Clutch!

I'm fricking tired!

Went to see Clutch last night at the Cathouse. Shitty venue; excellent show.

Clutch are fast becoming my favourite band. What do they sound like? Well...they'd say that they aren't straight ahead rock but they're more straight ahead rock than 99% of the bands who say they're straight ahead rock.

I love 'em. Clever and sometimes funny lyrics with a blasting rock background. They use trumpets sometimes and have some acoustic songs on their latest album Blast Tyrant. Last year's best record. They've got a new one coming out in a month or two and they played two new songs last night.

They opened with the first half of A Shogun Named Marcus and then played stuff only from their latest 3 albums (Elephant Riders, Pure Rock Fury and Blast Tyrant). They did a wicked rendition of The Mob Goes Wild and a terribly loud Yeti. There's no better way.

It seemed rather short but only because concerts can't go past 11 here. Lame. The last time I saw Clutch they played an hour set and then jammed onstage for 30 minutes. Very little small talk from singer Neil Fallon which means that he was probably pretty aware of time constraints and had to get down to business.

The opening act - other than the first band who is the obligatory high school metal band - was Five Horse Johnson. The drummer from Clutch also pulled duty for these guys who my friend Pat described as "Blues Traveler on crack." I generally dislike the "on crack" comparisons as those who use them are likely never to have done crack and have no idea what "on crack" is like. That's another story though. This time, the comparison was spot on.

Fat guys: check! Bluesy rock riffs: check! Harmonica: check!
Only this time the bluesy riffs have a little Slayer in 'em. Oh yeah...

Love the Clutch. Love the Five Horse Johnson. Bigtime.