You're talking about something different - Java the language is a bit ugly, but this is about JVM performance (ie, the runtime virtual machine that is installed to execute Java programs) with Clojure, where there is not much boilerplate to speak of.

Although the JVM is one of the sleekest environments around though and I'm confused by the fellow saying it is "viscerally slow". Clojure loads slowly, but after that everything happens at speed.