ChiIL Live Shows: Clutch LIVE at House of Blues Chicago 4-12-13 #originalphotos #showshots

Photo Credit: Bonnie Kenaz-Mara for ChiIL Live Shows.com
Clutch 4-12-13 House of Blues, Chicago

We'll forgive them for skipping Chicago on the last tour. Clutch made it up to their Chi-town fans with an excellent, hard rockin', sold out show last Friday at The House of Blues. It was our pleasure to shoot stills and again catch them in action.

The set list was a sweet mix of old favs and new Earth Rocker Material which was extremely well received. Generally it take live crowds a while to warm up to new material, but Earth Rocker is so good, it's contagious. A good chunk of the crowd was already belting out the lyrics and even those who didn't know the new stuff yet were completely into it.

We scored a press preview of the album and it's been in heavy rotation here at ChiIL Live Shows. Clutch is a band that's been ahead of their time for twenty years, but the rest of the world seems to finally have caught up with their March release of, Earth Rocker.

We've been digging their vision & sound since the beginning, but there were comparatively few fans for years. Of course we didn't mind catching them at small venues like the Logan Auditorium and Cubby Bear, when few knew the name Clutch, but we don't mind sharing a good thing. And we love to see creative, talented people get the recognition they deserve.

Clutch has played metal their own way, completely unabashed, for years, not caring whether mainstream metal liked them or they achieved commercial success. Their diehard fans have always grocked the genius and enjoyed their music, despite their genre defying sound. Staying true to their own style and voice is at last paying off for Clutch.

If you didn't catch our original interview with frontman, Neil Fallon, check it out here.

CLUTCH's Earth Rocker

Enters Billboard Charts at #15!

In mid March, WEATHERMAKER MUSIC released the highly anticipated new studio album Earth Rocker from CLUTCH. Earth Rocker entered the Billboard Top 200 Charts at #15 marking the highest Billboard Chart debut in the band's storied career. The album came in at #1 on the Hard Music Chart and #3 on the Independent Album Chart.

In addition to the impressive chart positions stateside, the band continues their global domination entering the German Top 100 Media Control Chart at #71.

In the UK

Earth Rocker charted at #50 on the Top 200 Album Chart, #3 on the Top Rock and Metal Albums Chart and #11 on the Top Independent album chart.

Earth Rocker is continuing to make an impact at radio. The album is #1 at CMJ Loud Rock, and their second single, "Crucial Velocity" was added to SiriusXM channels Octane, Liquid Metal and Faction.

The band has also released a lyric video for "Crucial Velocity". The video was done by animator James Appleton and can be viewed below.

"WEATHERMAKER MUSIC is thrilled with this result. The release campaign began 6 months ago. We executed on our worldwide plan by integrating touring, promotion, retail and digital marketing as well as Specialty/Metal and Active Rock radio campaigns in a perfect sequence. Our partners around the world backed us up. RED Music's extraordinary support made much of this possible. But in the end none of it would have been the same without this great album. CLUTCH is the quintessential American rock band!" says WEATHERMAKER MUSIC Label Manager Stefan Koster.

Earth Rockeris available for purchase at the CLUTCH Merch Store.

CLUTCH is currently out on the Earth Rocker North American Tour. The tour runs through April 20th ending in Baltimore, MD. Supporting on the first leg is Orange Goblin, Lionize and Scorpion Child.

The second leg of the Earth Rocker North American tour was recently announced and will kick off May 1^st in Richmond, VA and run through May 26^th in San Antonio, TX. Support on this run comes from The Sword and Lionize.