Venue: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 17.02.2011
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €18.00
Well, finally something potent on the daily concert menu in Slovenia. Rocker-potent, a perverse abundance of steamy, sweaty bodies, branded by a depraved conglomerate of bluesy rock n’ roll mayhem, drenched in a clear veil of Southern comfort and Jack Daniels. Nashville Pussy. Provocative beyond all limits and with no brakes! And not just on paper. This time it’s the real deal.
Slovenian souls tend to be pretty reserved when it comes to half-bared female bosoms in public, especially when they’re swaying around with some serious mammary vectors, but this time the Slovenian crowd stepped up. Nashville Pussy aren’t playing Slovenia for the first time, and they very likely didn’t play Orto Bar for the last time either. The 150-strong crowd welcomed them with open arms, showing them massive support and love. Orto bar was packed to the rafters. Quite a few people even came from Italy, Austria and, of course, Croatia.
The night was opened by Italy’s Fuel From Hell. Rock N’ Roll dirtbags, seasoned tomcats, and some of you may remember them as the support act for Adam Bomb almost three years ago at the same venue, or from their set at the Metal Mania Open Air festival in Komno in 2007, and probably more besides. So, old acquaintances on our concert stages. I admit I liked them better at their previous show at Orto Bar. The reason is simply a change of vocalist. The guys are trying to sing in English, and it’s well known that this causes Italian bands terrible headaches. And in that department they’ve slipped a bit, at least as far as live shows go. But hand on heart, Fuel From Hell are one of those Italian acts that roar with confidence and true to the tradition of dirty rock n’ roll delirium, and they fully convince there, which their peers don’t manage every day. A more than handy and fitting warm-up, English-language grotesquery aside.
An hour and ten minutes of authentic rock n’ roll debauchery with Nashville Pussy was kicked off by the fitting I’m So High. A quartet with a sharply put-together look. For the female half of it, that goes without saying. The lineup of Blaine Cartwright (vocals, guitar), Ruyter Suys (guitar), Karen Cuda (bass), Jeremy Thompson (drums) can’t leave you cold just from looking at them, but when they plow in with the deep thrust of straight-up rock n’ roll rhetoric, the mood in Orto bar instantly starts flashing orgasmically! A mixed repertoire, with which the guys and gals “stunned” the rock world when they arrived on the scene (Go Motherfucker Go, You’re Goin’ Down, both in an extremely steamy finish), the scorching, branded Going Down Swinging, Hate & Whiskey, Come On Come On, Drunk Drvin’ Man, Struttin’ Cock, Higher As Hell, Shoot First And Run Like Hell, One Way Down ), all the way to newer material from the latest album “From Hell To Texas” (the opening I’m So High, the album’s title track, Why, Why, Why, Speed Machine, Ain’t Your Business, Late Great USA).
This band has so many miles on the clock that it’s really hard to knock them off the rails during a show. The wild Ruyter, who with her soy-hued mane and lush curly hairdo looks like a female version of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, flung herself around in a frenzy as much as the small Orto Bar stage could take without falling apart, while also fascinating with excellent soloing, where she likes to throw in a little of that recognizable “Angus Young” stance. Blaine Cartwright kept the vibe at a high level with great singing, ranging from high-pitched, screeching fits of rage to a rasping growl through a clenched lower jaw. Everything would have been just fine for Blaine, if his watchful eye hadn’t spotted the raised middle finger of one of the wilder audience members, barely a yard from him. That Nashville Pussy really don’t leave a debt unpaid was confirmed by Blaine’s gesture of fury, which the aforementioned wrist posture had provoked. At first he tried to settle things with the guy physically, telling him to get lost right away. When the guy didn’t listen (quite rightly), Blaine even started calling security for help, which looked really grotesque. The band’s tour manager even stepped onto the stage and sized up the troublemaker who’d riled Blaine’s ego with a sharp stare. But things took a thorough turn over the course of the show, and at the end the “scoundrel” and Blaine were even sharing swigs of Jack Daniels.
The band also spiced up their set with a phenomenal cover of Tina Turner’s original Nutbush City Limits, and at the end rewarded the truly well-disposed crowd with the no less sharply loaded Rose Tattoo classic Rock N’ Roll Outlaw, with which they gunned down the entire congregation in front of them for the finale. Rarely does a show pass in the blink of an eye. But that’s exactly the character of a Nashville Pussy show. The party flipped around in an instant, and the band left everyone in an insatiable state, one that wouldn’t have said no to another round of rock n’ roll.
photos: Gerald Stuppnig
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