Celebrating the Clyde Iron Works

Tonight is a big night for the Clyde Iron Works, the awesome new venue in West Duluth. Dululth's own Trampled by Turtles are returning home after a new album, and a hugely successful summer. The band has played and gotten press across the country, now has its CDs available in big name stores like Best Buy, rocked the Minnesota State Fair in front of hundreds (maybe thousands) of Minnesotans, has had their new music video played on CMT and MTVU, has played festivals with the likes of Bob Dylan, and has a coveted star on the outside wall of Minneapolis's legendary 1st Avenue. This once strictly Duluth treasure, is now highly respected the entire Midwest over and is a pivotal component in the growing, ever more rocking, new blue grass movement.



Now usually a TBT concert in Duluth would be held at Pizza Luce downtown, and believe me the band has played some awesome shows there (the last of which was broadcasted on PBS, and another from a while back is recorded on a now very hard to find live album), but the small size of the venue has lead to horribly long lines for blocks down Superior Street with many fans not able to get in. To solve this problem the band originally planned to play their homecoming at the newly re-opened NorShor Theatre, but shortly after the event was announced the city was forced to re-close the venue due to it failing to meet ADA laws. Now many Duluthians are sad at this news, longing to rock out once again at the old NorShor, but they shouldn't be. The city wasted a shit load of money, and will have to spent a shit load more, converting the venue from a strip club back to the musical venue it had been in years past. I went to the NorShor for it's first concert gig back last spring at the Homegrown Music Festival (the city hadn't bought the venue yet) and though it was an amazing show, Trampled by Turtles with the Retribution Gospel Choir, the venue sucked dick. I mean I initially like the old school theater vibe there, but the place is over sized and the acoustics sound fucking horrible. I heard dozens of complaints about the sound in the weeks that followed from anyone not in the first few rows of the floor. Another reason the NorShor sucks is why the fuck do we need it? Duluth has a ton of venues for local artist, so the NorShor will only steal shows that would have otherwise been at Pizza Luce or R.T. Quinlans or etc. Because of it's size, maybe the venue could operate with good band showcases or pull in mid level nationally touring artist, but it is poorly located downtown to deal with parking and again the venue sounds horrible. I need not go on bashing the NorShor, because luckily just as the venue was coming back to life and than dying again, a new venue opened in West Duluth that for all intents and purposes renders the NorShor obsolete.


The Clyde Irons is a gorgeous new venue with top of the line concert facilitates, restaurant, and bar. I've been to the venue three times, and I gotta say it is awesome. It's spacious, sleek, and has everything a great concert venue needs; including its own free parking lot right outside. So fuck the NorShor, Clyde Irons has already showed by hosting artist like Papa Roach, Keller Williams, Tech N9ne, and numerous others, that it is the venue to bring in mid-level artist not quite big enough to play in the DECC. Local artist can have the old theater when it eventually reopens, probably early next year, but it's futile; simply reliving an old dream and taking away from better smaller venues dotting the downtown.

So tonight Clyde Irons gets its first sold out show and it's by a local artist (they claim Papa Roach was sold out but I am skeptical, plus TBT sold out 24 hours before their show). Many Duluthians will experience the venue for the first time, and I hope they come to the same conclusions that I did.