Coheed And Cambria / Clutch
By Eric Chon
Monday. Dec 17, 4:39 PM
live at Worcester Palladium (Worcester, MA) Nov. 27th, 2007.

As it always happens on weekday shows (damn Tuesdays), getting off of work in Boston and driving all the way to Worcester is a tiring and traffic-laden affair. Especially when doors open at 6:30pm and I don’t get out until 5:30pm or so. So your typical 45-minute drive + assloads of traffic ends up costing you about an hour and-a-half of your life. Basically, what this means is that I missed The Fall Of Troy and that sucks.

However, I did make it right in time for Clutch, my main draw for the evening. Oh sure, Coheed And Cambria are great and I really love their new disc, but I had never been able to catch Clutch before and their last several albums have been nothing but aural crack for me. And they did not disappoint in the slightest. You can easily tell this is a band that makes their living playing live shows, as the energy off of frontman Neil Fallon worked the crowd into a frenzy.

It’s interesting to me that Coheed And Cambria would pick Clutch as their opener, as the two camps’ sounds are very different (and so are the demographics of their fanbase), but the mixture seemed to work beautifully. A lot of the older members of the crowd (i.e. around my age) were there mainly to see Clutch. You can usually tell by the metal hoodie and facial hair. But the kids (and there were a huge amount, this being an all-ages show) were definitely into the band, too. Playing a bunch of tracks off their latest From Beale Street to Oblivion, Fallon and company won over many whom I overheard asking “who the hell are these guys?”, with their single “Electric Worry” garnering the biggest response. Afterward, the merch stand was mobbed with converts and old fans alike.

Coheed And Cambria, on the other hand, had complete control over the entire venue. Every song had the entire audience singing along, almost to the point where I couldn’t hear Claudio anymore. This is actually an interesting point because he would often not sing the last bits of a verse: no idea why. I don’t think he can quite hit the high notes he can in the studio. However, their performance more than made up for it. It’s a very high energy show, with lots of moving lights and stage effects and the band (with awesome new drummer Chris Pennie, formerly of The Dillinger Escape Plan) playing like their lives depended on it.

They mostly stuck to their mainstay songs (“Blood Red Summer,” “Second Stage Turbine Blade”), eliciting huge whoops and approval from the crowd, but I really wished they would’ve played more off their latest disc (which I was eager to hear performed live). I love the favorites as well, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve owned the albums for a while now and I’ve seen them before: more fresh material would’ve been a big bonus. Coheed And Cambria ended the show with an encore that included an awesome (or torturous, depending on the person) 20-minute prog rock jam session that allowed every member to just go nuts on their instrument for a while (with Pennie’s drum solo being the high point). I think most people decided to leave after minute 10 and the place was less than half full when the entire band came back on stage to perform one more song. An interesting idea to reward those who stuck it out, but still a bit tedious to sit through.
www.coheedandcambria.com
www.pro-rock.com

Eric Chon

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