More than two weeks after my first Release Athens Festival 2022 gig, it was now time for the second one. The headliners were London Grammar. London Grammar were due to appear at Release Athens Festival 2018, but they had to cancel at the last minute. So, Richard Ashcroft was called in to replace them and I went because I wanted to see him. And now that London Grammar were finally due to perform in Athens, a friend of mine asked me to go with her because she really wanted to see them since she hadn't been able four years ago. I was reluctant at first, not being familiar with the band, started to think about it again when LP was added to the line-up, but was finally convinced when the next addition to the bill were Hooverphonic. Now, I had seen Hooverphonic twice before (the second time in their native Belgium), but this time it was different. The original singer, the amazing Geike had come back. I really had to see her. And so I bought the latest CD from London Grammar (that's what I do, I don't stream, I'm old-school) in order to familiarize myself with their music.
I took my brand new camera with me (this was the concert where it would make its debut) and we arrived at Water Square a little before Hooverphonic were due to appear. Not a lot of people had arrived by that time so I was able to see them from quite up close. All the favourites were played including my own favourite song of theirs, "Sometimes" (the song with which I discovered them) which I was finally able to hear in a proper version (compared to the acoustic one I heard back in 2014) and "The Wrong Place" Belgium's entry on the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest.
Next up was LP. I, as like most people in Greece, got to know her through "Lost On You" and I'm mostly familiar with that song. Her later songs probably didn't get as much promotion. The start of the set was great, but we got tired after a while, probably because we weren't very familiar with most songs and partly because maybe this wasn't the right slot for her in the line-up. I believe Hooverphonic would have been more suitable to appear before the headliners because their music seems to "gel" more with that of London Grammar. (And perhaps she would have fit the bill better a few days later with Liam Gallagher and Iggy Pop). So we moved towards the back of the crowd on order to combine the alcohol we had brought from home with the cokes that were offered at the festival.
Anyway, it wasn't her fault and she was very energetic on stage, closing the set with the song most people expected to hear: "Lost On You".
And then it was time for London Grammar and the occasion that I had hoped to avoid. We realized that we had the chance to get really close to the stage. So what should we do? Well, we wore our masks. We noticed that there were other people doing the same thing and nobody was looking at them in a strange way, so we went for it.
This was the band's first gig outside the UK for three years (due, of course, to the pandemic) and they enjoyed it as much as we did. They played mostly songs from their latest album and that was alright with me because these were the ones I was mostly familiar with.
By the time my second Release Festival date ended and we started to walk towards the bus stop that would take us to the city center, one thing was certain: London Grammar had a new fan now!
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SETLISTS:
HOOVERPHONIC
01. You Love Me to Death
02. The Wrong Place
03. Vinegar & Salt
04. 2Wicky
05. Sometimes
06. Anger Never Dies
07. Romantic
08. Eden
09. Jackie Cane
10. The Night Before
11. Expedition Impossible
12. No More Sweet Music
13. Lift Me Up
14. Badaboum
15. Mad About You
LP
01. When We Touch
02. Goodbye
03. Girls Go Wild
04. Everybody’s Falling In Love
05. When We're High
06. Yes
07. How Low Can You Go
08. The One That You Love
09. Can’t Let You Leave
10. Muddy Waters
11. My Body
12. Safe Here
13. No Witness
14. Strange
15. Special
16. Dreamer
17. One Last Time
18. Lost on You
LONDON GRAMMAR
01. Californian Soil
02. Missing
03. Hey Now
04. Lord It's a Feeling
05. Talking
06. I Need The Night
07. How Does It Feel
08. Baby It's You
09. Big Picture
10. Hell To the Liars
11. Wasting My Young Years
12. Strong
13. Metal & Dust
Encore:
14. Lose Your Head
15. Lose Your Head (Camelphat Remix)
