From The Vault - CLUTCH

Off the wall heavy rockers Clutch are out now promoting their new album Earth Rocker so I dug through my archives to present the findings from early Clutch shows up through The Elephant Riders. My first live exposure to the band was when they were out supporting their debut album, Transnational Speedway League, on a crushing bill that had them sandwiched between Sepultura and Fear Factory on March 29, 1993 at Big Dog's in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sepultura was riding high on the Chaos A.D. album, while Fear Factory was promoting Soul Of A New Machine. From my recollection, Clutch ripped through most the debut album, including "Earthworm", "A Shogun Named Marcus", "Rats", and "El Jefe Speaks".

The only time I remember seeing Clutch on the road for their second, self-titled album was in 1995 at The Hurricane in Kansas City on a co-headling jaunt with Tad with Far opening the show. Clutch and Tad was a great pairing, and both bands put on intense performances.

Two promotional pictures of Clutch from 1998 for The Elephant Riders album.

Clutch hit the road heavily for their third album, The Elephant Riders, during which time they played Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City a number of times. March 11, 1998 had them playing The Beaumont Club in Kansas City on an unlikely tour opening for Limp Bizkit with Sevendust. The crowd was respectful but seemed largely indifferent. That same year, they did a phenomenal headlining show at The Bottleneck in Lawrence as part of a short tour with support from Shine (who later changed their name to Spirit Caravan).

The pictures below were all taken at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas on October 28, 1998 as direct support to Sevendust together with Stuck Mojo and Ultraspank. Again, Clutch seemed out of place on this tour, but they still rolled through a great set as only they can do.

Clutch performing October 28, 1998 at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas. Click on any of the live pictures to see more photos from this show (20).

Clutch performs tomorrow, Wednesday, April 10 at First Avenue in Minneapolis with support from Orange Goblin, Lionize, and Scorpion Child.

Far - April 2, 1998, Kansas City, MO, The Hurricane

Far - April 2, 1998, Kansas City, Missouri, The Hurricane

Video and audio recording

Having just reviewed the new album from Attention (here), it's a good excuse to post the complete video and audio of a show by Far that I recorded in 1998. The connection is that Far vocalist Jonah Matranga sang with most members of Attention in Gratitude, who released one album through Atlantic in 2005. Far never achieved more than a small cult following, but their 1998 album, Water & Solutions, is considered a landmark forerunner of today's emo-rock. This show captures Far less than a month after the release of Water & Solutions during a period that is considered the band's definitive time. On this tour Far was supporting Incubus (promoting the awesome S.C.I.E.N.C.E. album) with Ultraspank (before their first album was released). Although this particular night had some of the best lighting at The Hurricane, the video quality didn't hold up. It's very listenable and watchable, but I'd give both aspects of the recording a B. The set is mostly songs from Water & Solutions, with only two songs from Tin Cans With Strings To You performed. There's a song that I can't identify after re-listening to the band's entire catalog, so maybe someone can help me with this. If this is an unreleased song, I'm going to call it "For Ray". The encore song, "Seasick", is funny to check out. Weezer's "El Scorcho" is improvised before Jonah calls two guys from crowd on stage to give their best metal scream to determine if they'll play "Seasick" or "Love, American Style". Far also played at The Hurricane on the Tin Cans tour, but I can't remember the details of with whom they played. The band recently reformed and released an excellent album, At Night We Live, their first since 1998.

The link to download the text file with all audio (mp3@192 kbps) and video (mov, H.264, 640 x 480) download links are below the video embeds for "Mother Mary", "What I've Wanted To Say", and "El Scorcho/Seasick".

You can stream all videos from the set at my YouTube channel. As always, please share, but distribute the link to this post rather than the link to the text file. Enjoy! I hope to get around to posting the sets from Incubus and Ultraspank in the near future, too.

Click to watch Far play "Mother Mary".

Click to watch Far play "What I've Wanted To Say".

Click to watch Far play "El Scorcho" and "Seasick".

Far

1998-04-02, Kansas City, MO, The Hurricane (42 minutes)

1. Wear It So Well

2. Really Here

3. Mother Mary

4. The System

5. Unknown (For Ray?)

6. Waiting For Sunday

7. Nestle

8. What I've Wanted To Say

9. Bury White

10. El Scorcho/Seasick

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PPKF9R2A
UPDATE: Here's a new link for the video for "Mother Mary": http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7OMXOM0R
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