Normally, I would skip the support bands and arrive in time for the main band, for the selfish reason and from experience, that support bands aren’t that great. This time was different. With Clutch due on in two hours time, there are two support bands performing tonight, General and Sons of Icarus. I arrive one song late in to General’s performance, with no knowledge that there was going to be two bands supporting instead of one. I have no idea who General are, but the first thing that stands out is that the vocalist has a voice which instantly draws you in. The band have this stage presence that a lot of support bands lack, it isn’t too much or over the time, more to the fact that they know how to work a crowd even despite the crowd for this band are quite static.
As each song goes on, I scan the room , and notice that the audience have loosened up and start to enjoy to enjoy General, a good sign for the band that the general rule should be to always rile up the crowd and get them pumped for the next band. When bands fail to do that, they get no response from the crowd, and loses that momentum of excitement for the main band , and it’s that responsibility of the main band to get the audience back up on their feet. Luckily, General didn’t have that negative outlook about them, their songs were catchy, and their performance was on par, and if anything, it made people curious to see who the band really are and listen to more of their songs.

The set ended on a high, with much of the audience cheering on for General and gaining new fans. I, for one, will be looking up more of their work later on and look forward to their future gigs.