{"id":26274,"date":"2025-03-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=26274"},"modified":"2025-03-17T11:19:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T11:19:29","slug":"the-chuck-norris-experiment-deathtraps-trigger-mcpoopshute-abertillery-the-mitre-15th-march-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=26274","title":{"rendered":"The Chuck Norris Experiment\/Deathtraps\/Trigger McPoopshute \u2013 Abertillery, The Mitre \u2013 15th March 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Ahhh\u2026a Saturday night out in The Mitre, back in my old hometown of Abertillery. It must be a good three decades since I last stumbled up the stone steps that lead into this venue on a Saturday night, and during that time the building has changed hands many times over, even becoming an Indian restaurant at one point. Most recently though it\u2019s reopened as a community-run pub (hosting events like still-life art classes and book clubs alongside weekend live music gigs) priding itself on being quirky, a little bit weird, and 100% inclusive, and you probably won\u2019t be surprised to hear that some of the people helping make all of this happen are also involved in the town\u2019s hugely popular annual SlugFest event\u2026.and that ladies and gentlemen is why for the second (and final) night of Swedish punk rockers (and friends of SlugFest) The Chuck Norris Experiment\u2019s most fleeting of UK visits they have chosen to play Abertillery and not some handy airport city location in preparation for their return flight home.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Before we get to tonight\u2019s headliners though we have a mighty fine undercard to enjoy, and first up we have Abertillery\u2019s finest back door rock \u2018n\u2019 roll outfit and inhuman drinking machines Trigger McPoopshute. Recently reunited with original drummer Pix, we are but a dropped drumstick into opener \u2018Hench\u2019 and already it\u2019s like he\u2019s never been away, all the old faves (or \u201cshits\u201d as frontman Sutton lovingly refers to them) are back, and seeing as most of the set list is written about some of Abertillery\u2019s most notable characters how could they ever go wrong playing a homer?  \u2018Sergeant Fitta\u2019 is the obvious exception to that songwriting rule, penned as a tribute to Chuck Dakota, bass player of tonight\u2019s headline act, it\u2019s rather heartening to see the soon to be birthday boy stood in the crowd singing along to every one of Trigger\u2019s Aber anthems. \u2018American Manc\u2019 makes a welcome return to the set tonight too and not having played this beauty in years it\u2019s one of the night\u2019s highlights even if guitarist Shov\u2019s \u201cfucking jackpot\u201d backing vocals are sadly missing.  With the promise of the band\u2019s first new material in quite some time set to be premiered at upcoming shows I for one hope what we do get is an answer to the conundrum posed by Trigger guitarist Dean midway through tonight, asking \u201chave you ever seen gulls in trees?\u201d Hmmm, let me think about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up in double quick fashion are Deathtraps. With Veej, Fraser, Matty and Nooman now four albums, numerous compilations and EPs into their sonic crusade, this is a band who have now evolved to the point where their awesomely titled \u2018Lust For Likes\u2019 and \u2018Golden Age of Road Rage\u2019 CDs are without question their most accomplished releases to date. It should come as no surprise then that the songs from these EPs make up a large chunk of the band\u2019s current set list with \u2018You\u2019re The One That I\u2019m Talking About\u2019 along with the likes of \u2018Private Vietnam\u2019, \u2018You\u2019re A Rat\u2019 and \u2018Your Time Is Gonna Come\u2019 all custom made to shake the foundations of a music venue near you soon. That\u2019s not to say that the \u201coldies\u201d like \u2018Cool Kids\u2019 and \u2018Red Eyes Black Kisses\u2019 are slouches though, no way, in fact by the time we reach the latter Chuck Dakota has been joined by stage sidekick and singer Chuck Ransom and both are nodding along like proper Deathtraps fanboys. When playing SlugFest Deathtraps always try to add in a special cover version or two, and tonight is no exception with Trigger frontman Sutton joining them for a boisterous \u2018Denim Demon\u2019 before Chuck Dakota himself is lured up onto the stage for a raucous \u2018I Got Erection\u2019. Now if you\u2019d told me three decades ago I\u2019d be singing along to tongue in cheek homo-erotic classics like this in The Mitre on a Saturday night, I\u2019d have called you crazy, but let\u2019s get it on. Because I like it, love it, like it, love it. (ahem\u2026I\u2019ll get my coat)<\/p>\n\n\n

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It’s a full ten years since The Chuck Norris Experiment first flew in from Gothenburg to entertain the Abertillery faithful at SlugFest 8, and a lot has changed in that time, however the fact that Chuck Dakota chooses to wear a Sick Livers (who were also on the SlugFest bill back then) t-shirt on stage tonight speaks volumes for how much influence and impact the event has had on people\u2019s lives over the years, and along the way helped raise lots of money for local charities too. The Chuck Norris Experiment get this 100% and like I said at the top of this review that\u2019s why they are here tonight after playing the sold-out Hard Rock Hell Spring Ball in Great Yarmouth with the likes of Love\/Hate and New Generation Superstars the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Unfortunately, guitarist Chuck The Ripper isn\u2019t along for the ride this time around due to him being unwell (get well soon fella), but that doesn\u2019t stop his four CNE bandmates creating one hell of a party atmosphere during their allotted hour on stage playing songs from their 2024 album \u201920\u2019 like the frantic \u2018Deadshot\u2019 and broodingly sinister \u00a0\u2018Jason Voorhees\u2019 alongside oldies like \u2018The Roof Is About To Cave In\u2019 and \u2018Bullshit City\u2019 as their set morphs into Chuck Dakota\u2019s unofficial early fortieth birthday party complete with cake and a pre-taped Swedish Happy Birthday celebratory song piped over the venue\u2019s pa. \u00a0There\u2019s plenty of time for some choice cuts from 2021\u2019s \u2018This Will Leave A Mark\u2019 album too along with \u2018Crashing Down The Stairs\u2019 from 2019\u2019s \u2018Shortcuts\u2019 record but as there is also have a strict 11 O\u2019clock curfew to respect audience requests are kept to a bare minimum. This way CNE bow out bang on cue with an incendiary \u2018You Go Boom!\u2019 and just like that, it\u2019s all over, and we\u2019re left with a frantic dash for the merch table for some cut price vinyl and t-shirts as there\u2019s no venue commission levy here that\u2019s for sure folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, a truly top-notch night of musical entertainment held in a venue that I hope goes from strength to strength in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahhh\u2026a Saturday night out in The Mitre, back in my old hometown of Abertillery. It must be a good three decades since I last stumbled up the stone steps that lead into this venue on a Saturday night, and during that time the building has changed hands many times over, even becoming an Indian restaurant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[3197,104,1713,1422],"class_list":["post-26274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-cne","tag-deathtraps","tag-punk-rock-n-roll","tag-trigger-mcpoopshute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26279,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26274\/revisions\/26279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}