Clutch

[shermarama]

I'm trying to work out what to do about going to see Clutch. They've cancelled a chunk of their European tour, including both the gigs in the Netherlands. There's one in Bremen I was hoping to go to instead, but it's sold out. That leaves:

• a festival in Münster, where they're on for an hour at 1am


• four gigs in the UK, but all on weekdays therefore requiring 2 days off, plus, UK: sorry, but I've been there a lot


• a Sunday night in Luxembourg, but I just went there a few weeks ago, so no fun going again right now


• Saturday night in Thessaloniki, Sunday night in Athens. That means plane not train, but I'm sort of thinking, I've never been to Greece...


• And yet, a Thursday night in Gothenburg, which means 2 days off and a plane too, and it's a festival, but it's a warm-up day so they're sort of headlining it, and on after Motorhead...

The rational thing to do is, well, not to bother going seeing them at all, but failing that, probably London. Or maybe Norwich because I've never been there. But.

Comments

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Gothenburg is meant to be awesome. I've never made it there yet, unfortunately. Also festival! I do love a festival.

London is good, you can see people. You have lots of people here who like you *HINT*

They're sold out though, right? Do you have ways of getting tix to the London gigs?

Eva is currently in Ipswich, so could easily be persuaded to Norwich I would have thought.

I'm finding the new album embarrassingly hilarious, though. I mean, come on, "serious business on your lapel"??? Is that really a lyric? Yes, apparently it is.

[shermarama]

I'm only a fan of some sorts of festivals, although this one probably wouldn't be too bad since I'm guessing it's not too large and mostly filled with pleasingly enthusiastic metallers. Then again I'm not that bothered about many of the other bands apart from Clutch themselves, so maybe I'd only go to the Thursday. It'd be about €80 even just for that, though; damn Scandiwegian prices.

I had a quick look online and it appeared that there were still tickets around for all the UK gigs - was that a lie? I checked because I was expecting London to be sold out, I'll admit. If it is, then I've seen wrong and I don't know if there's anything left in the UK. Hmm.

Hilarious isn't something that had struck me, I must say. The 'brouhahahahahahhaaaaaa!' in Earth Rocker itself works immensely well live, though.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

I was looking with a friend last week - neither of us have ever seen them - and they were sold out for 11 July gig. Maye there's another one?

I think Earth Rocker is probably the worst song on the album. Meh, I guess we have quite different tastes.

[shermarama]

There's just the four UK dates I know of, in London, Norwich, Manchester and Nottingham, and they haven't changed in the rearrangement. To be fair if I'm going to go on a ridiculous excursion just to see Clutch, I'd rather it wasn't to the UK anyway. (Currently trying to find prices for a train to Gothenburg. There's a handy overnight one on Wednesday evening, via Copenhagen, but not even bahn.de wants to let me book it online. Flights are already in the €250 department, so if the train is anywhere even close, dude, I'm getting a train through four countries to see Clutch.)

I don't think I'd say Earth Rocker was my favourite - it is a bit of a lyrical black hole, for all its energy. Unto The Breach is, however, in danger of getting promoted to alarm clock. Only songs I like enough to want to hear despite the fact they're waking me up get to be the alarm clock.

[shermarama]

Right now, Ticketmaster is offering me tickets for upstairs at the Forum, by the way.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[drummygirl.livejournal.com]

Woah, if you can afford it why not go to Greece? I've only ever played gigs there, not been to any, but always had a nice time, and nice people! Luxembourg isn't somewhere I'd want to go to very often, either!

[shermarama]

I probably can afford a random weekend in Greece; it's probably cheaper than Gothenburg all told. Having looked at the dates again that'd be possibly the wrong weekend to pick, though, because then I'd miss the North Sea Jazz festival here in Rotterdam. I'm still not necessarily convinced about jazz in general but I reckon a good way to find more of the bits I do like is to go to a huge multi-venue festival in my own city and just see lots of it.

[shewho.livejournal.com]

oooh! clutch reminder! (i am hoping to be at the london gig.)

[shermarama]

Clutch! I'm still dithering about what to do, having missed the deadline to call Bahn.de's UK ticket office this evening to find out if the train to Gothenburg is remotely affordable.

[aphroditemf.livejournal.com]

What's the best album to start with, for a Clutch noob?

[shermarama]

Ahahahahaha, that very much depends on who's doing the asking. Their most rock-tastic one and biggest hit, arguably, is Pure Rock Fury from 2001, and it's what I'd recommend to metallers. The other place to start is their self-titled, second album from 1995, which is spacious and strolling stoner rock with lyrics referencing everything from Timothy Leary to Animal Farm, which, you know, maybe sounds like something you'd like? A song about a fisherman who's found the body of John Wilkes Booth and is exhibiting it at a side-show? An opening two-parter about shenanigans on a gambling boat? A song about driving a 1973 Dodge Swinger to the galaxy M83?

And then there are a bunch of other good ones, from Transnational Speedway League, their first and still rather metal, to the enjoyably silly Jam Room, to the remarkably kicking current one, Earth Rocker, to the genius but probably less accessible Elephant Riders. There's one thing which can be make or break, though, which is the singer's voice - it's a shouty, gravelly, exaggerated style, is quite weirdly monotone in the earlier stuff, veers around spoken word via apocalyptic preacher, and then turns out to work very well for storming blues covers in more recent years. If you don't like Neil Fallon's voice, you're not going to like Clutch. But it's brilliant if you do.

[aphroditemf.livejournal.com]

"A song about a fisherman who's found the body of John Wilkes Booth and is exhibiting it at a side-show? An opening two-parter about shenanigans on a gambling boat? A song about driving a 1973 Dodge Swinger to the galaxy M83?"

Oh that sounds right my my alley! And actually, I recall playing Spacegrass to death and always intending to investigate further, so the self-titled album would be the logical place to start.

Ta very much!

[shermarama]

Ah, well, then, if you liked Spacegrass... It's not an isolated high point of the album or a strange departure from their usual style or something. That sort of thing is what they do all the time.

[shermarama]

(And that's why they're awesome.)