Thirteen is an unlucky number for some; but not for Lemmy and co, on 1996’s ironically titled Overnight Sensation record. The record was released on Steamhammer and sees the band returning to a trio line-up after 2nd guitarist Wurzel left the group.
It was produced by Howard Benson, who also did the previous two records and sounds top notch, crunchy, metallic, but still rock n’ roll enough for the band’s claims not to be a metal band to sort of be understandable (that’s a whole other can of worms though).
Tracks like the speedy opening 1-2 punch of ‘Civil War’ and ‘Crazy Like A Fox’ really slam, and the catchy ‘Love Can’t Buy You Money’ is very memorable. ‘Them Not Me’ features some brilliant drum work and ‘Listen To Your Heart’ finishes the album out with some acoustic guitar work. At 41 minutes it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and there are no real weak link tracks or filler.
As with almost all Motorhead albums (with the exception of maybe On Parole and March Or Die) it is fast, hard, blunt and greasy. They know what the audience want and how to give it to them. Some people will tell you only Motorhead with Fast Eddie and Philthy’ Phil are worth listening to, but this is an album that blows that viewpoint out of the water.
I went to go see Clutch live at Cardiff Great Hall Sunday 16th
June 2019. It was my first concert since the birth of my son, I didn’t want to
be away from him too long, so skipped the opening act and got their late.
The support band I did manage to see was Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons; a band with Phil Campbell from Motorhead and three of his sons (and then a singer). They were quite decent, playing mixed tempo rock songs. A few speedy numbers, a few mid-paced rockers and one fun slow song with a stoner rock vibe. They also covered ‘Born To Raise Hell’ and ‘Ace Of Spades.’ This marks the second time I’ve seen a Motorhead member play Ace Of Spades with a different band (I saw Fast Eddie Clarke supporting Saxon previously). I kind of feel bad but like when Diamond Head played ‘Am I Evil?’ versus new songs, the audience reaction was so much more enthusiastic for the Motorhead tunes versus the origional tunes, as was my own. Not being disrespectful, but Motohead tunes are Motorhead tunes. Still, I liked their own material fair enough too, it was a fun warm up and I don’t have anything to say about the band. I feel they would really suit touring with Orange Goblin.
Usually at a gig in the long wait between bands I have
no-one to talk to, but this time my brother wanted to see Clutch too, so I had
someone to speculate on setlists with a discuss the new album and favourite
songs with during the wait.
Because its Clutch, not someone violent and heavy, I decided
to stay at the back and just nod along having a good time rather than get into
the thick of it. This venue is good in that you can see the band just as well
from the back wall behind the sound desk as you can in the middle of the room. I
did the same thing for Mastodon the first time I was at this venue, just sit
back and watch the band without getting too sweaty.
Clutch are one of those bands that literally do not play the same set two nights in the row, and any night you can hear different songs. Sometimes they even don’t play their most well known songs. Some days they play mostly new stuff, some times they play mostly old stuff, some times anything can happen. The setlist yesterday was an eclectic grab bag of all eras. They opened with a deep cut off their self titled ‘90s classic sophomore album. ‘Escape From The Prison Planet.’ They played a few tracks off their furious and outrageously fun modern album, Psychic Warfare, They played a respectable amount of material from their new album, they dropped in ‘Red Horse Rainbows’ from Pure Rock Fury for the first time since 2011, and even played some rare material like ‘Willie Nelson’ from their B Sides album and the really early track ‘Passive Restraints.’
Luckily, even amongst the eclecticism they got to play what
I feel is their most well known song (I may be wrong, they’re not exactly a one
hit wonder) ‘The Mob Goes Wild’ which is one of my favourite songs by anyone,
ever, of all time. Seeing it live is not a guarantee. Its not like Metallica
and Enter Sandman where you know its going to be there, so it was very fun to
get to see it once again. Also; they played my favourite song from the new
album, the outrageously fun ‘How To Shake Hands.’ My throat is still sore from
how loud I sang along to ‘’First thing that I’m gonna do is go for a ride on a
UFO.’’ I am sure I’m not the only one either, the room utterly loved it, the energy
in the crowd was immense.
Other highlights include a bouncy rendition of ‘Ghoul Wrangler’
with its amusing pest-control-against-lawyers lyrics, (any band can make a lawyers-are-ghouls
comparison, but only Clutch are creative enough to have a snowy barn infested
with them as the owner gets his pest control business certified and bonded), an
interesting take on blues classic ‘Evil’ (also covered by Monster Magnet) and
the title track from Psychic Warfare, which I never previously realised was a
massive hit, but which the crowd utterly salivated over. The volume of the
singalongs was extra loud on that one!
The performance from the band was great. The solos and fills
were superb. The vocals so character-filled and colourful. The gesturing and
acting out of the lyrics live by singer Neil Fallon so enthusiastic and
powerful. The guitar tone was often better than the albums. The mix was pretty perfect with nothing inaudible
and nothing over-loud.
It was also just so fun to turn around every few seconds and
share with other fans some golden gem of a lyric, drum fill or guitar part. You’d
lock eyes with someone else air-guitaring the intro to ‘Electric Worry’ or air
drumming the floor tom parts to ‘Gimmie The Keys’ or singing with a grin on
their face countless memorable lyrics.
‘Just a glass of water and a ham sandwich,’ or ‘Everybody move to Canada,’ or ‘Weaponized Funk,’ or ‘He said I have seen them, I said ok its yours!’ and so on and so on. Clutch songs and albums are absolutely littered with enough memorable moments to fill a greatest hits album of most bands. Having a whole concert full of them is just joyous.
I had an uproariously good time, the band were fantastic, (and I didn’t have to travel half way around the country away from the baby). I could have happily wathced them play two more hours and still not heard all I wanted to hear from them. Brilliant band, brillaint night.
I cannot recommend seeing Clutch live highly enough. The band write superb music, they play it brilliantly live and the setlist is a roulette where anything can happen, but its always good.
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