Loud and Proud: Clutch bring their unique brand of heavy, blues-infused rock to Missoula in support of their latest record, Earth Rocker

street preacher—one whose church has been built on whiskey rock and delta blues. No one-trick frontman, he picked up a guitar for “The Regulator,” and got the crowd howling with harmonica lines between the fiery verses of “D.C. Sound Attack!” “We’re not even close to done with you,” he bellowed at the crowd. The audience clapped along to the cover of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Gravel Road” and Sult pulled out his tastiest licks on the acoustic “Gone Cold.” After closing their set with a After energetic opening sets dancers filled the wings and preceded the title track off their full-throttle “One Eye Dollar,” from Scorpion Child, and plastic cups half-full with beer new album, Earth Rocker, and Clutch encored with the classic U.K. metal titans , sailed from one end of the guitarist established “Pure Rock Fury” and reached Clutch kicked things off with theater to the other. himself as the king of the riff, back to their 1993 debut album the swaggering crowd-pleaser The band kept up a steady conjuring slow-burn, psych- for a ferocious rendition of “A “The Mob Goes Wild.” A view onslaught of favorites, with edelic solos out of his Les Paul Shogun Named Marcus.” From from the balcony provided an drummer Jean-Paul Gaster throughout the night. stoner-metal riffs to sweaty impressive panorama of the often segueing between songs Singer delivered boogie-blues, Clutch once again crowd: The mosh pit churned without stopping. The swampy his signature baritone with the proved that it’s all rock and roll with seething intensity while jam of “Cypress Grove” wild-eyed fervor of a fanatical in their book. Jed Nussbaum Matt Riley Matt

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