Alphaville live in Athens March 2025

In recent years, and especially after the pandemic, there are not many interesting (to my liking) gigs taking place during the winter. For example my last concert in 2023 was Bruce Springsteen in Monza and the first of 2024 was Bruce Springsteen in Cardiff at the Principality Stadium. So the pattern went from 2023 to 2024, from Bruce Springsteen to Bruce Springsteen, from outdoor concert to outdoor concert. Well, that last bit was not absolultely true, since the roof of the Principality Stadium was closed on that day so that the stadium was effectively covered turning it into, technically, an indoor concert. (Te first time I saw Bruce Springsteen at an indoor venue!) And it looked like a similar thing would happen this winter since the last concert of 2024, Mikro, although a winter one, was also an outdoor one at Athens' Syntagma Square. However, a conversation I had at last year's Massive Attack concert with somebody I met there who turned out to be a friend of a friend, would, later in the year, change my mind. He was telling me about how, when he was in LA several years ago, he came across an Alphaville gig that was taking place there. So, when it was announced that Alphaville would play in Athens, I took that as a sign. Which meant that I would have to go.

As the day of the gig was closing in, I decided to catch up with Alphaville from where I left them back in 1985. At that time I had decided to move away from what in those days was called "eurodisco" and focus on British synth-pop. So I never got past their first album although I remembered the second and vaguely the third (along with some of their corresponding singles) being displayed at Greek record stores. During the pandemic I had ordered those two albums as they were released in deluxe editions and now it was time to listen to them.

When the ides of March finally came (yes, the gig was on the 15th) I went to Floyd to see Alphaville live!

There were no support acts so it would start with Alphaville. My first impression was one of surprise when I realized that the venue was full. As I've said countless times on this blog, it's rock gigs that attract Greek concertgoers so  I was not sure how a synth-pop one would go down with them. Then the gig started and more surprises were in store. They started with a b-side, "Golden Feeling" which was the flip side of "Jet Set" which they didn't play. Then I realized how much their lead singer, Marian Gold has changed after all these years. If you look closely behind that beard, you will recognize him, though!

Another surprise is that they're not strictly a synth-pop band anymore. They rely a lot on guitars now as we realized when "Big In Japan" was played very early in the set and after Marian had introduced the song with the story behind it. They have inserted a guitar solo into the song! I was thinking of jumping up and down shouting "THERE'S NO GUITAR SOLO ON BIG IN JAPAN!". And during that same song I had the impression that the singer could not hit the high notes anymore. I can't be absolutely certain about this, because I could hear some high notes but they were not coming from him. They were coming from the admittedly very good female backing singers.

Because of that, I thought that this was going to be the first bad review I was going to write on this blog for a gig I had attended but the bad impression was somehow softened by the rest of the set and me reflecting back on the gig during the days that followed. The rest of the singles from the first album ('Sounds Like A Melody" and "Forever Young") were played quite late in the set, but they played quite a few songs from the second and third albums, the highlight of which was "Red Rose" that he sang as a duet with his daughter Lily.

 

 

The final impression was a good one as it usually happens with 80's reunions which was what this gig really was. You could tell that by the people's faces although there were quite a lot of young ones who had probably learned "Big In Japan" from their parents.

SETLIST:
01. Golden Feeling
02. Wishful Thinking
03. Dance With Me
04. Big In Japan
05. Romeos
06. Call Me
07. Sensations
08. Heaven On Earth (The Things We've Got To Do)
09. Carry Your Flag
10. I Die For You Today
11. The Mysteries Of Love
12. To Germany With Love
13. Red Rose (Duet with Lily Becker, Marian Gold's daughter)
14. A Victory Of Love
15. Sounds Like A Melody
16. Forever Young
Encore:
17. State Of Dreams