Clutch at the Rust Belt -- May 10.
Tuesday, May 10, 8 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
With Louder Sound raving that their most recent album Book of Bad Decisions is "punchy and wise, freaky and funny, and it throbs and hums like an electric fence," the funk-metal musicians of Clutch headline a May 10 concert at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, their 2018 recording also described by Cryptic Rock as "a fine return for this seasoned combination of hardened rockers."
Formed in Germantown, Maryland, in 1991 by Dan Maines (bass), Jean-Paul Gaster (drums), Tim Sult (guitar), and Roger Smalls (vocals), with Smalls soon replaced by Neil Fallon, Clutch released its debut LP Transnational Speedway League in 1993, and followed it two years later with a self-titled album that gained the group mainstream exposure. Having started on the Earache label with their 12-inch single "Passive Restraints," the band moved to the larger Columbia label for the 1998 album The Elephant Riders, following it in 1999 with the self-released groove-based recording Jam Room and the Atlanta Records release Pure Rock Fury in 2001. The title track was initially released as the first single, and after the program director for North Carolina rock station WXQR, Brian Rickman, suggested that the label switch to the album's track "Careful with That Mic," Atlantic did so, and Clutch achieved a surprise hit single. The follow-up tracks "Immortal" and "Open Up the Border" were also well-received by American rock stations, and in 2003, Clutch issued Live at the Googolplex and the rarities record Slow Hole to China.
Clutch's sixth album Blast Tyrant debuted in 2004 and was the group's first release through DRT Entertainment, followed by Robot Hive/Exodus in 2005, which featured the first lineup change since the early 1990s in the addition of organist Mick Schauer, who passed away in 2019 (with Neil Fallon eventually joining the band in his place). Two years later, 2007 saw the release of From Beale Street to Oblivion, and two years after that, Clutch released Strange Cousins from the West on their own label Weathermaker Music. In 2013, they released their tenth studio album Earth Rocker again through Weathermaker, and the recording became the group's highest-charting record in the U.S. at the time, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart. Prior to the eventual release of 2018's Book of Bad Decisions, in 2015, Clutch released Psychic Warfare, which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200. And later that same year, Clutch also released a compilation album La Curandera exclusively on pink vinyl as part of the "Ten Bands, One Cause" campaign for breast-cancer awareness.
The musicians of Clutch headline their East Moline engagement on May 10 with additional sets by The Sword and Nate Bergman, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $35-45, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
