Metal

Lamb of God w Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity – TD Echo Beach, Toronto May 19th, 2016

Published

8 years ago

05/22/2016

Mike Bax

Article Views: 651

Review and Photos by Mike Bax

This was the official first concert at TD Echo Beach / Molson Canadian Amphitheatre of 2016, and in my books, you couldn’t ask for a better trifecta of heaviness than Lamb of God, Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity. Interesting tidbit… If this was 20 years ago, the playing order of bands would have been reversed, but that’s metrics in music for you. In the end, it didn’t matter at all: seven great songs from the Pepper Keenan-fronted Corrosion of Conformity, twelve rockers from the almighty Clutch and then 15 songs from Lamb of God made for a wonderful night of metal.

Early attenders got an earful of CoC’s finest as Reed Mullin, Pepper Keenan, Woody Weatherman and Mike Dean pummeled the audience with Sabbath-heavy riffs for 35 incredible minutes. Among fans, this is considered the seminal line-up for CoC. It was amazing to watch these four veteran musicians jamming so well together after so many years. Word on the street is new CoC material is to follow in the coming year. Keep an ear open for it!!

Clutch can really do no wrong. Neil Fallon, Tim Sult, Dan Maines and Jean-Paul Gaster strutted on stage just after 8pm and played an hour long set of beautiful riffs to a screaming mass of fans. After nine songs, Neil Fallon brought out Pepper Keenan to join them performing ‘Spacegrass’, one of the coolest songs in the Clutch repertoire performed perfectly with one heavy rock’s coolest guitarists. The evening was only half over at this point, and I already felt like I’d gotten my money’s worth.

By the time 9:30 rolled around and John Campbell, Chris Adler, Randy Blythe, Mark Morton and Willie Adler took the stage, the audience kicked the energy up significantly at Echo Beach and started moshing in the Echo Beach sand throughout Lamb of God’s entire set.

Musically, Lamb of God delivers the goods every damn time, tonight being no exception. Personally, I found their stage show a bit odd this evening with the entire front edge of the stage dimly illuminated with low wattage candles, the band cast in dim green and blue front lighting, and brightly back lit by an impressive mix of video footage on large LED monitors that ran the width of the stage. From the soundboard, the spectacle looked like something Rob Zombie might be more suited to. The effect was great, don’t get me wrong, but from a photography standpoint the entire show was an utter challenge (apologies here for the noticeable difference in photographic quality between Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity as compared to Lamb of God).

Fans hurled water bottles, profanities, clothing and food into the air at random during the band’s performance. A couple dry humped each other in the sand with wild abandon behind the soundboard. Hands were raised in support of Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity at Randy Blythe’s request half way through the LOG performance. ‘Redneck’ capped off the evening, and everyone queued up towards the venue’s exit gates, buzzing over an evening of great music.

www.lamb-of-god.com
www.facebook.com/lambofgod
https://twitter.com/lambofgod
www.pro-rock.com
www.facebook.com/Clutchband
twitter.com/clutchofficial
coc.com
www.facebook.com/corrosionofconformity
twitter.com/coccabal

Corrosion of Conformity:
Bottom Feeder / Paranoid Opioid
Broken Man
Seven Days
The Door
Vote With a Bullet
Albatross
Clean My Wounds

Clutch:
Who Wants to Rock?
The House That Peterbilt
Cypress Grove
Noble Savage
A Quick Death in Texas
The Soapmakers
Decapitation Blues
The Mob Goes Wild
D.C. Sound Attack!
Spacegrass (with Pepper Keenan)
X-Ray Visions
Firebirds!

Lamb of God:
Walk with Me in Hell
Ruin
Still Echoes
512
Desolation
Ghost Walking
Now You’ve Got Something to Die For
Descending
The Faded Line
Blacken the Cursed Sun
Set to Fail
Hourglass

Encore:
Vigil
Laid to Rest
Redneck