It was cold... when I got into my car to start the drive to Stuttgart (gig had been moved to "Goldmark's" club instead of the bigger "Universum" venue next door). It was still cold down in Stuttgart town... but at the club a warm welcome by Micha (promoter), who told me he'd opened doors a bit late, as Ruts DC had arrived late ("only" from Frankfurt, but I know Friday afternoons can be rough on the motorways). When asked how things are going, he told me about the gig the next day ("stoner rock", none of the band names seemed known to me), for which he expects 600 paying visitors (way more than tonight, sadly). I told him it's good he has such "bigger" nights, so he can do the smaller gigs which interest me!!

Had a small beer and waited for the support band to begin.
Loaded are from Mannheim (apparently their frontman is an American) and play some kind of ska-punk, they sounded pretty good and tight.

In the meantime, I met some old mates (veterans of TV gigs and so on)...
Ruts DC started their show with "The Vox Teardrop" from the latest album, of course they played many songs from "The Crack" (40 years old - I bought the vinyl LP 30 years ago!), including
"It was cold" and one of the best punky reggae songs: "Jah War"! Club was pretty full, it was loud and they played very well (Segs & Dave Ruffy are a great rhythm section, Leigh is great on guitar). I was very happy that they performed "Kill the pain", my absolute fave song from recent years!

Encore started with "Babylon's Burning", they thought we'd deserved a long encore and followed it with the reggae "Love in vain" (dedicated to Malcolm Owen and Paul Fox). "Human Punk" and others were played as well. All in all a great gig with a great band, I was glad to see them again (five+ years after their last show here).