Duff McKagan's Loaded

After about a thousand mails back and forth between Ursi and me (thanks!), I got the final approval for the show on the day of the show.

Duff McKagan, formerly of Guns N' Roses, performs at Schüür in Lucerne

I knew it was going to be a late night, so I figured it'd be better to go by car. I rented a smart-for-two and was curious how it would be to drive that thing. The plus: I was never afraid to knock over some pole. When you turn around to look back, you almost already sit behind the car. The minus: The not-quite stickshift. Semi-automatic might be a good thing if we're talking guns, but if I want to shift from 1st to 2nd gear, I want to pull the stickshift back, not push it forward. Not to speak of the awkwardness of switching gears without pushing a clutch (leave foot on gas? Take it off? Seems both works fine). Also, the car shifts back to 1st gear automatically if you stop, which is nice. It also shuts the motor off when you stop to save gas, which is even nicer. If it were a hybrid, it would be very nice, but it's not.

Duff McKagan's Loaded play a live show in Lucerne, Switzerland

So anyway, that was a lot of talk about a car I wouldn't even consider buying (I like my clutch too much), and not so much about the reason for renting it: Duff McKagan's Loaded were playing Schüür in Lucerne. You might remember Duff McKagan as the guy who played bass in Guns N' Roses and more recently, Velvet Revolver.

Duff McKagan's Loaded live on stage

In Loaded, he also sings and plays the guitar. He must be 6-foot-something tall, his mic stand was taller than the roadie who put it up! It was interesting to take a picture because while he's taller than most people, he also seems to be thinner than most of them. The width/height ratio of my camera doesn't take supertall/superslim people into account yet, but it seems to have turned out well.

Punk/rock band Loaded with famous frontman Duff McKagan perform at Schüür in Lucerne

What I liked even more about his looks than his obvious fitness was his hair: Blond hair just reflects light, and light is all I want when I'm taking a picture. Unless the blond hair is on top if the superzealous-uber-fan in front row. That hair reflects the light too, and her head blocks the line of view to the main act from virtually all angles. Seems that in every club with no pit for the photogs, there's a zealous fan in front row that's halfway laying on the stage, and interestingly, they all seem to be blond. Maybe that's the superweapon against photogs when lighting the band only in bloodred light doesn't scare them away?

Duff McKagan of Loaded

Thankfully, red light was not an issue at Schüür: Even though it is a rather small club, they have awesome light which makes the stage look as if it were a big stadium. The guy at the light knobs also seems to know what he's doing, so I got to take many many pics... Editing took almost 5 hours! If you wanna check out the whole gallery, it's here.

Duff McKagan's Loaded

Loaded didn't just look great in that light, they also rocked the place pretty well! They played some Guns N' Roses, some punk covers, and most importantly, stuff off of their latest record, "Sick". They accepted requests from the audience, stating that they wouldn't do any encores but rather just play until they ran out of songs that they knew. And that was the way it was - I got home by half past 2 am... way past train-running time, so it payed off to rent the smart.

Duff McKagan, looking much healthier than in his Guns N' Roses days

On my way home, I got stopped by the cops (hey that was the first time!), and when they'd seen my license they just asked whether I'd consumed any drugs or alcohol, but looks like I looked sober enough that they believed my "nope". I was rather tired though (hey I got a job, ok?), so I just fell into bed and only got around to edit and upload all the pics today. But looking at them... I think it was well worth it! Hope you enjoy :-)