CLUTCH : NO STARS ABOVE TOUR with GIOVANNI and the HIRED GUNS, MIKE DILLON & PUNKADELIC

This was a big Sunday night show at the House Of Blues inside Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The fans lined up and filed into the building way ahead of the headlining draw, and caught a couple great opening acts. To draw as well as this show did on a Sunday night just shows the fan base CLUTCH has here in the Vegas valley, and they never fail to deliver.

MIKE DILLON & PUNKADELIC started off the night, a very odd pairing for a rock show, with the group heavily instrumental / jazz sounding. Percussionist Mike Dillon is the drummer for Les Claypool, and was joined by Nikki Glaspie on drums and Brian Haas on keyboards. Very avante-garde with hints of Zappa is how best to describe this band. It took a while for the crowd to warm up to them but as their set progressed it looked like they won over a few more fans to their camp. Innovative, jazzy and not what you would expect as an opener for Clutch.

The surprise band of the night GIOVANNIE and the HIRED GUNS totally blew me away, and I started seeing messages online from friends at the show who were equally blown away at the sound of this band. The band describes themselves as a rock n roll / country band and hails from Stephenville, TX. Their sound is HUGE and had me going wow, wow, wow all through their set. I LOVED this band and this was the first time I had seen or heard of them, solid at every position and I would definitely see again. A tough act to follow if you're a headliner and took guts for Clutch to have such a powerful band open on this tour. A MUST SEE band.

CLUTCH took to the stage to a big late Sunday night crowd, and the opening chords reminded us why we love this band so much. With their hard, bluesy, stoner sound the packed HOB was on their feet and roared as the band played “We Strive For Excellence” , a hard pounding song off last year's Sunrise on Slaughter Beach album. They followed that up with the title song off the album, “Slaughter Beach”. Clutch is Neil Fallon, lead vocals and guitar, Tim Sult, lead guitar, Dan Maines, bass and Jean-Paul Gaster on drums. The band has now been around for 30+ years and the last time I saw them they were opening up for Primus at the old Joint inside the old Hard Rock casino a while back. Clutch never disappoints and continues to tour year after year to packed venues around the country. The band plays as one unit, tight and is as good as it gets, and I always see when they come to Vegas.