Clutch’s Holiday tour ran from December 26 though New Years Eve. We were able to catch the show at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. The sold out show included four great artists: Wino, Saviors, Mondo Generator and Clutch.
The line to get into the show was out the door, through the bar, outside, and around the corner. By the time we got in the first musician Wino, who is Scott Weinrich of Saint Vitus, had already started playing. When he performs solo it’s just Wino and his acoustic guitar belting out tunes from the three solo albums he has released since 2009. The second band to play was Saviours, a metal band from Oakland, CA. The band looks like time travelers from the early 80’s, but they combine both old metal sounds with new creating a unique combination of stoner, doom, and old school thrash metal.
The next band was Mondo Generator. Nick Oliveri of Kyuss, Dwarves, and Queens of the Stone Age leads the band, singing and playing bass. The current lineup also includes Ian Taylor and Mike Pygmie on guitars and Hoss Wright on Drums. They started off with an old favorite of mine, Queens of the Stone Age’s “Ode to Clarissa” and continued to play crowd pleasers such as “F.Y.I’m Free”, “Shawnette”, and” You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar But I Feel Like a Millionaire”. In true punk style they ripped though the set and before you knew it they were ending with “13th Floor”, leaving the crowd wanting more.
After a short wait for the roadies to set up and tune, Clutch entered the stage and burst into “Mob Goes Wild” which naturally got the crowd going again. The band played a lengthy set which included classic Clutch songs like “A Shogun Named Marcus” and “Escape from the Prison Planet”. They also played a few new songs from their fourth coming album Earth Rocker, due to be released in March. Neil Fallon introduced one of the new songs saying “This is a new song, it’s in the key of awesome” and it was. The show ended with “Animal Farm” and “Pure Rock Fury” as the encore.
This whole show was an incredible combination of bands. I’m glad we had the opportunity to see it. Clutch will be back around on their Earth Rocker World Tour starting March 8th in Cincinnati with Orange Goblin, Lionize and Kyng.
I have a passion to band music. When the music from Clutch, obviously I try my best to go there. I never want to miss the exceptional performance of Clutch.