Clutch at First Avenue, Minneapolis (21 October 2016)

Can it already have been a quarter-century?

Maryland rock band Clutch just celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary over the summer and brought their Psychic Warfare Tour to a raucous First Avenue in Minneapolis.  The newest album, Psychic Warfare (on the band’s own Weathermaker Music), was released last October to debut at number one on Billboard’s rock album chart, and as well as their incendiary live shows, is proof positive that is the band is producing some of the best work of their career. 

Los Angeles-based metal band Kyng (Eddie Veliz –vocals/guitar, Tony Castaneda- bass, and Pepe Clarke –drums opened the loud triple-bill with songs from their three full-lengths, including the just-released Breathe in the Water (Razor & Tie Records). 

Opening with the title track from previous album, Burn the Serum, Veliz’ vocals have been compared to a Soundgarden/Shinedown-style, but it’s the heaviness of the band’s crushing riffs that really are its signature.  The band is not without a social statement either, as the new album’s title track is inspired by the recent exodus of Syrian refugees, put to a heavy metal theme. 

Next up was a simple cover band… that very nearly blew the roof off the venue. Zakk Sabbath is an offshoot project spearheaded by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist and current Black Label Society leader Zakk Wylde, alongside bassist Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (Ozzy, Rob Zombie) and drummer Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age, Danzig).

Though Wylde has flirted with cover versions previously with BLS, this is his first full foray in, which fully honors the legacy of what is considered the first heavy metal band, fronted of course, by his mentor Osbourne. 

Eschewing much conversation and many of the more obvious Sabbath songs, the trio ripped into their fifty-minute set starting with a thundering 1971’s ‘Children of the Grave’, Wylde often jumping onto his monitor amp to shred his signature wails with hair whipping back and forth.

People were gasping for breath after Wylde’s solo on second song ‘Snowblind’, only to be hit the face with a shaking ‘Supernaut’. Air raid sirens introduced ‘War Pigs’, with everyone singing along, Wylde jumped into the crowd to play a behind the back solo in the middle of the floor, then took a brief break before final song ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ to introduce his bandmates and thank the “Minnesota chapter” for coming out to support his “Tupperware tap dancing extravaganza” before resuming with a crushing finish.

With a large backdrop of their newest and eleventh studio album’s cover, Clutch then took to the stage for their eighty-five minute set as the intro music of Chuck Brown’s 1987’s go-go funk hit, ‘We Need Money’ fired up the crowd. 2001’s ‘Immortal’ (actually a rearranged Mountain song) got things started with bearded singer Neil Fallon stalking the stage and chugging water between songs, as his bandmates mostly stood and rocked in place. 

The new ‘Firebirds!’ was next, proving with its sonic energy, that the song title earned its exclamation point.  “Here’s a good song for Halloween”, Fallon mentioned before the band launched into a rapid-fire ‘Sucker for the Witch’ while the also appropriate ‘Decapitation Blues’ was inspired by Fallon having several neck vertebrae needing to be fused together (due to too much headbanging?).

Diehards chanted the lyrics to 1995’s sludgy ‘Spacegrass’ and its “whenever it feels right” chorus while ‘X-Ray Visions’ served as a sort-of title track to the album, encompassing the album’s theme and vision in a single song.

‘A Quick Death in Texas’ also from the new record, sounded opposite, with its ZZ Top-like riff and clearly inspired by the state they recorded it in. The main set closing ‘Electric Worry’ was a updated delta John Lee Hooker/Robert Johnson stomp with the crowd barking its “Bang bang bang bang, vamanos, vamanos!’ chorus. 

The two-song encore began as they dialed it all the way back to 1992 with ‘Passive Restraints’ (in lieu of ‘The Regulator’ noted on the setlist), “Here’s one of the first songs we ever wrote together,” Fallon mentioned beforehand.  “Let’s break out the agricultural implements” Fallon said prior to the also-bluesy ‘D.C. Sound Attack!’, complete with blues harp and everyone’s favorite percussion instrument, the cowbell.

Twenty-five years into their career, Clutch is currently flourishing at a apex of creativity with its last two albums, and shows no sign of slowing down (“we’ll see you all next year”, Fallon mentioned), still putting on a pounding live show—here’s to their next quarter-century.