It’s become an increasingly popular trend over the past few years for veteran rock acts to give loyal fans the special live treat of playing a complete beloved album of theirs in its entirety live, and then some.
311, The Pixies, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, the Lemonheads, and most recently Megadeth, among others have given their following a live take of classic albums, including respectively, Grassroots, Doolittle, British Steel, Born To Run, It’s A Shame About Ray, and Rust In Peace.
Last December, the mighty Maryland hard rockers Clutch gave fans in select cities the special holiday treat of performing its entire 13-track 1995 classic self-titled second album live, with some select new tunes from its 2009 studio release Strange Cousins From The West and a couple of other oldies rounding out most set lists. With concerts as rare as these, you bet some high-tech video cameras were rolling on select dates.
Released on May 11, well ahead of its latest world headlining tour which takes place in June and July, Live At The 9:30 is a 90-minute, 19-song concert double DVD that captures the quartet’s entire December 28, 2009, performance at the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on one disc, with a nearly two-hour road movie called Fortune Tellers Make A Killing Nowadays on the second DVD.
When Clutch first played the 9:30 Club nearly 20 years ago, it was down the street from its current location. No matter where this great live band plays though, fans will come to see them in droves and, on this sold out night, the hometown feel of the performance was evident.
Starting out with four newer songs from the Strange Cousins, including the Zeppelin-esque “50,000 Unstoppable Watts,” and the blues-edged rock of the reflective “Struck Down” on any other night would be a badass start to a Clutch show, but here, acted as a sort of intro to what the fans came to hear.
With Neil Fallon leading his audience to loudly sing along to such favorites as “Escape From The Prison Planet,” “Spacegrass,” and “Animal Farm,” the band put on a stellar and raw performance of these and all 13 self-titled classics. And though Fallon doesn’t sing with the rough and gruff style of his younger days, it has aged well like the fine wine he sings about in “Big News I” and, quite frankly, sounds better than ever. His guitar skills, including slide guitar, aren’t too shabby either, as on the 19th song of the night, show closer “Gravel Road” (a Mississippi Fred McDowell cover).
The only slight issue one could possibly have with the show is that except for Fallon, the rest of the band didn’t show off much energy. It’s more of an observation than a complaint though because the quartet almost always let’s Fallon do the singing and interaction with the audience.
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