Mark Lanegan live in Athens April 2012

Having seen Mark Lanegan with Isobel Campbell back in December 2010, it was now time to see him by himself. I liked Isobel's music as well as their collaboration. At that concert, a friend of mine, who was a Lanegan fan from the 90's also came and it was she who made that legendary remark: "We came here to see the son of Tom Waits and we got Belle And Sebastian instead. This woman has really mellowed him out". Anyway, in 2012 he released a new album (Blues Funeral) and he paid us his customary visit to Athens, this time at Fuzz Club. The first half of 2012 had been very quiet for me gigwise, as I was saving for the upcoming Bruce Springsteen tour of the following summer, and Mark Lanegan was the only international artist I saw live during that period.

Support was provided by Illegal Operation who I'd seen live before at Blues Bar. (The place where I first saw The Big Nose Attack). And I finally learned what their name was!

 

They played well, and would have played even better (and more) if their amp hadn't blown up. And then it was time for Mark and his band.

He began with songs from the new album and continued with older songs. And he played one more song as an encore.

HOWEVER! Although I wasn't counting, I learned that the gig lasted for only 71 minutes. Nevertheless, he had warned us before he played and he had asked the audience to refrain from smoking. Being typical Greeks, they ignored both. It was obvious that he had a problem.
Once again, at the merchandise stand there was a selection of live CD's self-released by Mark Lanegan on offer and I bought one of a gig that had taken place earlier that year, on the special date of the 29th of February to be precise.

Anyway, personally speaking, I liked Mark live, both with his band and with Isobel. He will be missed...

SETLIST:
01. The Gravedigger's Song
02. Sleep With Me
03. Hit The City
04. Wedding Dress
05. One Way Street
06. Resurrection Song
07. Wish You Well
08. Gray Goes Black
09. Crawlspace
10. Deep Black Vanishing Train
11. Quiver Syndrome
12. One Hundred Days
13. Creeping Coastline Of Lights
14. Riot In My House
15. Ode To Sad Disco
16. St. Louis Elegy
17. Tiny Grain Of Truth
Encore:
18. Pendulum

Recoil live in Athens April 2010

While still in Depeche Mode,  Alan Wilder had already started his personal project, Recoil. And dedicated himself to it after leaving DM. And back in 2010 he released "Selected", which was basically a compilation of tracks from all those years. During the tour to promote it he performed a gig in Athens on Sunday the 11th of April 2010 at Fuzz Club. I should point out first of all that this wasn't an ordinary gig. And I have to mention that because when I uploaded 2 videos on YouTube, somebody made a comment that looked like this: "You must have had an invitation... Recoil who? We paid 28 euros to see a DJSet of a guy playing with his midi and another one who was looking at a laptop? The biggest rip-off I have ever witnessed" (And that was the "clean" version of the comment) It's true that it was basically a DJ set, accompanied by a keyboard. And we should also make it clear that we are talking about electronic music which isn't necessarily pop, ie we're not talking about electro-pop or synth-pop. Some tracks had vocals, from the guest vocalists that Alan had at times used, which on that particular night were pre-recorded. And all these were accompanied by video projections on 3 of the club's 4 walls. Therefore it was more of a show than a gig. And definitely not a concert. (The word "gig" was suggested by one person who commented on the original Greek post). A similar thing happens when Tiesto comes, he doesn't play his tracks live, but instead he's changing records, CD's, or MP3 files, the guy is a DJ!. This would have been the response I would have given to that comment, but somebody else replied with an even better one: "t****z were you aware of the kind of gig you were attending or did you just happen to pass by and went in? There were plenty of videos on youtube from their previous appearances and even Wilder himself had said in an interview that this wasn't going to be a classic "rock'n'roll" concert"... Anyway, as far as the gig was concerned Fuzz Club wasn't full. I don't know if that means that it was considered a "failure", the point was that you could move about freely and drink your beer like a normal person. The audience by the way enjoyed it,  especially, when at some point a snippet of "Never Let Me Down Again" by Depeche Mode was played as we can see in the following video: 

Support was provided by Greek band In Trance 95. They also played electro and in their music you could hear sounds that would have maybe reminded you of Depeche Mode in the 80's. "Recoil:Selected" was available in different formats one of which was a box set with 3 CD's and 1 DVD (which I think featured the videos projected during their tour).

Queensryche live in Athens November 2019

To tell you the truth, I first got interested in Queensryche back in the day, because their name started with "Queen". I was intrigued however by the fact that one of their first songs was called "Queen Of The Reich", paraphrasing the band's name. And then I got to actually listen to them in 1990 when a fellow student who was a heavy metal fan gave me their "Empire" CD for free, simply because he had bought it and... hated it. On first listen, I found it rather boring, (it was probably too prog for me at the time) but I really liked the ballad featured in that album titled "Silent Lucidity". In later years I decided to investigate further and finally managed to track down their "Queen Of The Reich" CD. And now, in 2019 they were coming to Athens, so I wasn't going to miss them.

It was on a Saturday, two days before the Bryan Adams concert, which turned out to be the last big concert in Greece before the lockdown and it was at Fuzz Club, the same venue where my concert year had started with Uriah Heep. There weren't so many people compared to the aforementioned gig, so I found a nice little corner at the back to enjoy it while preserving some energy, since I had two more gigs coming up the following week and one of them was in London.

They played songs from the whole span of their career, including from fan favourite "Operation Mindcrime" but also from my favourites "Queen Of The Reich" and "Empire". In fact they actually played "Queen Of The Reich" and "Silent Lucidity" back to back!

