Clutch/ Green Lung/Tigercub – Leeds Academy 13th November 2022
Written by Kahmel Farahani on December 7, 2022
Clutch bring their crushing live show to the UK for a superb night in Leeds
Words & Images: Diamond Dave
Tigercub have been sharing a stage with our headliners tonight a lot recently, in both the US and Europe and with a set mainly drawn from their album As Blue As Indigo, I am impressed with their intensity. With a sound that has hints of Queens Of The Stone Age and singer/guitarist Jamie Stephen Hall who is a big lad able to command the stage with great gusto, it was particularly great to hear new song The Perfume Of Decay fit in so well with the older material. Bassist Jimi Wheelwright tells us that we “have got through it…together” and I am looking forward to us getting together again!
Green Lung have a doom-laden sound that is a curious mix of Sabbath and Jon Lord Deep Purple, with a definite 21st Century twist. Songs like Black Harvest and The Reapers Scythe are greeted with affection from this West Yorkshire crowd, singer Tom Templar covers every inch of the stage while showing off his Rob Halford like range with impressive results!
When the Chuck Brown track Money blasts through the PA this Leeds crowd know that it is time to welcome Clutch to the stage after a three year wait, and what a welcome it was! Starting with Passive Restraints and sounding no less impressive without Randy from Lamb Of God on vocals then going into The Mob Goes Wild/Earth Rocker and Prophets Of Doom and I can barely catch my breath with each song being greeted like a long-lost friend. In the live arena, there are very few bands that can do it quite like Clutch, drummer Jean- Paul Gaster plays with such power but with all the jazz technique that shows that he really is at the top of his game. With guitarist Tim Sult riffing his way through a career spanning hour and a half set, while Dan Maines , head down just keeping it all together, well I just don’t think there are tighter, groove laden instrumental players in a 21st Century band!
The face and indeed voice of Clutch belongs to the one and only Neil Fallon and he really does have this Leeds crowd eating out of his palm. To me, he is almost like a Chameleon, he will change characters to suit each song, whether it is for Slaughter Beach, Nosferatu Madre , Skeletons On Mars or for older favourites such as Prison Planet. The chant of Yorkshire, Yorkshire. Yorkshire raises the roof, and no member of the crowd is left with a doubt that they are attending one of the gigs of the year!
When Clutch come back for an encore (I genuinely think there would have been a major disturbance if they had not) we are treated to Pure Rock Fury, Electric Worry (a contemporary classic) and a wicked cover of Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, I just think of wait of nearly a month that I will have to endure before this wonderful band come back to these shores and I can see them again….well at least I KNOW it will be worth it!!
