For what may have been one of my final nights of freedom for a couple of months, I accompanied the incomparable Mr. Firecloud to the House Of Blues on Sunset on Tuesday night to catch one of our favorite bands of all time, Clutch.
Before the show, we were extended the honor of an invitation onto Clutch’s tour bus, where we conducted an on-camera interview with bassist Dan Maines. Stay tuned for that, along with another we did recently with drummer Jean-Paul Gaster. Collect ‘em all! Our talk with Neil Fallon was an instant classic, and I’m sure we’ll catch up with guitarist Tim Sult by Austin, if not sooner. All righteous men of distinction, those fellas from Clutch.
Clutch never disappoints live. The Maryland four piece have been touring their asses off together since 1990, with no less than nine full-length studio albums under their belt, not to mention a discography of EPs and rarities collections that only the most hardcore of fans can keep track of. Not that they don’t have plenty of those. But I digress. Point is, when you attend a Clutch show, you’re working with professionals.
The band is pulling from a pot of about thirty songs on this tour, and the eighteen we got at the House Of Blues spanned seven albums and fourteen years. The majority came from the band’s two latest; five each from Strange Cousins From The West and From Beale Street To Oblivion.
The band opened boldly with the brand new song 50,000 Unstoppable Watts, yet the crowd’s response was anything but reserved- many knew every word and screamed along: Anthrax! Ham radio! And liquor! Los Angeles is a town notorious for distracted, detached concert crowds. But certain laws of nature kinda go out the window when a band like Clutch comes through town.
After following up with the cocky, swaggering The Devil & Me from 2007’s Beale Street, the band pulled two older cuts out; Cypress Grove from Blast Tyrant, and the title track from 2003’s Slow Hole To China rarities compilation. Cypress was the only song from Blast Tyrant played, which was a bit of a bummer for me personally; I’ve been dying to see (Notes From The Trial Of) La Curandera live.
However, I have no other complaints, and I must say that as much as I’ve been digging the band’s latest album, some of the songs were even better live, giving me a whole new level of appreciation for them in some cases. The Amazing Kreskin is the most notable example. It wasn’t one of my favorites from Strange Cousins, but that song was a highlight on Tuesday, and the epic bridge has been stuck in my head ever since: In the blue sky / the seagulls / fly over garbage / Are we the ocean? / Are we the desert? / Are we the garbage? / Who’s to say?
Other highlights included first set closer Immortal from 2001’s Pure Rock Fury, the common, yet always crowd-pleasing combo of Electric Worry / One Eye Dollar, and the night’s final song, Animal Farm, from their impeccable self-titled album.
Clutch
July 21, 2009
West Hollywood, CA
1. 50,000 Unstoppable Watts
2. The Devil & Me
3. Cypress Grove / Jam
4. Slow Hole To China
5. Abraham Lincoln
6. Motherless Child
7. The Incomparable Mr. Flannery
8. Burning Beard
9. Electric Worry
10. One Eye Dollar
11. The Amazing Kreskin
12. Struck Down
13. You Can’t Stop The Progress
14. Power Player
15. Gravel Road
16. Immortal
Encore
17. Big News I / Jam
18. Animal Farm
More of our photos from the show can be viewed on our Facebook Page.
Thanks to Bri for the setlist!
About Skwerl
Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill was taught his first computer programming language by his Mother's marijuana dealer at age ten. His first job involved hustling TicketMaster lines on behalf of a New Jersey concert ticket broker at age fourteen, followed by a job in graphic design shortly after graduating high school and trade school simultaneously in 1998. He built his first website in 1996 or so, and continues to do things the way they should be done, rather than the way everyone else does. He's a bit of an asshole, but he's fiercely loyal to fellow fans of good music.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Skwerl now resides in Los Angeles.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Your glaring lack of gushing praise for what was undoubtedly the single most mind-blowingly awesome version of Burning Beard ever performed is utterly unacceptable.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Oct 3-Diamond Ballroom, can’t wait
July 24th, 2009 at 5:23 PM
@jlf yours will have to suffice then. during that song i ran to the car to stash the cameras. perhaps a bad choice, but i didn’t want to miss electric worry.
July 28th, 2009 at 1:19 AM
Cool setlist. Clutch can still do it like no other…too bad they’ve still got to put up with crap like this…Indie Pit knows what’s up. Click the link to see for yourself:
http://blog.indiepit.com/2009/07/27/clutch-guitarist-says-drt-lawsuit-is-being-resolved