Walking
into the Academy Birmingham this evening, we are
treated to a sea of beards and flannel shirts,
main support for this tour is an American 4 piece
rock band called Lionize.
They have a real 70's feel about them, they are
straight up classic sounding rock, no gimmicks
or fancy showboating. I think the key board sound
is something you'd hear in a Led Zep show, and
they also do a extended jam during the 4th song,
which is something straight from the 70's and
it sounds like it should too. The band are described
as a reggae rock band but there doesn't
seem to be any trace of this till one of the songs
near the very end of their set, other than that
you'd never know or could hardly tell from listening
to them live. The band have got some decent meaty
guitar riffs,and the sound is solid and well thought
out, a good compliment to Clutch, while similar
in sound the two bands are distinct enough and
the flanneled crowd seem to enjoy Lionize, many
a nodding head to be seen, not a bad set at all.
Clutch
have requested that there be no crowd surfing
at tonight's show, I'd be highly surprised if
anyone had planned on it in the first place, it
would mean having to put your over priced beer
down and disrupting your own and others immense
enjoyment of this awesome band, crowd surfing
is just not the done thing at a Clutch show.
They open with one of their most memorable to
date, title track off their latest album Earth
Rocker, great way to open the set and get the
crowd going again after the line change, they
do play a fair few songs from that album, 'Unto
the Breach' which is the second song they perform
followed by 'The Wolfman Kindly Requests', 'Crucial
Velocity', 'Cyborg Battle', 'Book Saddle and Go',
'Gone Cold', the superb, 'DC Sound Attack' and
my favourite 'The Face'! In fact the first 6 songs
are all from Earth Rocker, such is the bands faith
in their new material, and rightly so as they
are all superb songs, you don't get that very
often, an album full of killer and no filler.
'Burning Beard' is the first non Earth Rocker
song to be played which is about the middle of
the set, next up is probably one of their most
well know songs, 'Mob Goes Wild', it's probably
the song that got a lot of people into them due
to it's association with the CKY crew. The middle
set also feature's 'Profits of Doom', and the
superb,
'Pure Rock Fury'. Apart from Neil jumping around
the stage like a madman possessed, the rest of
the band are pretty static, but that's ok because
so are the crowd, not out of boredom mind you,
the bands fans are here to enjoy and appreciate
the music, most standing and nodding to the music,
and after every song a loud cheer from the crowd
before the band ploughs on, this band just don't
fuck around, they are fully focused on the music
and putting on a damn fine performance to boot.
The
set enters it's latter stages, the crowd joins
in with some clapping for the intro of 'Mice and
Gods', a rare bit of movement from the steadfast
crowd, the set has really kicked into high gear
with one of my all time favourites, the awesome
'The Regulator' such a great tune, in which Neil
finally breaks out his guitar, and the crowd clap
along to this too, the bluesy 'Gone Cold' is next
and takes things down a a few notches before going
back up quite a few more with my favourite from
Earth Rocker, 'The Face', this could be one of
my favourite top 5 songs of all time, and easily
one of the bands best ever, such a solid catchy
song that it is.
Next
up is the binary '10001110101', by far one of
their catchiest and bringing that bluesy feel
back to it, then main set closer 'Cyprus Grove',
such a powerful strong, catchy as hell song and
a worthy set closer. I'd certainly say that this
set has pandered more for newer fans that may
not know the older material that well but have
played older songs that are amongst their most
popular and well known.
Th band return to the stage and launch right into
the superbly catchy 'DC Sound Attack', such a
good riff and great lyrics. The night is finished
off in superb fashion with the insanely catchy
'Electric Worry/One Eyed Dollar', what a great
set of songs to end on. I think Clutch will always
be under appreciated by a lot of people but damn
are they missing out and will go down in rock
history as one of the all time greats, and if
they don't I'm sure the band won't give a damn.
Lionize 3.5/5
Clutch 5/5
Review And Photos By Robert Lawrence
|
