Clutch announce first Earth Rocker festival

Clutch
Clutch

Clutch have revealed that they’ll hold their first Earth Rocker festival later this year.

The event will take place at Shiley Acres, Inwood, West Virginia, on May 20, with the full lineup of artists to be announced in due course. They’ve also confirmed a run of headline dates across the US leading up to the festival, with support from The Sword and Lucero.

And frontman Neil Fallon has revealed they’re starting to put the pieces in place for the follow-up to 2015’s Psychic Warfare.

Fallon says: “We did a whole bunch of touring in 2016. Right now, we’re cooling our heels and starting to kick around some riffs for the next record. We hope to be recording the LP come the end of the year. Where and with whom is yet to be determined.

“At the moment though, we’re really just at the beginning phase of writing and we already have a surplus of ideas.”

He adds: “In other news, this spring we will be hosting the first annual Earth Rocker festival. It’ll take place in Shiley Acres, West Virginia. We played at Shiley Acres last year and it was a real blast.

“Our intent is to have a really diverse bill. If all goes as planned, the Earth Rocker festival will continue as an annual event, hopefully growing in scope over the years.”

Following the dates in May, Clutch will head across to Europe for further shows, including Sweden Rock, Download and Hellfest.

Clutch 2017 tour dates

May 10: Asheville Highland Brewing Company, NC
May 12: Louisville Palace Theatre, KY
May 13: Grand Rapids 20 Monroe Live, MI
May 15: Brooklyn Steel, NY
May 16: Providence Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, RI
May 17: Port Chester The Capitol Theater, NY
May 19: Norfolk The Norva, VA
May 20: Inwood Earth Rocker Festival, WV
Jun 05: Vienna Rock In Vienna, Austria
Jun 06: Budapest Akvarium Klub, Hungary
Jun 07: Katoeice Mega Club, Poland
Jun 09: Solvesborg Sweden Rock Festival, Sweden
Jun 11: Derby Download Festival, UK
Jun 14: Belfast Limelight, UK
Jun 15: Dublin Academy, Ireland
Jun 17: Dessel Festivalpark Stenehei, Belgium
Jun 18: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jul 14: Cadott Rock fest, WI
Jul 15: Bridgeview Chicago Open Air, IL

Clutch's Neil Fallon says bad songs are part of learning process

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.