Smashing Pumpkins live in Athens July 2024

It's not common to stage an indoor concert in the summer in Greece, but this is what happened with the Smashing Pumpkins. I was going to see them in the summer of 2007 with the Manic Street Preachers at Terra Vibe. This was the perfect combination for me because in my opinion those were the two most important independent bands of the 90's, the former from the USA and the latter from the UK. Unfortunately, due to the massive forest wildfires of that summer the concert was cancelled. There weren't any wildfires near the venue but since Terra Vibe is in a forest it was decided to cancel it in order to prevent another possible wildfire. The years went by, and I finally saw the Manic Street Preachers in 2019 at the Brussels Summer Festival. And last winter when this concert was announced, I realized it was time for me to finally see the Smashing Pumpkins and bought a FOS ticket on the day they were released.

It was indeed a very hot day as I got there and we were promised that the venue would have ventilation although I'm not so sure if that was true. The opening act was Tom Morello. Now I had seen Tom Morello back in 2012 at the Hard Rock Calling Festival supporting (and later in the day playing with) Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band. But that was a different Tom Morello. It was "Tom Morello The Nightwatchman" a more acoustic version. This one was a full-on electric Tom Morello something that I had yet to experience. And that's how the set started: with a song ("I'm A Soldier (In The Army Of Love)) co-written by his son. What's more, his son was on stage as well playing the guitar. Later on we got something we hoped for but were probably not expecting: Bruce's own "The Ghost Of Tom Joad". After all, Rage Against the Machine had covered that song and Tom himself joined Bruce on stage back in 2012 for that same song (and a few more as well). In the course of the set we got, among other things instrumental parts of several Rage Against The Machine songs culminating with "Killing In The Name" where we, the audience, had to provide the vocals. We duly obliged. It all ended with another cover: John Lennon's "Power To The People".

 

 

Afterwards it was of course time for The Smashing Pumpkins. By looking around at the audience it was clear that everyone was feeling the heat by that time. Their set relied heavily on "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" but there were several songs from their other 90's albums that we love so much and were, after all, what the audience had come to listen to. They even covered a U2 song: "Zoo Station". There was only one problem: The sound was awful. I thought at the time that this was a problem only for us who were at the front of the stage but it was also mentioned by other fans on social media posts and on internet reviews of the gig.

It all went well in the end. They played quite a long set and I went home satisfied now that my dream had come true: After the Manic Street Preachers, I had now also seen the Smashing Pumpkins live.

SETLISTS:
TOM MORELLO
01. Soldier In The Army Of Love
02. Vigilante Nocturno
03. Testify / Take The Power Back / Freedom
04. Gossip
05. Let’s Get The Party Started
06. Hold The Line
07. Kick Out The Jams
08. Bombtrack / Know Your Enemy / Bulls On Parade / Guerilla Radio / Sleep Now        In the Fire / Bullet In The Head / Cochise
09. Like A Stone
10. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
11. Killing in the Name
12. Power To The People

SMASHING PUMPKINS
01. The Everlasting Gaze
02. Doomsday Clock
03. Zoo Station
04. Today
05. Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
06. Spellbinding
07. Tonight, Tonight
08. That Which Animates The Spirit
09. Ava Adore
10. Disarm
11. Springtimes
12. Mayonaise
13. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
14. Empires
15. Beguiled
16. 1979
17. Rhinoceros
18. Jellybelly
19. Gossamer
20. Cherub Rock
21. Zero

Scorpions live in Athens October 2010

Back in 2010 Scorpions announced that they were finally disbanding (yeah, right) and that they would come to Athens for one final concert. I had already seen them back in 2006 but some friends wanted to go and I was hoping that this time they would play some songs from their early years, so I went along with them. To my disappointment they did not play anything from the Uli Jon Roth era.

It was raining cats and dogs while we were waiting in line to get in the venue, and that's when I was handed a flyer announcing that Uli Jon Roth was coming with his own band, so I went to that one as well and finally got to hear those older songs.

The Scorpions concert was originally scheduled for the 6th of October of 2010 but it was postponed because singer Klaus Meine was suffering from pharyngitis. It was rescheduled for the 24th of the same month. When we did manage to get in, we were just in time to see the second support act, Firewind, whose guitarist is Gus G, who is also the Greek guitarist of Ozzy whom we had seen a month before at Terra Vibe. We were positively surprised by the cover of Michael Sembello's Maniac which was originally featured in the soundtrack of Flashdance back in the 80's!  

 

At around 21:45 Scorpions were on stage! We heard everything that we expected to hear (such as Wind Of Change, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Still Loving You, Holiday, Blackout, Big City Nights), but, as I have already mentioned, nothing from the Uli Roth era, that is before 1978 such as In Trance and Pictured Life. We heard some of the new - at that time - songs. I had had a chance to listen to what was then their current album and, in my opinion, the best song was "The Best Is Yet To Come". They played it and it was the one song from that album that was best received by the audience. So maybe their fans agreed with me.

 

We were, however, treated to a rather long drum solo from James Kottak who was their drummer at that time...

