Saturday night I traveled down to Atlantic City, NJ to see Clutch and Hellyeah play at The House of Blues! The bands are on a North American co-headlining tour with MonstrO and Kyng opening for them.
MonstrO opened the show, kicking things off with their super heavy stone-rock groove. I had seen them before, opening on the Kyuss Lives! tour last year. They are incredible! Their line up composes of some familiar names such as guitarist and vocalist Charlie Suarez formerly of Sunday Driver. Former Torche guitarist Juan Montoya. Bassist Kyle Sanders formaly of Bloodsimple, Medication, and Skrew. And drummer Bevan Davies formally of Still Rain, Danzig and Bloodsimple. When their set was over I over heard a woman ask a security guard, “Who was that band? They were awesome!”. The guard replied, “That was MonstrO! Yeah, they were great!”. I can definitely see this band has a bright future ahead of them!
The second band to hit the stage was LA based band Kyng. With lead vocalist and guitarist, Eddie Veliz. Bass and back up vocals, Tony Castaneda, and Pepe Clarke on drums. This trio is awesome and did a great job helping to hype up the crowd for the headliners Clutch and Hellyeah! It’s rare to see a crowd rock out to the openers, but they were really into both MonstrO and Kyng.
The first of the headliners was Clutch! Lead vocalist Neil Fallon, Tim Sult on lead guitar, Bassist Dan Maines, and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster hit the stage like a bat out of hell! Plowing through crowed favorites like “Mob Goes Wild”, “Mice and Gods,” and “Animal Farm!” The majority of the crowd knew every word, clearly most of them were longtime fans of Clutch. Unfortunately though many of the fans felt that the set was too short. But on a positive note the twenty-two year rock vets sure do know how to leave them wanting more!
Hellyeah is a band who’s name says it all! This supergroup is comprised of Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell, Damageplan bassist Bob Zilla, and former Pantera and Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul! They kicked ass through songs from their first and second albums such as GodDamn and Stampede. Along with the new single “War In Me,” which will be on the next album Band of Brothers.
This tour has an incredible lineup that rocked from beginning to end! If they are coming to a city anywhere near you, definitely check it out! The complete list of tour dates is on Clutch’s website pro-rock.com.
