Okay, maybe not 13 years for me, but one of the dudes I attended this fine show pointed out in his 13 years of listening to Clutch, it was his first time seeing them live. This person had also never listened to Baroness nor was a fan of metal. He was blown away by the performance of both bands that night.

What did I think? Fucking Brilliant!

The opening band was one called Lionize. Never heard of them? Neither had I, and my world remains unchanged knowing they exist. I'm not saying they were bad. In fact they played a pretty good set. Mainly because it was around 20 minutes long. Any longer and I might have had some negative comments about I can only take so much reggae, no matter how much rock and Clutch they try to incorporate into it. It was short and sweet and they could at least play their parts without giving me a headache.

Baroness. Fuck. Yes. I missed seeing them last time they came around Boise with Genghis Tron and Converge because I was poor from seeing Dillinger Escape Plan the night before. I regretted it, and now I regret it even more. Because their set is god-damn excellent. Just like their album sound, they play a little sloppy...I guess you could call it a tasteful sloppy. There were only a few people that were getting into their set as it started, me and a couple others who managed to make it to the floor, everyone was clearly there for Clutch and just used the supporting acts to get sauced up on PBR. However, by the end of playing The Birthing a few songs in, the once barren floor was now filled with drunk shenanigans. Including an ass-hole heckling Baroness and doing some bullshit two-step hardcore dancing to piss people off.

The Knitting Factory here seems to be getting pretty tight in their hardcore sympathies. I noticed walking in they now forbid crowd-surfing, and all forms of hardcore dancing pointed out by several signs. Which makes me happy. While they no longer have 6 or 7 security members standing between the barrier and the stage, they just stand in back and start grabbing people who start shit. So in between Baroness' set and Clutch's set, Mr. Two-Step-Hardcore-Baroness-Heckling-Fag got kicked out to the applause of the entire venue. Which only got him to start fighting the security and earn him nice choke-hold.

A blurry shot of Clutch during encore.

Now that the venue is moron free, Clutch takes stage, opening with their new single 50,000 Unstoppable Watts. I still stand front and center taking it all in. Excellence. I have no idea when the last time Clutch came around these parts, I have only been listening to them since Blast Tyrant and don't recall any shows since then. Even though my concert going days are only 3 years old. Their set was about an hour and a half long, playing all sorts of tracks from their catalog, but staying away from the early stuff. I would have really liked to have heard Escape from the Prison Planet, but I still got to hear what seemed to be a slightly extended version of Cypress Grove, my favorite song by them.

Both Clutch and Baroness have earned a spot in my favorite live bands list. Both put on an amazing show and made my 4 hour solo drive across Idaho worth it. I even got to see some drunks getting arrested afterwards! Always a treat to be had.

See figure. Drunk being restrained prior to being arrested for Ass-Hattery in the 3rd Degree.