Release Athens Festival 2025 - Kylie Minogue

As I have already explained on my previous post thanks to Morrissey this was my second unexpected (and free) concert of 2025. I had already seen Kylie Minogue back in 2008 at Terra Vibe Park on her X tour. Having the chance to also see Loreen on the same night was an added bonus. Loreen brought dance music to Eurovision by winning the contest in 2012 with "Euphoria" and proceeded to win it again in 2023 with "Tattoo".

When I arrived at Water Square there was a dj set by DJ Antonis Dimitriadis on. I has happy to hear "Forever Young" which reminded me of the Alphaville concert in March, but also "Yellow" which brought back wonderful memories not of the Coldplay concert in June 2024 as you would expect, but of a wonderful night out in Liverpool a month before that.

While I was waiting for Loreen, I went to have my usual meal at Jackaroo. People will probably accuse me of advertising this fast food chain through my blog, but I can't help it, I love their food, and I was happy for their presence in the summer festivals this year.

As I was finishing my meal I heard Loreen announcing "a song that she had lost count of how many times she has played" and realizing that she meant "Euphoria" I rushed back to the stage. She finished with "Tattoo" her second Eurovision winner.

It was now time for Kylie. I found a place next to a big fan of hers. She came on and she didn't disappoint. As her set progressed we were suddenly transported back to Terra Vibe in 2008. She played "Shocked"! Just as she had done back then! And the hits kept on comin'! After "The Loco-Motion" she treated us to a short acapella snippet of "Where The Wild Roses Grow" and then she went into "Disco" mode playing songs from the album of the same name that had come out during the pandemic. I had not expected to hear any tracks from that album as I was expecting her to mainly promote her latest. However she performed an acoustic version of "Say Something" and a medley of "Supernova / Real Groove / Magic / Where Does The DJ Go".  She even performed one song from her "indie" era, namely "Confide In Me". Towards the end there was the ubiquitous "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", my new favourite "All The Lovers" and ending with "Love At First Sight".

It was big party. And all that thanks to Morrissey. Once again all together now: 'THANK YOU MORRISSEY"!

SETLISTS:

LOREEN

01. Jupiter Drive

02. Forever

03. Gravity

04. Euphoria

05. Is It Love

06. Tattoo

KYLIE MINOGUE

01. Lights Camera Action

02. In Your Eyes

03. Get Outta My Way

04. Good As Gone

05. Spinning Around

06. On A Night Like This

07. Better The Devil You Know

08. Shocked

09. Dancing

10. The Loco-Motion

11. Where The Wild Roses Grow

12. Say Something

13. Supernova / Real Groove / Magic / Where Does The DJ Go?

14. Confide In Me

15. Slow

16. Timebomb

17. Edge Of Saturday Night

18. Tension

19. Can't Get You Out Of My Head

20. All The Lovers

Encore:

21. Padam Padam

22. Love At First Sight

Release Athens Festival 2025 - Supergrass

Green Day at this year's Ejekt Festival was to be my last concert for this summer. So, I wasn't going to go to Release Athens Festival and Water Square this year. Now this would be a first. I wasn't planning to see Morrissey again and the only thing that made me consider this gig were Supergrass who were second on the bill. The only date I wanted to attend was Kylie Minogue a few days later, but I just couldn't afford it. However, thanks to Morrissey, I attended not one, but two Release Athens Festival dates. What happened was this: Morrissey didn't turn up, just as he had done in 2014 when I had gone to see him (he had rescheduled then) so the organizers announced that whoever had a ticket for Morrissey would be entitled to attend another festival date for free. So a friend of mine gave me her Morrissey ticket and so I was able to see both Supergrass and Kylie Minogue!

Before Supergrass however, The Damned appeared. This was an added extra for me as they are considered one of the classic bands of the punk era. In fact, if I am not mistaken, they were the first punk band to release a single. Throughout their career they changed musical styles several times but it was their punk songs I wanted to hear and they did play several of these on the latter part of their set. Unfortunately they suffered from "the curse of the festival setlist" which meant that they had to cut several songs from their usual setlist. One of the songs omitted was their cover of "Alone Again Or" which although it's not a punk song it's my favourite of theirs. At least they played their cover of "Eloise" from roughly the same period. Captain Sensible also acknowledged his solo career when he mentioned "Happy Talk". We said "Captain", he said "Wot?"

When the set ended we rushed back to get some food from Jackaroo which after Ejekt Festival a few days before also provided food to Release Athens Festival!

We then rushed back to the front to see Supergrass who were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their first album. They played all of it plus a few songs from their other ones. They told us that they had expanded their setlist since they didn't expect to be headlining this date and they also made a joke about Morrissey not being able to appear because "he had cut his little finger" (or something like that).

To sum up it was an unexpected and enjoyable night out and all thanks to Morrissey. Thank you Morrissey!

SETLISTS:
THE DAMNED
01. Love Song
02. Machine Gun Etiquette
03. Wait For The Blackout
04. Stranger On The Town
05. Lively Arts
06. The History Of The World (Part 1)
07. I Just Can't Be Happy Today
08. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
09. Fan Club
10. Eloise
11. Life Goes On
12. Beware Of The Clown
13. Neat Neat Neat
14. New Rose
15. Smash It Up
Encore:
16. White Rabbit
17. Ignite

SUPERGRASS
01. I'd Like To Know
02. Caught By The Fuzz
03. Mansize Rooster
04. Late In The Day
05. Mary
06. Strange Ones
07. Sitting Up Straight
08. Alright
09. Time
10. She's So Loose
11. Lenny
12. Sofa (Of My Lethargy)
13. St. Petersburg
14. Richard III
15. Moving
16. Grace
Encore:
17. Sun Hits The Sky
18. Pumping On Your Stereo