The triple bill of Clutch, Zakk Sabbath and Kyng came and crushed the Boulder Theater at a sold out show as part of Clutch‘s 2016 Psychic Warfare world tour. Here is their story.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve gone to a concert where I’d never seen any of the acts prior to attending. Moreover, I can’t remember the last time I saw a triple bill and wasn’t staring at my shoes praying for one of the acts to get the f**k off stage to get to the headliner.
What a great lineup…First, if you’re not familiar with Kyng, they are a trio. My partner in crime Bakko is doing both an album and show review from this concert in Minnesota, so I’ll just quickly summarize that they were a great opening act and, for three dudes on stage, they are very effective. Their songs do not seem easy to play. On Burn The Serum, their previous album, I only dug the track “Broken Halo.” However, their latest album Breathe In The Water came out right before the concert and gave me a Kyng-size rock boner to see them live. My favorite tracks are “Pristine Warning” and the title track. See them and buy the new album.
Kyng Official website / Facebook / Twitter
Onto the next trio: Zakk Sabbath. When I first heard that Zakk Wylde was touring and playing just Black Sabbath songs, my intitial thought was “Why?” Yes, Black Label Society is pretty much an extension of his Sabbath fetish, but I just didn’t really see the point. But holy baloney, this is a great band. Zakk not only looks to be in great health and spirit, but is just a beast on stage and brings new life to these classic songs.
Opening with “Children Of The Grave“, they stormed through the catalogue. The highlight was hearing him play “Supernaut“, which has one of the greatest riffs of all time. And they killed a version of “War Pigs” that included Zakk doing a crowd walk while tethered to his guitar cable all the way back to the cheap seats of the theatre. He shredded for almost 10 minutes in the middle of the crowd. A roadie kept the cable just above the crowd. Now that’s keeping it old school. Spectacular performance.
Buy: The Blessed Hellride (Black Label Society)
Official website / Facebook / Twitter
Finally, Clutch. I own Blast Tyrant, which is excellent. Over the last decade or so, this band didn’t really do it for me as far as full albums. However, their recent albums Earth Rocker and Psychic Warfare are their best work and solid from start to finish. And I was glad to see they played a ton of songs off of them. Every song on Psychic Warfare has an interlude that takes it to the next level, like the astrology band breakdown (“and on the microphone, Scorpio!”) on “X-Ray Vision”.
Like lead singer Neil Fallon, I am also a noble savage and unapologetic lifer for Rock and Roll. Neil prowled the stage in full Sketchy Preacher Mode pointing and delivering his nonsensical (read: genius) lyrics without slowing down for the whole set. “Condoleeza Rice is nice, but I prefer A-Roni” from “Mob Goes Wild” is a perfect example.
Unfortunately, they didn’t play “10001110101” or “X-Ray Vision” (which is odd since it contains the lyrics “psychic warfare” and is the name of the tour), but you couldn’t be disappointed with their set as it was packed with old school gold and new instant classics such as “Sucker for the Witch” and “Firebirds” from their latest. Check out the setlist below.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cmbmwFAl8[/embedyt]
Cobras & Fire Podcast / Cobras & Fire Facebook
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