Venue: Fibbers, York

With a long drive down to York ahead of us we set off early for a door opening of 7pm, but as we drove down we could see that time and the weather would be our mistresses on the trip, as a distant thunderstorm led our way, but an hour and a half later we arrived at the newly improved Fibbers and little did we know a veritable rock n' roll storm was brewing inside. 

Unfortunately we missed the opening band,  but arrived in time for the Rock n' Roll tsunami that is Denmark’s Supercharger, who hit the ground running with 'Hold On Buddy' instantly bringing the heat.  Led by the enigmatic frontman Mikkel, the band's high energy Rock n' Roll was at its most ferocious tonight.

The blazing set continued with the riff laden ‘Rise and Fall’, led the mighty guitars of Thomas Buchwald, who threw out the licks like a madman all night.

The band brought in the big guns with 'Supercharged’, despite a few technical problems for bassist Karsten Dines Johansen, this Rock n' Rollercoaster raced on at breakneck speed, with the band ripping though the set like the devil was two steps behind them.  

The band did bring the tempo down a touch to a stomping pace with a little bluesy number the marvellous ‘Hungover In Hamburg’, which had the York crowd singing-along, before rolling back the years to their 'That’s How We Roll' opus for ‘Rulers Of The Day’, although it was the set's closers ‘Blood Red Lips’, the band's latest single from the new album 'Broken Hearts and Fallaparts’, and 'Hell Motel' that really got the crowd going.  Wrapping up perfectly another great set from the Danes.  If you're looking for the new Wildhearts then look no further than SuperCharger.

With the stage now set for a full on Rock n' Roll party, it finally was time for Stockholm’s Crucified Barbara to hit the stage.  Tonight Mia, Ida, Klara and Nicki stepped up and redefined female rock with one of the most impressive shows we’ve seen this year.

As Stockholm’s finest got the ball rolling with the title track off their latest album ‘In The Red’,  from here on in Mia delivered the punch vocally, as well as throwing out the licks on her Gibson Flying V, with Klara backing things up with her Gibson Explorer 76.  The pair putting on six string display that threw away the myth that girls can't play metal guitar.

The set continued with the superb ‘The Crucifier’ from 'The Midnight Chase' album, led by the bounding drums of  Nicki and the monster bass lines of Ida, before rolling back the years to the debut for ‘Play Me Hard’, with Mia setting the fret board on fire once more.

The girls were really going all out tonight as their tight, no nonsense, high energy Rock n' Roll continued with the superb ‘Sex Action’, before returning to the new album for the anti rape anthem and latest single ‘To Kill A Man’.  The song opened up with those big bass lines of Ida and the big hitting drums of Nicki, before Mia and Klara unleashed some real metal licks, all capped by Mia’s powerful vocals.  I have to say this was definitely one of the highlights of the set for me this one.  

Like SuperCharger before them, the band had a few bass technical issues as mid-way through 'Everything We Need’ Ida’s bass dropped out, but such was the momentum gathered by the rest of the band, they just continued and Ida soon returned and it was all system go once more.

One of the my many favourite tracks off the new album has to be ‘The Ghost Inside’ and live this one really shone.  It was then time to roll back the years to 'The Midnight Chase’ for another high octane lick fuelled slice of Metal with ‘Rock Me Like The Devil’, which had the crowd absolutely jumping from the first chords, as the girls gave us some synchronised head-banging to this one.

The hard hitting rock continued as it was back to the new album for ‘Lunatic #1’, then it was a quick thank you to the support bands before unleashing ‘In Distortion We Trust’, before rounding off their set in style with the raucous anthem ‘I Sell My Kids For Rock N' Roll’.

With the band barely leaving the stage the cheers went out for more.  The chants of "Barbara" echoed around the venue at deafening levels.  Luckily we didn’t have to wait long before Mia returned alone to open up the encore with ‘My Heart Is Black’.  She was soon joined by the rest of the band as they rocked this one to the core.  Next it was back to the new album for what Mia described as her favourite track off the album, the excellent ‘Electric Sky’, before the set and the night was closed out as it started, with an all guns blazing rocker in ‘In To The Fire’.

This was our first taste of the band live and by God it won't be our last! If you haven’t seen this band live yet then you’re missing one of the best all girl bands of all time, every single one of them rocking like they mean it.

On a side note I have to say we're really digging the new look Fibbers, after frequenting this particular venue for the past 12 years, I have to say this new location might just be the winning one to get the punters off their backsides and back to this live music venue.  Let's hope so!

Review by: Barry McMinn & Little Linda

BACK TO MENU

 All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall zine unless otherwise stated and may not be reproduced with prior written permission.