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(44) SLUG
Loud and Clear:
The Life and Times of an SLC Hardcore Band
by Kelly Ashkettle
Years before Trent Nelson became Chief Photographer for The
Salt Lake Tribune, he was shooting photos of Salt Lake City punk
rock shows. Some of the most compelling images from his 1998
collection at trenthead.com are of the Salt Lake hardcore band
Clear, due to the sheer emotional intensity that appears to be
pouring out of each member.
Singer Jason Knott recalls what it was like performing on tour in
those days: “I felt like my soul was leaving my body most of the
time. Just everything comes out of you. After you’re done, every
muscle in your body hurts, and your neck is killing you, but you’ll
do it again the next night, and just as hard, if not harder, ’cause
that’s just what it makes you feel like doing. It’s a huge release.”
Another striking aspect of Nelson’s Clear photos is the way the
members appear to be interacting with each other. They are
shown jumping in tandem and criss-crossing one-another’s
airborne arcs while playing instruments.
Knott agrees that the energy onstage was something that they
created with each other … and also by interacting with the
audience. “I never really wanted to talk to too many people about
it because I thought they’d think I was a hippie,” Knott admitted,
“but the second we started playing, it just got built up in this
huge circle, and it’s like we threw it out at the crowd and that
energy just got bigger and bigger, and the next thing you know,
it’s just going through the whole room and the crowd’s just a part
of the band.”
Knott’s former bandmates laughed in agreement after Knott’s
last comment. It was Feb. 10, 2007, and it was the first time in
seven years that they were all in the same room together. They’d
gathered to practice for a Feb. 16 reunion show, arranged by
SLUG to celebrate the magazine’s 18th anniversary. Now in their
late twenties and early thirties, the former members of Clear
found themselves telling each other things they never managed
to say when they were bandmates just out of their teens.
Guitarist Mick Morris said, “Right after the last show, I was like,
‘Fuck, I love this band so much, and it doesn’t really feel like it
should be the end, but it is.’ “
“Yeah, that’s the same thing I felt!”
exclaimed bassist Sean McClaugherty. “We never talked about
that, but I felt that way, too.”
Second guitarist Josh Asher agreeing, said, “All these guys, I
love them. I can go years without seeing them, and [we remeet
and] it’s like time hasn’t passed.”
Drummer Tyler Smith wasn’t yet in the room, but he later said,
“We can not-talk for a while, but we’re still super-close. I love
those guys. I always will.”
When Clear called it quits in 2000, many of their fans were
stunned. The band had recently released an album on Stillborn
Records (the label started by Jamey Jasta of the band
Hatebreed), and had completed several national tours in support
of the record. They were the only Utah hardcore band well-known
out of state, and seemed poised to make it big.
“We were right there at the threshold, where we could have
broken through,” Sean said. “We could have really done a lot of
tours if we’d stuck with it. Hardcore got huge. Kids that played in
bands that we played with ended up in bands that became huge
and on MTV and make their living doing that.”
So what happened? Why did five guys choose to walk away from
a successful project with some of their closest friends?
The fissure could best be attributed to growing pains.
Growing Up Straight Edge
Clear was formed in 1995 and was originally known as
XclearX; the letter x serving as a symbol for straight edge.
Often associated with hardcore music, Straight edge (in the
mid-1990s) was a fusion of heavy punk and heavy metal, and
that’s the sound that Clear produced. When the band began,
Jason was 21, Sean was 19, and Tyler was just 16. The original
guitarists would later be replaced by Mick and Josh, who fall in
the same age range.
In 1996, six months after forming, they released a 7” record
called The Sickness Must End, which they supported with a
national tour. Tyler was 17 then, and, as he explained in a phone
interview, it was an eye-opening experience for him. “I was