PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
We don’t celebrate Sundays? What’s not to celebrate when Nashville Pussy are in town?! I’d heard great things about this band so I was more than happy to head into Manchester for a Sunday gig at The Roadhouse, a small basement venue on Newton Street, conveniently near to Manchester Piccadilly Gardens, and my bus stop home! Not far from many of Manchester’s other public transport links and car parks either. When you head down the stairs you enter a small dark room with a curtain in the middle separating the bar area from the stage. It’s a great intimate venue if you like to get up close to the action. There are a few pesky pillars but you just have to avoid standing behind them!
Opening the celebrations were four piece (or so I thought) hard and heavy blues rockers Desert Storm from Oxford. First song of the service was Ol’ Town and Desert Storm reminded me of a cross between something like Lonely Kamel (the beast of the desert) and The Doors (the Riders on the Storm) would be with some growly vocals thrown in here and there, which Matt sang with feeling, you could say feeling the growl! These guys had a lot of funky bass notes too reminiscent of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. House of Salvation had a bass drum start and a good bass line with the vocals reminding me of Danzig, albeit a funky kind of Danzig. Shadow of an Eagle with it’s fast drum beat and Motorhead style riffage (I’m thinking Jailbait) saw Matt pointing to his eyes when he sang the word sights and I also picked up elements of Tenacious D’s Tribute towards the end (See the official video for Shadow of an Eagle here)
Matt did a quick plug to let us know they had t-shirts, CDs and vinyl on the merchandise stand. The guitarist then started a riff before Matt said he bet we thought that was going somewhere, but it was actually just their filler riff. It was at this stage that he advised that the bass player tonight was actually one of their guitarists, as they were a man down and he joked that he (the night’s bass player) was not used to the fat strings and thanked everyone for coming out before the last one The Jackal with some bullet fast drumming, then a ‘Thank you. Enjoy your evening!’ Although it turned out not to be the final song as their were some shouts for one more. Matt asked the sound-man if there was time and I couldn’t see the response but it was obviously a yes and he said ‘I guess we’ll play another one’ someone shouted Ol’ Town and Matt said he’d missed it, and they prefer to play that one with both guitarists so the final song was Astral Planes then a final thank you. I don’t know whether it was Chris or Ryan on bass this evening but whoever it was did a sterling job, and that stage was pretty crowded with two drum kits so the absence of Chris Benoist gave the others a little more room to manoeuvre. A great set from Desert Storm and they certainly proved popular with the audience.
Set List:
Ol’ Town
Pocket Watch
House of Salvation
Night Bus Blues
Astral Planes
Shadow of an Eagle
Word of the Wise Man
The Jackal
Band Members:
Chris White: Guitar
Ryan Cole: Guitar
Chris Benoist: Bass (Not playing this gig)
Elliot Cole: Drums
Matt Ryan: Vocals
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/desertstormuk
The audience for tonight’s head-liners Nashville Pussy were an eclectic mix including rockers, punks and psychobilly fans to reflect the wide appeal of these American rockers. A Volbeat style Spanish introduction heralded their entrance onto the stage. Frontman (singer and guitarist) Blaine Cartwright looking like a younger, chunkier Lemmy in his black and white, western cowboy shirt and black stetson but minus the warts! He let out a blood curdling scream and Nashville Pussy launched straight into Keep on Fuckin to Blaine’s right was his wife Ruyter Suys (pronounced Rider Sighs) also on guitar, and to his left on bass Bonnie Buitrago. Ruyter with a mane of blonde curls to rival Dee Snider and Bonnie a glamorous brunette. Everyone joined in with the chorus and even if you hadn’t seen them before it was easy to pick up! A drum roll end then High as Hell with a devilish Ha Ha Ha at then end.
Strutting Cock with it’s fast drums and guitars started with a ‘Let’s go Motherfuckers’ from Blaine who was at the front of stage and this one was a bit Rolling Stones’ Jumping Jack Flash on speed and had Ruyter sticking her tongue out and throwing her curly mane around. I’m not sure what new song Rub it to Death is about as I couldn’t get all the lyrics but I picked up the words ‘She’s got to come’ so I had a good idea. All raw and energetic so far think early AC/DC, Motorhead or Asomvel and you get the idea.
