Across two decades of pure rock fury, Clutch have risen to the top of the food chain in heavy music for the thinking man. Their ability to hone a set to a razor-sharp edge of pure rock fury is unparalleled, never more potent than on their latest album Psychic Warfare. These are grown-ass men in their forties, swinging like an ’86 Mike Tyson on the new material – a dozen tracks of pure piston-pumping juggernaut uppercuts of devastating excellence. No fat, no hesitation, just raw muscle and wit-driven smirk.
Catching them at the Aftershock festival back in October, the band delivered a pulverizing full-album run through Psychic Warfare, not long after the album had been released. The strength of material made general audience reference unnecessary; it’s just that goddamn good. This year at Bonnaroo, they balanced old with the new while tearing the stage apart in the Other Tent with a maniacally fun run through “X-Ray Visions,” “Firebirds,” “Son of Virginia” and the ever-crushing “A Quick Death in Texas”. As Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe looked on with wild enthusiasm, Neil Fallon & crew dug deeper for the diehards and touched on old favorites “Pulaski Skyway,” “The Regulator” and set closer “One Eye Dollar,” complete with Fallon’s wide-eyed, Baptist-minister-on-speed delivery.
In their latest leap, Clutch will headline a fall U.S. tour featuring support from Zakk Sabbath and Kyng. Dates can be found at bottom meanwhile, we’re proud to offer up our backstage Q&A with bassist Dan Maines.
How do you keep it fresh when you’ve played ten thousand shows?
We’re playing as many new songs as we can, and they’re all in rotation. There have only been a handful of shows on this tour where we’ve played every song on the album. It’s definitely a potential challenge for the audience, because there’s no guarantee that everybody’s heard the record.
It’s interesting to see the reactions. This is the first tour where we’ve been playing the new stuff, in a situation where our audience has had a second to soak it in. We’ve brought back some older stuff too that we haven’t played in a while, stuff like “Soapmakers,” and a few other Elephant Riders tracks, things like that to keep us on our toes.
Have the songs taken on a different life on the road?
Well you write it, rehearse it, go into the studio and record it, then you just don’t think about it for months when you’re not touring and the album hasn’t been released yet. So in a lot of ways, you’re relearning how to play these songs. There are different types of segues we like to mess around with. Recently we’ve been trying out some cool new parts going into “Burning Beard,” or last night during “Soapmakers” we tried out a different, extended ending. Things like that keep us from just repeating the same songs over and over.
A few years ago you played an acoustic set at Bonnaroo, and it was a total curveball, such a unique experience for the fans.
It was cool because we were trying to rewrite old songs. We approached a few of those songs from a completely different angle, and it wound up becoming like a completely different song. Some of those intents didn’t work in a way we were happy with, but we wound up stealing some of those ideas for later Clutch songs.
Songs like “Gravel Road” or “Who’s Been Talking” lend themselves to that so well.
Yeah it was great, we did a Bakerton Group set, then a full acoustic set, then our normal straight Clutch set.
Are there any festivals that get your energy up these days?
There’s a real revival happening these days with festivals. It’ll be nice to see those that do well and become a tradition, very much like it is over in Europe where they’ve had these longstanding festivals going for decades. It’s an awesome opportunity for both sides, for people to get exposed to new music, and the bands get an opportunity to play for so many new people, this gigantic, captive audience.
The rock festival circuit is in an identity crisis right now. The Mayhem festival died this year, and anyone who’s been to Warped Tour wouldn’t go back if you paid them. But Danny Wimmer’s onto something with Aftershock and the way they’re approaching the culture around the festival. They’re mixing the alt rock world into what was typically a monolithic “metal culture” of black on black, skull and crossbones type stuff.
It’s not one-dimensional, that’s for sure. There’s camping here, rolling hills… having multiple styles of music is an experience that benefits everybody. It’s a very diverse stage, and a real music fan will appreciate that. If your CD collection is only black metal, you’re not really a music fan, you’re obsessed with one specific thing. The average person has all types of music in their catalogue, and I really like being a part of something that tunes into the right variety. It’s a good thing for music in general, I think it’s important to have events like this to celebrate a much wider spectrum in rock.
We couldn’t agree more. Catch Clutch at any of the tour dates below this Fall, alongside Zakk Sabbath and Kyng.
Clutch on tour:
09/28 Buffalo, NY @ The Town Ballroom
09/30 Lakewood, NJ @ First Energy Park Rock Carnival
10/1 Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
10/2 Louisville, KY @ Champions Park Louder Than Life
10/4 Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
10/5 Atlanta, GA @ The Buckhead Theatre
10/7 Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre Street Stage
10/8 Columbus, OH @ Express Live
10/10 Little Rock, AR @ Metroplex
10/11 Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
10/12 Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
10/14 Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/15 Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
10/16 San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
10/18 Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
10/20 Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
10/21 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
10/22 Sioux City, IA @ Anthem at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
10/24 Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note (no Zakk Sabbath)
10/25 Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
10/27 Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theater
10/28 Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
10/29 Clifton Park, NY @Upstate Concert Hall
10/30 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
