Duff McKagan’s Loaded - York Fibbers

Written by letthemusic-dothetalking.tumblr.com - Caris Smith

If any of you have ever been to Fibbers in York you will know what a pretty little venue it is, and also how incredibly tiny it is. So when i heard that Duff McKagan was bring Loaded here, although a little shocked i was very happy to be seeing them in such an intimate venue. Fibbers is the perfect place for a sweaty punk rock gig!

The night kicked off with Bristol band Riot:Noise, who did a great job of bringing the crowd to the stage and getting everyone warmed up. Good old ballsy, heavy rock with a melodic twist, well worth checking out. The same however, cannot be said for second support Dear Superstar. Despite a few fans in the crowd, the Manchester band sadly didn’t cut it for me. Some decent songs but they lacked grip, they all kind of blended into one another…

Finally time for Duff and the guys to take the stage, i had almost forgotten it was Halloween until the band walked on. Each wearing a mask of what was almost like a weird gnome/old mans head, very peculiar, certainly made everyone laugh though and as they tore into The Executioners Song the cheers rippled through the tiny venue. Next up was the anthemic We Win, always great for a sing along, followed by single Dead Skin, which is one of my personal favourites from the bands latest album The Taking, a real treat live.

The rest of the set featured a real mix of stuff, old and new. It was great to hear some early Loaded material like Dark Days and Wrap My Arms, but equally as great to hear the new album live. Tracks like Cocaine and Lords of Abbadon sound fantastic live, not to mention the epic Your Name in which Jeff Rouse really goes at it on the bass, brilliant.

Of course, the biggest crowd pleasers of the night are the Guns n Roses songs that feature in the set. The band lead us through So Fine pretty early on which causes mass sing along and Duff joking about forgetting the words because he is so jetlagged, and the only way for him to remember them is by seeing the crowd singing back at him.

The night ends with an encore of Attitude, a cover of the Misfits track  which Duff famously sang at GnR gigs, and Gunners classic It’s So Easy. Both send the entire room crazy as expected and are the perfect ending to a great night and a brilliant gig.

Loaded deserve a lot more credit than what they actually receive, they are a great rock and roll band who know how to put on a great gig. Highly highly recommend you check them out whilst they are over here, regrets all round if you don’t!

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