Ejekt Festival 2017 - Day 1 - The Killers & The Kills

Finally, The Killers have made it to Greece. They had made it before, back in 2009 but they never got to perform, as that gig, at Terra Vibe, was cancelled due to "thunderstorms" as Brandon Flowers acknowledged from the stage of this year's Ejekt Festival. As far as I was concerned, it didn't matter as I was already in London to see them (along with Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen) at that year's Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park. When it was announced that they would play in Athens this year it was a long time coming for their Greek fans ("it took us 14 years to get here" said Brandon) and an added bonus for me because I would get to see them for a second time.

We arrived at the venue just before The Kills were due to go onstage, so we had time to wander around Water Square and sample the freebies handed to us by the sponsors. This time they included both food and drink in the form of a new "ready in 5 minutes" noodle product (we went for the curry flavour) and free cokes on entering, but also on leaving the venue.

As we were finishing our noodles The Kills started their set. That was a brilliant idea from the organizers, having The Kills support The Killers! Their stage presence is not surprisingly dominated by their singer, Alison Mosshart. They are primarily a rock band and therefore their set must have hopefully satisfied the traditional Greek rock fans. They were very good on stage, the sound was good and they were the perfect support for that night's headliners. Thouroughly enjoyed it.

And now, it was of course time for The Killers. They came onstage and started playing hit after hit. This time "Human" (my favourite) was not at the beginning of the set as it was back in 2009, thus creating some anticipation. And I got to hear their new song "The Man". Wasn't very excited by it, but it started to grow on me. We'll see how it fares after repeated listens. But the fact that suddenly we heard "All These Things That I've Done" made us realize that the end must have come! Already! Well, the band never played lengthy sets (they only played for 90 minutes at the 2009 Hard Rock Calling Festival compared with Neil Young's 2 hours and Bruce Springsteen's 3 hours) but still, we were enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't realize where the time had gone. I happen to think that they haven't released anything worthwhile since 2009, but I even managed to enjoy "Runaways" this time.

 

Thankfully they came back for an encore with their drummer Ronnie Vannucci dressed in a toga. Brandon promised us that it will not be 14 more years till they come back. It's not up to you Brandon, it's up to the organizers, but still, we appreciate the gesture.

And so The Killers were off (we didn't know it then but they were headed straight to Glastonbury where they performed the following day) and we were also off with the memories of this summer's first great festival. The 2nd day of Ejekt Festival is on July 14 with Kasabian and The Jesus And Mary Chain. But that's another story...

SETLIST:

01. Mr. Brightside
02. Spaceman
03. Somebody Told Me
04. The Way It Was
05. Smile Like You Mean It
06. The Man
07. Human
08. Shadowplay (Joy Division cover)
09. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll
10. For Reasons Unknown
11. A Dustland Fairytale
12. Read My Mind
13. Runaways
14. All These Things That I've Done
Encore:
15. Shot At the Night
16. When You Were Young