We all know what happened next. They decided not to disband and they came for 3(!) MTV Unplugged dates (And all 3 were sold out). And, as this time they were "acoustic" I decided to go and see them again. And that's when they finally played "Pictured Life" and "In Trance" in my presence...

 

SETLISTS:

 

FIREWIND
01. Head Up High
02. Destination Forever
03. Angels Forgive Me
04. World On Fire
05. Guitar Solo
06. The Fire And The Fury
07. Till The End Of Time
08. My Loneliness
09. Mercenary Man
10. Maniac
11. I Am The Anger
12. Falling To Pieces

 

SCORPIONS

01. Sting In The Tail
02. Make It Real
03. Bad Boys Running Wild
04. The Zoo
05. Coast To Coast
06. Loving You Sunday Morning
07. The Best Is Yet to Come
08. Send Me An Angel
09. Holiday
10. Wind Of Change
11. Raised On Rock
12. Tease Me Please Me
13. Dynamite
14. Kottak Attack (Drum Solo)
15. Blackout
16. Six String Sting (Guitar Solo)
17. Big City Nights
Encore:
18. Still Loving You
19. Rock You Like A Hurricane

 

The Love Affair Between Scorpions And Greece

To be fair, Greece has a "love affair" with a few other groups as well. The most common example,(after Scorpions) is Puressence (now disbanded). Then it's James, followed by Placebo, even Depeche Mode. All these bands visit Greece on every one of their tours. And if, in the case of Depeche Mode, it can be said that they are popular all over the world, Puressence only have such a big fanbase in Greece (They even used a Greek model on the cover of their latest compilation album). And Scorpions of course. When they were asked to do an "MTV Unplugged" show they immediately asked to do it in Greece. They knew that in no other country would they sell so many tickets, even in the midst of a recession.

So how did this happen? I will try to explain it from my own point of view, they way I've experienced it through my teenage years at school. This was in the 80's (and please put your calculators away). Now school kids in those days would listen to different kinds of music, although Greek music wasn't as popular in those ages as it is now. Disco had been out of fashion several years before, so it wasn't a case of a "rock - disco" rivalry. Probably more of a "rock - pop" rivalry, or a "hard rock - pop" one. Scorpions were considered to be "hard rock" or even "heavy metal" by the Greek teenagers of that era. And there were those who would listen to music from both genres but only one was considered "serious music". So what was considered "serious music" back then? Well, definitely rock, not pop, and only certain groups. Number 1 on the "seriousness" category were The Doors. This was supposed to be because of "the messages" carried in their lyrics, but then again it could be because Jim Morrison was such a big hunk (Well, most of their fans were girls, so I rest my case). Scorpions did not have these big "messages" in their lyrics like The Doors but their lyrics (especially on their slow songs) were all about LOVE and that was enough to make teenage girls weak at the knees. And it was their slow songs that were most popular. Think : "Always somewhere...I'll be back to love you again..." (Everybody now : "Aaaahhhhh!"). Now, what about us boys? Well, those of us who were rock fans would rather listen to AC/DC, Motorhead and Iron Maiden, but Scorpions was the only chance for us to dance "the blues" at parties. So, what do The Scorpions have to do with the blues? Nothing. Neither did Bonnie Tyler or George Michael for that matter. But somewhere along the line something was lost in translation and slow songs of any kind came to be known as "the blues" among teenage Greeks. So, even if we didn't like the Scorpions, WE HAD TO LIKE THEM, because this was our only chance to dance close at parties with a girl ("close" meaning "touching").

Well, all those years later, those teenage boys and girls have grown up, most of them have their own families and responsibilities, many of them probably don't listen to music anymore (well, certainly not rock music) but when they hear that "Scorpions are coming to Greece" something seems to move inside them and they rush out to buy tickets.

So the Scorpions keep on coming to Greece. Somehow though, I always missed them. Even in the 90's when I was studying in Britain, they came for a UK tour and my Greek fellow students asked me to go with them but I couldn't for some reason (Probably I didn't have enough money). Finally in 2006 I decided to go when they came to Athens to play together with Whitesnake (and I must admit I enjoyed Whitesnake more). Well, I thought I was done with them.

The only thing bugging me was that they did not play any songs from their early years with Uli Jon Roth (eg songs like "Pictured Life" and "In Trance"). The next year, 2007, they came again, and they did play songs from that era, but I was abroad to see The Rolling Stones.

Finally, 4 years ago they announced that they were finally disbanding and that they would come to Athens for one final concert. Some friends wanted to go, so I went with them, but once again they did not play anything from their early years.

While waiting in line to get in the venue, I was handed a flyer announcing that Uli Jon Roth was coming with his own band, so I went to that one as well and finally got to hear those songs.

We all know what happened next. They decided not to disband and they came for 3(!) MTV Unplugged dates (And all 3 were sold out). So why did I go? Well, probably because I thought it would be something different playing with acoustic instruments and several guests (one of them was Morten Harket, the singer from A-Ha singing on "Wind Of Change" but I did not recognize him after all these years), probably because the show would be later released on DVD and I would have a souvenir, probably it was just a "WTF?" factor.

MVI_1642 από papdx

But I did go in the end and in a way I was glad because they finally played "Pictured Life" and "In Trance" in my presence...