“Ferocious women and ill tempered me
We’re not that picky ‘cause we take ‘em all in
We fuss and fight and spit and cuss
Look no further you have found the right church”
From “Sonic Counselor” by Clutch
I distinctly remember the first time I became aware of the power of the band Clutch.
I was a dad in my 40’s waiting with my daughter at the bus stop. My friend Frank, a fellow middle-aged dad, showed up not only with his daughter but also with a grin on his face that seemed out of place amongst the rest of us stressed-out sleep-deprived parents trying to get our kids to school. Curious, I asked him what was happening. His grin got even wider as he responded with one word – “Clutch.” I was puzzled by his response and requested just a bit more clarification. “Clutch is coming to town,” he said, as naturally and giddily as a child would say “Santa Claus is coming to town.” Still in the dark, I gently questioned, “Dude, what’s Clutch.” He looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement and excitement – as if I was the only kid in town who had never seen a bicycle and my life was about to change for the better.
Source: David Brodsky, used with permissionupdownedit
A few years after that bus stop conversation, I had the fortune of talking with Clutch front man Neil Fallon as he was doing press for their album Psychic Warfare (2015). But it wasn’t until Frank and I saw Clutch playing a show with Killswitch Engage at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park in 2019 that I realized I didn’t fully get it. I knew something was unusual when I saw tons of people in Clutch t-shirts walking along the boardwalk prior to the show when it is generally considered taboo to wear the t-shirt of a band whose concert you are attending. And when they played, there was just something about it. The band and the audience were fully connected – like one giant ferocious animal about to feast with the audience being the body and the band being the head. It was everything a concert was supposed to be and yet I couldn’t fully tell you why it felt so different from other shows I’ve been to.
So, I made sure to take the next opportunity I had to talk with Fallon about this superpower that they seem to have. Specifically, having the same 4 members for 30 years and a fan base that is as devoted as ever, how were they able to form such strong and enduring bonds? In our discussion for The Hardcore Humanism Podcast, Fallon explained that he sees his band and the community that they have fostered as “emotional shareholders” in Clutch’s journey. In order for people to live their most authentic and purpose-driven-life, they need to build a strong community around them to support them. Plus, with many of us trying to “build an audience” for our business or other venture and with being so isolated in the pandemic, the concept of how to build a community that supports us and stays loyal to us seems particularly relevant.
One of the first things that became apparent was that Clutch’s connection with each other and with their fans has arisen in part because they “got there early.” Fallon and his band mates have been together since they were young, as have many of Clutch’s fans. And just like a friend you knew before they were famous, fans of the band have (rightly) felt that their connection to the band is perhaps a bit more unique and special than being a fan of a more prominent band with a lot of radio air play. Further, Clutch has been consistent – putting out albums and playing shows for 30 years. There is a trust that comes from that type of consistency that naturally breeds loyalty. As such, Fallon likened Clutch’s fan base to that of progressive rock gods Rush and recalled how the front man for Rush, Geddy Lee, described Rush’s fans as emotional shareholders.
“Sure Rush has had hits, we’ve had a couple of things that might have remotely resembled a hit, but not played on radio … ,” Fallon told me. “And I think because of that, it took a lot longer to build up a fan base… It’s been a marathon and not a sprint. And our fans have kind of been along for the ride. I mean, I’ve seen people that have met and married the people that they met at Clutch shows and they’ll bring their kids. And that’s pretty gratifying … I think what you see is what you get. We just give the music. And I think that, I would hope that that honesty is what a lot of people latch on to.”
Further, Clutch understands what’s important to many music fans – the thrill and importance of the live show. Many musicians view themselves more as recording artists with primarily a focus on making strong records. Live performances are often regarded as something of a necessary evil or nuisance. But Clutch has built the connection between its members and the fans through its reverence for the sacred nature of live shows. “I’ll wax philosophical for a moment, but live music … it’s been around for hundreds of thousands of years,” Fallon described. “When you participate with people in the live music experience, whether just as a listener or performer or both, usually, it’s sort of a human sacrament.”
Part of Fallon’s connection to live music came from the influence of hardcore punk, including bands such as Bad Brains and Fugazi that emerged from the Washington DC hardcore punk scene. Similar to Clutch, hardcore punk never had mainstream acceptance, and therefore great effort needed to be made to put on shows. This struggle naturally breeds a commitment to deliver the goods no matter if there is 1 person or 100,000 people in the crowd.
“We were spoiled, we got to see Fugazi so many times. And I think that was a huge influence. Because what those guys did is they would just get up on stage anywhere. It will be a community center with fluorescent lights. There was water and maybe some popcorn. There wasn’t a merch booth. There wasn’t any of the sideshow,” Fallon recalled. “But they would go there in any situation and tear down the house. And to see that when you’re, you know, 17 years old, 16 years old, it made a huge impression … Seeing the Bad Brains at the 930 Club … It hasn’t been matched, because it was the anticipation and then this explosion of energy. I’ve seen festivals with 100,000 people in it that don’t even come close to the intensity.”
Hardcore punk explicitly valued breaking down the barrier between the “musicians” and “fans.” There were no “rock stars.” And thus there was no rock star condescension towards the people around you. It was a community first and foremost – with everyone deserving respect.
“Be nice to people … Ozzy Osborne says something very smart in the Decline of Western Civilization, Part Two (1988) … he says something to the effect of be nice to people on your way up because you’ll meet him on the way down. And I think you can go further with that. It’s not just about a career trajectory. It’s just about life is easier when you’re nice.” And no matter what happens – keep going. “I think as far as the business side, and you have to be able to take missteps and then learn from them …,” Fallon described. “When we got dropped from labels, we didn’t really see that as a death knell, we saw that as an opportunity to try something new again.”
But above all, Fallon and Clutch remember what brings out the passion and the connection to each other and the fans – the music. And they remember how sacred that show will be to someone in the audience and approach their music accordingly. “You know what, when you’re making something, it’s usually very simple. It might have a lot of moving parts, but the core idea is usually very simple,” Fallon said. “On tour, you know, it’s tough, it can be exhausting. You haven’t showered, you miss your family, the place hasn’t been cleaned up from the night before. And there’s somebody banging on a snare drum, you know about a foot from your head. It can be exhausting and it’s easy to get angry when you grinding it out week after week after week. But going back to what we said earlier, it’s about the show. You’ve got to remember that the end of the day, your 90 minutes on stage, there might be that kid who’s seeing you for the first time. You get one chance to make him or her want to come back again. It’s now or never.”
Sounds like something worth investing in emotionally for sure.
Photo credit: David Brosdsky
