Earth Rocker Festival

Recently I attended the third of three Earth Rocker Festivals at Shiley Acres in West Virginia, an outdoor venue not far from Martinsburg and just under two hours away from where I live in Northern Virginia.  The weather was predictably warm and humid – as usual for this area at this time of year - but fortunately not rainy, and this is a venue for which cover from the elements is effectively limited to (A) the band on stage, (B) the concession stands, and (C) whoever brought a tent.  That would effectively leave out the majority of the audience area and the audience itself. 

As it was, the warm weather presented a different challenge:  dehydration.   Last year I had to stake out a good position near the stage, as I also wanted to see Corrosion of Conformity and Black Label Society, the two bands going on immediately before Clutch, which precluded trips to the concession stands for water, beer, or soft drinks.  As a result, by 67% through Clutch’s set I was feeling very weak.  I had to leave during “Elephant Riders”, one of my favorite songs – which fortunately they played at the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore the following December, much to my relief. 

This time around I was forewarned and despite feeling no thirst, I imbibed two Mike’s Hard Dark Cherry Lemonades and three Classic Cokes.  This kept me up and running until the very end of Clutch’s set.  Indeed, such was my condition that those five full beverages did not send me to the white booths, nor did I have to aim & shoot until I arrived home.   Clutch took the stage at 7 p.m. and played until 8:20.  I managed to get home around 10:20, just about 2 hours later.  

I’m beginning to question the practicality of outdoor festivals.  Assuming it doesn’t rain, you may have the excessive heat issue unless you schedule for April, May or September, or it’s somewhere like California where the weather is pleasant year round.  I may have noted earlier how I managed to see TOOL (5/10 at Hampton Coliseum in southeast Virginia) and Judas Priest (5/12 at the Anthem in DC) both at indoor venues, whereas the outdoor festival featuring both bands together on 5/11 in Rockingham, North Carolina was rained out that day.  D’oh!

Since seeing AC/DC at Bercy in 1984, I’ve been to 255 concerts, of which 13 could be considered outdoor events.  For these purposes I’m excluding stadiums and semi-enclosed amphitheaters (even Jones Beach Arena on Long Island) from this definition.  Donington Monsters of Rock (now Download) at 1985 was at a race track, the only cover was for the stage itself.  The Shindig festival in Baltimore – three years – and Earth Rocker in West Virginia were likewise completely outdoors with no cover except for the band on stage.  Blue Oyster Cult played a ski resort in September 2002 in northern New Jersey, and the Fairfax County Fair in 2005.  Grand Funk Railroad played at the Belmont Country Club just south of Leesburg, Virginia.  Fortunately none of these events were rained out, but any of them could have been.  For some reason I experienced no dehydration issues at any of these shows.  As noted, whoever was hoping to see both Tool AND Judas Priest in North Carolina this May was rained out of luck.  Having questioned the logic of outdoor shows, I will say that the ones I attended were enjoyable.  Who dares, wins, I guess.

I already blogged about Waze (4/1/16:  “In Praise of Waze”) so I’ll keep this comment brief.  Both last year and this year the GPS did the same thing: sent me up and back by different routes.  This year the northwest route went by Route 9 northwest of Leesburg and hooked up with 340.  The way back took me up 340 to 15 to Frederick and southeast from there.  Even when I supposedly know where I’m going, Waze alerts me to cops, traffic jams, and sometimes gives me alternative scenic routes which are aesthetically pleasing, as my trip up to Earth Rocker was this time around.   Right at Leesburg, I went south on 15 to Route 9, and shortly after it crossed into West Virginia I was greeted with a phenomenal sight: a huge valley opened up in front of me.  If any of my readers know what it is I’m referring to, I’d appreciate it. 

Back to Earth Rocker itself.  The main band is Clutch, a Maryland band who’ve been around since 1993.  I blogged about them before https://formula57l.blogspot.com/2012/08/clutch-bakerton-group-and-company-band_6018.html.   Since then they’ve put out three more albums:  Earth Rocker (2013), Psychic Warfare (2015), and Book of Bad Decisions (2018).  Oddly, I made that post immediately after seeing my first Clutch concert at the Artscape Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, and since then have seen them 11 more times (!).  

Consider this:  both Clutch (Transnational Speedway League) and TOOL (Undertow) released their first albums in 1993.  Since that time, Clutch have released 11 more albums, whereas TOOL is promising #5 to come out this August.  I’ve now seen TOOL 4 times: 6/8/07 (Baltimore, MD), 7/30/09 (Fairfax, VA), 5/24/17 (Fairfax, VA), and 5/10/19 (Hampton, VA).  Suffice to say that Clutch seem to tour and record more aggressively than TOOL.

Earth Rocker 1 (5/20/17).  Clutch was the headliner, with the following bands in reverse order:  Lucero, The Sword, Bad Seed Rising, Apollo’s Prophecy, and School of Rock.   I chose to see Scott “Wino” Weinrich and The Obsessed at the Otto Bar in Baltimore that year, who I’d never seen before.  Wino is also from (Rockville) Maryland and appears on “Red Horse Rainbow” (Pure Rock Fury) which they played this time around.

 

Setlist:  Who Wants to Rock?; The Mob Goes Wild; Noble Savage; Cypress Grove; A Quick Death in Texas; You Can’t Stop Progress; Power Player; The Face; Firebirds!; Son of Virginia; Crucial Velocity; Earth Rocker; Spacegrass; A Good Fire; Gravel Road; Immortal; The Regulator; Encore: Electric Worry; One Eye Dollar; The Wolf Man Kindly Requests…

Earth Rocker 2 (8/4/18).  Clutch headlined, with Black Label Society – Zakk Wylde’s de facto Motorhead tribute band – and Corrosion of Conformity opening.  No rain, but dehydration.

Setlist: Gimme the Keys; Firebirds!; How to Shake Hands; Noble Savage; El Jefe Speaks; Big News I; The House That Peterbilt; The Dragonfly; Burning Beard; Hot Bottom Feeder; Earth Rocker; Promoter (of Earthbound Causes); The Elephant Riders [playing as I left]; In Walks Barbarella; Spacegrass (w/Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity); Encore: Electric Worry, X-Ray Visions

Earth Rocker 3 (7/13/19).   Clutch headlined again, with Killswitch Engage, the Cro-Mags, and Fireball Ministry opening.  I enjoyed FM and zoned out during the middle two bands.  Killswitch Dis-Engage, please.

Setlist: H.B. Is in Control; Ghoul Wrangler; How to Shake Hands; In Walks Barbarella; Red Horse Rainbow; Precious and Grace (ZZTop cover); The Regulator; Gimme the Keys; Willie Nelson (!!!); Noble Savage; The Face; Smoke Banshee; 50,000 Unstoppable Watts; Book of Bad Decisions; A Quick Death in Texas; Encore: Electric Worry; One Eye Dollar; Rats

Neil, Tim, Dan, and JP were in top form, as they always are.  Neil is one of the more clever, charismatic, and articulate vocalists.  This year’s highlights were the ZZTop cover and finally hearing “Willie Nelson” live.  In fact, I think that was the first song I heard from Clutch, on the High Volume compilation. Killer line:  “one thing’s for certain, Willie Nelson, only smokes killer weed.”   Clutch bring the GROOVE, big time.  Enjoy.