All in all an incredible and highly enjoyable Saturday night with what would turn out to be one of my last gigs before the lockdown...

SETLIST:

01. Blood Of The Levant

02. I Am I

03. NM 156

04. Man The Machine

05. Walk In The Shadows

06. Operation: Mindcrime

07. Condition Hüman

08. Queen Of The Reich

09. Silent Lucidity

10. Jet City Woman

11. Propaganda Fashion

12. The Mission

13. Screaming In Digital

14. Take Hold Of The Flame

Encore:

15. Light-Years

16. Empire

17. Eyes Of A Stranger

Uriah Heep live in Athens

Uriah Heep is another band that I wanted to see live for years. The reason for this was that about 10 years ago they had come to Athens for an acoustic gig, but it was not the kind of gig for which one could buy a ticket. It was organized by a tobacco company and you had to take a part in a survey conducted by that same company in order to get a free invitation and only if after the survey they decided to give you that invitation. Well this time they were coming for a proper, full-electric gig and I was alerted to it by a co-worker. The only problem was that I was not sure if I could make it. I would finish work at 9:30 and Uriah Heep would come on stage at 10:00. Well, for once I decided it was worth the extra expense and I arranged for a taxi to wait for me outside work and take me straight to the venue.
I just made it on time just five minutes before Uriah Heep came up on stage and managed to find my friends in the process. Not only that but it was sold out but that time and we could barely fit into the main hall. I ended up watching a large part of the gig from the lobby, since the doors were open and the sound - and visibility - was just as good as inside.

As an added bonus, when looking to our left, towards the stairs, we could glimpse posters adverising what was to come during the summer!

The band played several tracks fron their latest album. Although with a band that has such a history as Uriah Heep, albums as these, so late in their careers, tend to be dismissed as below par (also taking into account the fact that, if I'm not mistaken, there is only one original member left), the songs they played for us on the night actually sounded quite good. I haven't listened to the full album yet, but my judgement is based on the songs I heard that night, especially the title track ("Living The Dream"). Apart from these, all the other classics were there including "Lady In Black" and "Easy Livin' which ended the main set and the encore respectively.

All in all, it was a long overdue enjoyable night despite all the trouble I had to go through to get there...

SETLIST:
01. Grazed By Heaven
02. Return To Fantasy
03. Living The Dream
04. Too Scared To Run
05. Take Away My Soul
06. Knocking At My Door
07. Rainbow Demon
08. Waters Flowin'
09. Rocks In The Road
10. Gypsy
11. Look At Yourself
12. July Morning
13. Lady In Black
Encore:
14. Sunrise
15. Easy Livin'

Going down to The Dream Syndicate and Dustbowl show

Back in the early 80's The Dream Syndicate debut album "Days Of Wine And Roses" was marketed by their record company alongside the debut album by the Violent Femmes. As something "American" and "alternative". The truth is that each of the two bands has a different and quite distinct sound, but this ad, was the reason for me, who was already listening to the Violent Femmes to explore The Dream Syndicate.

I finally saw the Violent Femmes live 3 years ago and now it was time to see The Dream Syndicate. There was an extra reson for doing so. Support was provided by Dustbowl whom I had seen twice before, three years ago on their Johnny Cash Tribute show and two years ago at the Music Highway Festival previewing their latest album "The Great Fandango".
I arrived at the venue just as Dustbowl had started playing, a setlist mostly based on that very same album. I was glad to hear these songs again now that I'm familiar with "The Great Fandango", an album that according to my own personal list was one of the best albums of 2016.

On top of that, Dustbowl's sound is a perfect match foe the southern rock of The Dream Syndicate.

So the headliners came on stage and we started suspecting that we were in for a special treat when Steve Wynn announced that this was the last date of their European Tour.

Their set was over in 90 minutes and just as we were wondering if that was all, it was followed not by one, but by two lengthy encores.

The only thing that disappointed me was the version of "Medicine Show" they decided to play, but I have to stress out that this is my own personal opinion.

They more than made up for it when they managed to sneak in a Tom Petty tribute within "Boston".

They even played music from their latest album (Yes, they do have a new album out) and even that was one of the highlights of the night.

They finally wrapped things up in the most appropriate way: With "John Coltrane Stereo Blues"

They had played in Athens again in 2013 but I had missed that one. So this night was a dream come true for me...

SETLISTS

Dustbowl

01. Linger On

02. Sweet Flowers And Vine

03. Lay Me Down Easy

04. The Gracious Exile

05. The Mourner

06. Heavy Chain Ball

07. Bread And Soil

08. Strain Of Care

09. The Great Fandango

10. The Boat

11. Billy

The Dream Syndicate

01. Halloween

02. The Circle

03. 80 West

04. Armed With An Empty Gun

05. Like Mary

06. Out Of My Head

07. Filter Me Through You

08. Burn

09. Whatever You Please

10. The Medicine Show

11. How Did I Find Myself Here

12. Forest For the Trees

13. That's What You Always Say

14. The Days Of Wine and Roses

Encore:

15. Glide

16. The Side I'll Never Show

17. Boston (with Tom Petty's "Refugee" snippet)

Encore 2:

18. When The Curtain Falls

19. Tell Me When It's Over

20. John Coltrane Stereo Blues

Live In Athens, April 2016

Imiskoumbria were one of the first Greek hip-hop groups. On the 9th of April they celebrated their 20th anniversary at Fuzz Club in Athens. Support was provided by QB Mix and Sexpyr