The Sonics supported by Down & Out live in Athens December 2010

For the third consecutive day, a third consecutive gig, this time at Gagarin for The Sonics, on Friday the 3rd of December. The Sonics had been around since the 60's. I learned about them in 1989 when I heard "Have Love Will Travel" albeit covered by Crazyhead (an alternative band of that era). They had also come to Greece the previous year, in 2009, again at Gagarin, and I hadn't gone to see them. "I hope they come again" I thought. "But, they've been around since the '60's and are still playing live in 2010? They must be very old". And indeed they were!  However, The Sonics weren't the only reason why I went to Gagarin that night. I also went to see Down & Out, the Greek opening act, whose drummer was Little Tonnie a fellow member of No Surrender (a Greek community of Bruce Springsteen fans). This was the first time I saw his band live and later I followed him with his next one The Big Nose Attack who are a regular feature of this blog.

 

They played a very nice set and we were pleasantly surprised when they finished it with their own rendition of Prince's Kiss.

In the foyer their CD was on sale along with a 7 inch vinyl single  (which can easily fit inside a woman's handbag). Then, it was the turn of The Meanie Geanies, another Greek band comprising 4 women and a drummer of unknown gender, hidden behind his own hairstyle, who were playing a pure 60's garage rock style.

(The sound of their keyboards alone is enough to send you 60 years back in time). And finally it was time for The Sonics, with their own 60's garage-rock style with all our (their) favourite songs (eg Have Love Will Travel, The Witch) and several other rock'n'roll standards.

And, as far as Gagarin was concerned, it seems that you don't have to stay home in order to smoke suspicious substances. You just go to Gagarin and breathe deeply instead. And it's free! (OK, you'll have to pay 30 Euros for the gig ticket)

SETLIST:
01. He's Waitin'
02. Money (That's What I Want)
03. Cinderella
04. Have Love, Will Travel
05. Vampire Kiss
06. Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark
07. Boss Hoss
08. You've Got Your Head On Backwards
09. Don't Back Down
10. Lucille
11. Cheap Shades
12. The Hustler
13. Bad Attitude
14. Strychnine
15. Shot Down
16. Dirty Robber
17. Psycho
Encore:
18. Louie Louie
19. The Witch
20. Keep a Knockin'

Bring On Your Wrecking Ball - 10 Years Later

 

10 years ago, on the 6th of March 2012, one of the most important albums in my collection was released: Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball". We knew there was going to be a new album since late 2011 when the world tour had been announced but we didn't know what the album was going to be like. There were many people who dismissed it as a bad album because (in their own words) "Bruce doesn't release any good music anymore", in fact there are many who still do (dismiss it as a bad album that is). Nothing could be further from the truth as I pointed out in my original review of the album which was the first post written in English on this blog (because my friends from the social media asked for it) and prompted me to convert my blog into an "English speaking" one since January of the following year, 2013.

My opinion on the Bruce Springsteen albums since 2007's "Magic" is a very specific one. First of all, going back to 2002, I think all fans agree that "The Rising" is a great album. I will not examine "Devils + Dust" and "The Seeger Sessions" because the former is a "solo" album (ie without the E Street Band) and the latter is a completely different project. So, it's clear that we're talking about albums with the E Street Band here. And from Magic onward a specific pattern seems to have emerged : One especially good album followed by a "not so good" one.

Let's examine this: I think most fans agree that "Magic" is a very good album, what with its depiction of Bush-era America et al. This was followed in early 2009 by "Working On A Dream" which consisted of songs written on the road during the previous year's tour and seemed to serve as a companion to the following year's tour. In fact, after the first few dates of that tour, Bruce dropped most songs from the album keeping only two: the title track and "Outlaw Pete". In the same manner, "Wrecking Ball" which was indeed a good album (and I'm going to remind you why that was soon) was followed by 2014's "High Hopes" which featured some older outtakes, new versions of older tracks recorded during the previous year's tour (though we were finally glad to have an electric version of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" and a studio version of "American Skin"), and seemed to serve as a companion to the following year's tour...

So, back to "Wrecking Ball". It is indeed a great album. When the title was announced we realized that we knew one of the songs: The title track had already been released back in 2009 in a live version from Giants Stadium. One year later it was also released in a physical format as a 10 inch vinyl single. However, when we actually heard the album, a few days before it was released we realized what it was about. And it had come out at the right time: Bruce had written these songs about the recession in the United States, but by reading the lyrics we realized that he could just have written them about Greece, a country that was suffering from austerity measures at the time. And that made us look forward with even more anticipation to the European tour which, for some of us, would begin on the 10th of June in Florence which turned out to be a night to remember, for a totally different reason... There will hopefully be more about that in June when the 10th anniversary of that tour comes. In the meantime, you can read my original review of the album again which you can find at this address : http://papdx.blogspot.com/2012/03/bring-on-your-wrecking-ball_05.html. There's no need to repeat it here. As I re-read it myself after all these years, I realized that I needn't change a single word...