Blaine announced I’m So High as being the truest song ever, he said he was so high that he broke something, which I suspect was a guitar string. He also told us that this was one of the last times he’d be able to say something to people who understand English for two weeks (as they’re about to head over to Europe). Ruyter was having trouble getting her microphone to stay up and said ‘This microphone needs viagra!’ Another new one came with the song Everybody’s Fault But Mine and Blaine had a guitar change. Go To Hell with lyrics about catching your wife fucking two of your friends, with a dick in each hand, had Blaine miming holding a dick in each hand and Ruyter up at stage front, under the spot light playing some screaming riffs to match Blaine’s might screams to the word ‘Go’
Blaine advised that yesterday was Chuck berry’s birthday and he was still celebrating then he changed guitars again before introducing the rest of the band. On Bass from Huntington Beach, California – Miss Bonnie Buitrago who gave us a fine bass solo with a few complimentary riffs from Ruyter. Next on the drums came Rob Hulsman who they had seen playing with Robert Plant on TV as, when they were in Scotland watching TV only a day or two ago, he came on TV with Robert Plant. Blaine announced. ‘This guy played with Robert Plant’ and we got a drum solo which reminded me of the introduction to Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher. ‘From Vancouver, the best rock ‘n’ roll guitar player on the goddamn planet – Ruyter Suys’ Blaine removed his guitar and was down at front with his wife Ruyter, whilst she was playing riffs which had the guitar seeming to speak like the riffs in Van Halen’s Yankee Rose. Blaine had also removed his shirt and was spinning his arm in time to the beat. Then last but not least from Kentucky, escaped from England ‘I’m Blaine Cartwright. I’m home baby, make some noise’ before some good screams and Blaine must have slipped as he was picked up and brushed down by a roadie.
Milk Cow Blues a bluesy but fast, rock number had Ruyter taking mouthfuls of booze and spraying it across the audience. A bit of a mosh pit formed with lots of jumping going on in the audience. Snake Eyes an Ace of Spades by Motorhead type number followed with the chorus ‘one plus one plus one is two’ By this time Bonnie’s hair was dripping wet with sweat. The last song of the main set which starts ‘Two, three, four, well she was flatter than a pancake’ was Why Why Why a song with lyrics I could imagine Bon Scott approving of, played with pure, raw, energy and was it note perfect? I don’t know but I’ll come to that in a minute. The band went off stage and after raucous shouts for ‘We Want More’ and ‘Pussy, Pussy, Pussy’ repeated, Blaine came back on stage held a bottle of beer aloft and asked ‘How are you doing Motherfuckers? I’m going to get Ruyter out. Make some noise Motherfuckers!’ He thanked us for coming out and mentioned that there was some ‘Some shit you’ll never see again from our basement’ on the merch table. Then we got two encore songs Go Motherfucker Go and finally You’re Going Down and by this late stage Blaine was sounding a bit hoarse but Bonnie was singing along to help out and Ruyter was shredding that guitar so much the strings were hanging off and that was that. Now I’ve read other reviews (although on this tour, not of this gig) saying they weren’t note perfect! If I wanted note perfection in Manchester I’d be at the Bridgewater Hall watching the Hallé and I can’t knock The Hallé orchestra they’re good at what they do, but when you head to The Roadhouse on the seedy side of town for a bit of Nashville Pussy you don’t expect note perfection you want a bit of high energy sweaty Pussy and that’s what you get! This band should appeal to fans of rock, punk and psychobilly and if you’re over in Germany you can still catch them in Stuttgart tomorrow and Munich in Germany on Tuesday, you’re sure to be entertained!
Band Members:
Rob Hulsman – Drums (on this tour)
Ruyter Suys – Lead Guitar – Vancouver, B.C.
Blaine Cartwright – Vocals/Guitar – Bowling Green, KY
Bonnie Buitrago – Bass – Huntington Beach, CA
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nashville-Pussy/13091707669
