4.18.2010 - Clutch, Danko Jones, and Caverns @ The Vogue
April 26, 2010
The Vogue
Indianapolis, IN
This show was our first show back at the Vogue following the Bone Thugs show that ended up being quite the letdown. As we started walking towards the venue, we noticed that there was an impressive line forming before the doors opened. It was quite the interesting crowd, made up of mostly guys in their 20's and 30's. The ladies were pretty seriously outnumbered and I could only imagine that the ladies that were there were probably dragged to the show by a boyfriend. So, the doors open and we are once again wanded down by the metal detector and patted down for security. This time we had to produce two pieces of identification to get in and Erica and I hypothesized for a while why this might have been.
We grabbed a couple of seats in the balcony, which has kind of become our favorite place to be in this venue come lately, plus, I think we knew in the back of our minds that being on the floor amidst the moshing and insanity of the crowd that we would be seriously out of place. Another interesting thing to note was that at some of our other experiences, particularly for Brandi Carlile, there is always a group of women that run to get the coveted places at the very front of the stage. In this situation, we found that it was all men at the front of the stage from the second the doors opened, and they were some pretty big dudes.
The first band to come up was Caverns, a sort of progressive/math rock band from D.C., made up of 3 guys who played piano, drums, and electric guitar. First thing we obviously noticed if anyone else out there is familiar with this band is that there are no words. These guys were interesting in the fact that it is pretty obvious that there are classical elements that they insert into their music. I think what I liked about this band, other than the fact that it was something different, is that the use of the piano was not afterthought or a gimmick. In fact, I think the piano element is the strongest part of their live presentation; it thunders throughout the guitar riffs and makes the music work. I understand that this is a relatively new band and they certainly have a few technical aspects of their music to tighten up, but it's pretty obvious that they have some potential to offer. After all, the headliners, Clutch, invited them to be a part of the tour because they genuinely like their music. Their first album is called "Kittens!," so check it out and keep an eye out for these guys.
Next up was Danko Jones. I had heard of this band before, but this was my first experience seeing them live. The band has a lot of energy and it's contagious. The crowd seemed really into the band and seemed to be familiar with the songs. The front man, who lends his name to the band, knew what to say to this crowd to get them going. He told us before a song called "Rock Shit Hot" that the song was supposed to give us rock n roll hemorrhoids. The crowd responded pretty well to any sort of profanity. Danko Jones showed us some pretty great guitar playing and definitely knew how to get the crowd revved up for Clutch. Perhaps my favorite song of theirs from the set was "Makes Me Forget My Name." Danko is definitely a top notch performer and his voice is actually quite good underneath the typical screaming and yelling that this genre of music presents. I mean, the guy even has a spoken word album, which doesn't happen unless you have a voice that is as great as James Earl Jones. The band has quite a following in Europe and has played a number of well known festivals. They put on a good show and I think I'm actually pretty interested in hearing more from them and maybe even getting some music from them. Mission accomplished.
<So Clutch takes the stage and launches into their set with a pretty long musical intro. It was easy to pick out that they have some blues roots and folk elements in their music. This really isn't your typical heavy metal band. To be honest, I think there are a lot of intellectual aspects of their music and people are starting to catch on to that, even though the band has been around for over 10 years. They have some pretty dark and yet humorous lyrics...and we heard a little of that as they played a song about anthrax. Their most recent album was released in July of 2009 and is called "Strange Cousins From the West". The album design and the new logo of the band is a play off of middle eastern culture and language. It apparently got pretty decent critical reviews at the time of release and the band has moved quite a few copies of the album since.
<Something to note about this point of the show is that I was completely distracted for a number of reasons. First of all, there was a pretty distracting couple dancing in a ridiculously raunchy manner up in the balcony next to us. Second, a couple of fights broke out on the floor when some guys were moshing and pretty much running wild into a couple of girls on the floor. But the quick security guys at the Vogue had it handled within minutes, by means of dragging the guy out of the venue. There were a couple of crowd surfing incidents, with one failing when the guy who was surfing fell through a hole in the crowd. At this point, I was just watching the crowd, which seemed more entertaining than the band at times. When I listen to "Strange Cousins From the West" on my iPhone, I really enjoy it. However, upon hearing it live, I kind of felt like all the songs sounded the same. I'm not sure if this is because their music does have that intellectual element to it, which for me, lends itself towards a more personal environment where I can take it all in.
<One of the coolest things about this band is that it seems that anyone you talk to who does know Clutch and their music...well, they just have nothing but good things to say about the guys. You hear things like "They have integrity," and "They are the real people," which I think is probably hard to come by in this genre. And after seeing this show, I would have to say that I can see that in them. They are not too showy, they don't have some crazy dramatic production, or even jump around the stage as one might expect. They play solid music and interact with their fans. It was refreshing in a sense to experience this at a rock show. Overall, it was a pretty good show and though I'm not 100% sold on going to see them live again, I think I am interested in Clutch's music and look forward to what they can create in the future.
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