(Weathermaker/Shock)

Blues rockers get back to their roots

At this point in the DVD game, there’s little territory to explore if bands are looking to provide some visuals to sit in fans’ collections alongside their albums. It’s all been done to death: concert, band history, interviews with easily recognisable stars that gush platitudes at the band in question… Their second DVD offering, following the strictly concert affair of Full Fathom Five, Live At The 9:30 sees Clutch expand their scope without straying too far from tried and tested rock-band-on-the-road DVDs.  But then, Clutch have never been a greatly innovative band. Rather, they’ve just been a great band. The idea behind Live At The 9:30 has been done before, but Clutch know how to do it better. The first disc takes viewers into the 9:30 club in Washington D.C., where Clutch perform an hour and a half set, made special by the inclusion of their self-titled album being played front to back. Clutch’s set-list is impeccable as a means of highlighting the strengths of the rock monolith. Neil Fallon wails over new tracks like Struck Down, while drum beast Jean-Paul Gaster dominates older tracks like I Have The Body Of John Wilkes Booth and bassist Dan Maines locks into the thundering rhythm on cuts like Animal Farm and Texan Book Of The Dead. On the second disc of Live At The 9:30 there’s a couple of great recordings of older shows alongside a full-length film documenting the band’s 2009 trek across America. Like disc one, this is nothing new, but damned if Clutch don’t do it better than most. Until bands start doing cool new shit with Blu-Ray, DVDs like Clutch’s Live At The 9:30 make the wait more bearable. Fans of the blustering underground rock & roll legends would be remiss not to give it a watch or two.

***1/2

TOM HERSEY

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