An excitement of the kind that could only be felt but not seen, filled the air. The attendance, in every caliper, purpose and age had come together for one cause; to experience a concert of pure rock fury. The usual angle of old beers, weed and sweat came now with the fancy of new.
Opening act - Fu Manchu, stoner rock royalty, was an old comfortable pair of us jeans. Their bass-heavy groovy guitar riffs and a thick unearthly rhythm section came like a beautiful and thick surge of marijuana smoke over the audience. Heads bobbed together, bodies shook and smiles emerged over Fu Manchu’s performance which was both a blast from the past and stimulating.
Then came one of two beasts: Rival Sons, who started with the song ‘Mirrors,’ full of organs and riffs and deserves to be recognized as a band that filled the gap that existed in the rock and roll history. Young buck Jay Buchanan, the lead singer had the swagger and moves of a young Mick Jagger and a heart of a blues singer, took charge of the stage with assertiveness that was powerful and electrifying all at once. The energy packed rhythms of the band led by Scott Holiday’s vicious guitar playing were cut through with his raspy yet powerful voice. From the blues drenched ballad “Open My Eyes” with Jimmy Page like riffs to the more straightforward rock of “Do Your Worst”, Rival Sons finished having whetted the fans appetites very well.
In any case, however, the night, was most probably safe to say, belonged to the co-headliners Clutch who celebrated the 20th anniversary of their groundbreaking album Blast Tyrant. Once the lights went out and the first notes of Mercury were played, excitement filled the air. The group’s captivating lead vocalist Neil Fallon appeared, his raspy growl fitting the musical structure of thundering was convulsed by the band.
With visceral aggression, Clutch finished ‘Blast Tyrant’ and it fully embodied all those qualities that have made the band successful and musically skilled. Switching from a groovy ‘The Regulator’ and ‘ The Mob Goes Wild’ to an apocalyptic ‘Army of Bono’, the quartet managed to sound economically astute & frenzied at the same time. The crowd of people has turned from standing to almost a squatting position with angry faces, shouting the entire content of the song along with frantic guitars and drums. Mosh pits opened up, drinks were tossed around, and the crowd embraced any expectations of restraint.
When the last note of the album titled "Blast Tyrant" was played, the band continued on fiercely with a mixing of both the old and the new which touched on their history. The song moves from the swinging blues and funk stomp ‘Big News I’ to patches of psych jamming, where Neil Fallon uses the Thermion to perform “Skeltons Of Mars.” They are no attempts or simply people looking back to their heyday. Indeed, they were a walking breathing and defining example of why rock n roll will never die and a band that had been perfecting their art for years, only to emerge as one of the most important bands in contemporary music. And perhaps the last true great rock’n’roll band of the century.
As the house lights dimmed and the last bow to the audience had been taken by the band, feelings of reverence and abundance were prominent in the room. It had been one of those hard evenings, a mixture of sweats, spilled beer, pot smoke and raw rock and roll exuberance. Clutch and Rival Sons had performed a concert that was beyond the ability of the calendars and the genres, which endorses the view that rock and roll, in its highest notes, reaches out to the people, moves them, and does not let them fall.
As the last stragglers drunkenly streamed out of Jacobs Pavilion, the last remnants of music that they had soaked up through their ears and memory of the night still lingered in their minds. It was a story that many will carry for a long time to come as on this night, two bands each a star musician’s career was brought to life in one magical moment. The two headed monster which had emerged from Lake Erie was terrifically thunderous and could be heard many miles away.
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