famous tracks are left out of the set list. ‘The Regulator’ features to cheering and applause; but there is no ‘Electric Worry’, no ’50,000 Unstoppable Watts’, and no ‘When Vegans Attack’. To relative newcomers, these are lamentable exclusions.
“For those looking for something a little more than a macho exhibition of American rock ‘n’ roll, the gig began to run a little dry.”
Although an evening with this band is sure to include raucous moments of head-banging enjoyment – even without the inclusion of such favourites – frankly, a ninety minute set comes to be a little wearing as the repetitiveness of their song structures and tones are exposed. The devotion of their most ardent followers is never in doubt – but for those looking for something a little more than a macho exhibition of American rock ‘n’ roll, the gig began to run a little dry.
Nonetheless, those who had been piling up at the doors a few hours earlier were sure to leave satisfied, as the band filled the last fifteen minutes with an upbeat, riff heavy encore. With so passionate a following, Clutch are really now a band too big to fail, and they certainly succeeded in giving the crowd exactly what they wanted.
James Noble
