Clutch - The Forum, London - May 1 2014 (Live Review)
Tuesday, 06 May 2014
Written by Alec Chillingworth
The tube strike grinds London to an arduous standstill while rain lashes from the sky, beards becoming moistened by the filthy British 'spring-time'. It’s not close to stopping Clutch, though, and the Maryland rock 'n' roll kings are playing to a packed house at the Forum in Kentish Town.
Openers Lionize fare very well with the Clutch crowd and this may be due to the fact that they sound a hell of a lot like Clutch. But, when was that a bad thing? Nate Bergman is the modest beast bellowing along to the unashamedly old-school tunes, proving he has the pipes to pull it off in the live environment, but an elongated, spacey jam through Trustafarian ends up getting tedious, slightly ballsing up the momentum of an otherwise energetic set.
Clutch encounter no such problems, because they are Clutch and they can seemingly do no wrong. The quartet are led into the opening throes of Earth Rocker by vocalist Neil Fallon, who casually strolls on stage and asks: “Are you ready for a rock 'n' roll party?”
Never before have cotton jumpers been cool, but Fallon somehow makes it happen; he is the master of sass, dancing across the stage one minute before roaring wide-eyed the next.
A recent operation prevents the bearded madman from head-banging, but no matter. Superman-esque poses are thrown and minds are melted as one of rock's greatest frontmen holds London in the palm of his hairy hand for an hour and a half.
Now, when you see a band that's been going for nearly 25 years, chances are you're gonna want to hear some old stuff. None of the tunes played tonight hail from pre-1999, but, quite frankly, nobody seems to give a single toss. Eight songs are aired from their latest album, 'Earth Rocker', with favourites like The Mob Goes Wild and Burning Beard interspersed.
Acoustic ditty Gone Cold simmers through the Forum and cements itself as the performance of the night, with JPGaster turning down the ferocity and pin-point precision of his drumming for just a few minutes. He paves the way for Fallon and Tim Sult's melodious guitar lines as 2,500 bearded audience members shed masculine tears.
By the time Electric Worry and One Eye Dollar finish everything off, chaos is the order of the day. Crowd-surfers are hastily ejected and 90 minutes of superlative guitar music winds down to be filed away as one of the most flawless exhibitions of live music this year. Clutch play rock 'n' roll. And they play it very well.
Clutch Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue May 06 2014 - EDINBURGH Liquid Room
Wed May 07 2014 - GLASGOW O2 ABC
Thu May 08 2014 - BELFAST Limelight
Fri May 09 2014 - DUBLIN Academy
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