The PAP DX Blog: Hooters live in Athens June 2025

Monday, 28 July 2025

Hooters live in Athens June 2025

I had only bought three records by the Hooters: My three favourite singles of theirs, "All You Zombies", "Johnny B". and "Satellite". I thought these were big hits (at least "Johnny B" was a big hit in Greece), but as I found out while researching them in the run up to this gig, they weren't. Not in America where some of them peaked just below the top 40. As a result, their record company would not promote them and they had to disband after a few years. As it usually happens they reformed in the 21st century. And since I loved these songs so much combined with the fact that they also played ska and Irish sounding music made me consider going to see them. What finally convinced me to go was that a friend of mine also wanted to see them which meant that I bought the ticket on the very morning of the day of the gig.

This was supposed to be an outdoor gig taking place at Technopolis. But when Blind Guardian who were due to appear at Lycabettus Theatre were moved to Technopolis, Hooters were bumped into good old Gagarin which is of course an indoor venue. Thankfully, it was air-conditioned unlike Peace And Friendship Stadium during last years's Smashing Pumpkins concert.

There was no support act, so once we got there we were just waiting for Hooters to appear. And when they did, they were introduced by one of their crew. Apparently, this gig was the opening date on their current 45th anniversary tour.

They began with their early ska stuff, added in a few new songs as they said, continued with what I call their Irish sounding ones and somewhere in the midst of all these the hits came. "Johnny B", being their biggest hit in Greece received the warmest welcome, but what I found impressive was the introduction to, and in fact the whole presentation of "All You Zombies" with the big gong behind the synthesizers. And as expected, there was a big celebration, a big party, with "Satellite", owing to its rousing chorus, a party which culminated with "And We Danced".

But what stood out, what made this gig memorable and what we'll look back on in years to come when we remember it, was what I call the 'unexpected covers" (which of course might have been totally expected by those who had followed the Hooters' progress through their years and check out their setlists). The first one was the much beloved "The Boys Of Summer", originally by Don Henley. Later on, it was The Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", Joan Osborne's "One Of Us", and at almost the very end it was Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time". And somewhere among all these they even played us a bit of "Zorba's Dance".

And so, our time in the well air conditioned Gagarin came to an end even if we had to go to an indoor venue at the end of June. Now it was time go outdoors... and abroad!