Release Athens Festival 2022 - Bauhaus & The Jesus And Mary Chain

I was still nervous about going to a festival and mingling with huge crowds of people. However I had decided that four dates of this year's Release Athens Festival were the ideal ones for me to return to proper concerts. The idea was this: They were open air gigs, the pandemic had somehow slowed down, so all I had to do was not go to the very front and experience them from somewhere at the back. The only thing that I insisted on was that I was not going to buy the tickets until the very last minute. You see, most of these acts had been announced for 2020 (Bauhaus and Pet Shop Boys for instance), then postponed for 2021 and then again rescheduled for 2022. That wasn't the main problem though. What was annoying was that the people who had bought the tickets back in 2019 were not offered a refund. What they got instead was the promise that their tickets would remain valid for the date the gig actually took place. Whereas the money I had paid for a festival at London's Hyde Park was refunded to me up to the very last penny. Plus I couldn't be sure, even if most concerts went ahead that the ones I had selected would actually take place because what we've seen a lot this year was that if one member of a band tested positive the whole date was cancelled.

I had actually contemplated going to see Still Corners earlier in the year, but I backed out of it because it was at an indoor venue. So, I narrowed it down to four Release Athens festival dates: Bauhaus, London Grammar, Pet Shop Boys and Iggy Pop. An additional thing that also helped was that there were some "two-day" ticket offers costing cheaper than buying two single tickets for the same dates instead. So, I bought one two day ticket for Bauhaus and Iggy Pop, and another one for London Grammar and Pet Shop Boys.

When I arrived at Water Square, I realized I could go ahead with my plan: Get in, not wear a mask and stay at the back. It helped, because there weren't as many people there that day as on other dates even though I didn't arrive early because all I wanted to see was just The Jesus And Mary Chain and Bauhaus. When I did get in, it was like not one day had passed since 2019. I met most of my friends that I usually meet at gigs at Water Square, most of whom I hadn't seen since 2019.

The Jesus And Mary Chain finally started their set. I had seen them at the exact same place five years ago, back in 2017. Although I preferred the setlist they played back in the day, all the favourites were still here.

After the JAMC set was over and while waiting for Bauhaus I started chatting to someone whose face looked quite familiar. He was Johnny Highway from the Greek band Mr.Highway Band that I've seen at least three times live!

And then it was time for Bauhaus, the main reason I went to the gig. Their date had also been announced three years ago for 2020 and I had thought of going even then. I remember listening to Bauhaus and The Birthday Party on the radio and reading about them in POP + ROCK magazine during the early eighties. And since I managed to see Nick Cave four years ago (who in the intervening years had become extremely popular in Greece), I also wanted to see Bauhaus.

Now, I knew beforehand that their set wasn't going to be very long. But as everybody knows by now those sound problems came up, irritating Peter Murphy and cutting their set even shorter. He left the stage during Ziggy Stardust leaving his guitarist to finish the song. However, all the songs I wanted to hear were played (Telegram Sam, She's In Parties, Ziggy Stardust and a couple of others). Because of that, unlike others, I'm not going to complain or ask for my money back because I've seen what I wanted to see, I've experienced what I wanted to experience.

 

I did end up wearing a mask in the end but only while getting out of the venue where there were a lot of people around me. And finally, this was the last gig for my then current camera which after showing some problems with the extraction of the lens, had to be retired, at least from concert use. A new, but similar one, featuring a retractable display screen to facilitate taking selfies would be used from the next gig...

 

SETLISTS:

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
01. Amputation
02. Head On
03. I Love Rock 'N' Roll
04. April Skies
05. Come On
06. Moe Tucker
07. Taste Of Cindy
08. Snakedriver
09. Teenage Lust
10. Cracking Up
11. Halfway To Crazy
12. Far Gone And Out
13. Nine Million Rainy Days
14. Some Candy Talking
15. Darklands
16. Just Like Honey
17. All Things Must Pass
18. Reverence

BAUHAUS
01. Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores
02. Double Dare
03. In The Flat Field
04. A God In An Alcove
05. In Fear Of Fear
06. Stigmata Martyr
07. She's In Parties
08. Kick In The Eye
09. Bela Lugosi's Dead
Encore:
10. Telegram Sam
11. Ziggy Stardust

 

Ejekt Festival 2017 - Day 2 - Kasabian & The Jesus And Mary Chain

So it was finally time for the 2nd day of Ejekt Festival. And all this on a night before a flight abroad for another concert (This was not the first time I was attending Ejekt Festival on a day before a trip abroad. The previous one was ten years ago under rather disastrous circumstances)

But it would all start with Peter Hook And The Light who I had already seen at the same festival at the same venue 4 years ago back in 2013. This time they were playing "Unknown Pleasures". I wasn't sure if I could make it on time to see them but I finally did. They had just started playing when I arrived at the venue. I saw most of their set and I was there for "She's Lost Control" and that would have been enough for me. 

The set ended of course with "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

 

I managed to find my friends and after their set I ventured around the venue for the usual freebies. These included the usual cokes, (I went around the entrance several times to get more of them), but this time I tried a different flavour of the noodle product. The added extra this time was that someone in the company of our friends was there with an invitation from Heineken, one of the sponsors, so we got free beers as well!

The time for The Jesus And Mary Chain set was approaching and we managed to get well up front. They were the main reason I attended this second day of the festival after all. And they didn't disappoint. Their set sounded like a "Greatest Hits" package most of the time. What did disappoint was the sound, something we had already noticed during the Peter Hook And The light set.

 

We stayed at the front for Kasabian, although they were almost half an hour late in appearing. I had already started worrying about my flight the following day.

When they did appear though, we were rewarded with a set that spanned most of their career, not just their latest album (which is pretty good by the way). They still played "Empire" which I had first heard at Wembley back in 2009. Plus they also played 3 songs from my favourite album "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum". It's my favourite, because it was during that tour that I had first seen them.

 One of the songs from that album, "Fire" was the last of the night. I had started to withdraw towards the exit (grabbing another free Coke in the process) in order to catch the last tram and that's when I realized something I could not see while I was upfront. The crowd was not a huge one. Not as huge as you would expect to find at a Kasabian gig in Greece anyway. It's a pity because Kasabian are one of the few bands that play here on each one of the tours like Depeche Mode.

All's well that ends well. The festival was completed, I caught the tram and this time, as opposed to 10 years ago, it didn't crash. So the Ejekt curse has been lifted! In fact, when I saw that the tram was 15 minutes away I caught the one going in the opposite direction. A couple of stops later I got off, and then got on the right one. In this way, I managed to avoid the congestion at the tram stop and get a seat for the long ride to the centre of Athens. From there I had another night bus ride and a short taxi ride to my house. I didn't get any sleep because in a couple of hours I had to leave for the airport and my flight to Rome to see U2. But that's another story, coming up on my next blog post...

SETLISTS:

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
01. Amputation
02. April Skies
03. Head On
04. Far Gone and Out
05. Between Planets
06. Blues From a Gun
07. Always Sad
08. Mood Rider
09. All Things Pass
10. Some Candy Talking
11. Halfway to Crazy
12. Nine Million Rainy Days
13. Just Like Honey
14. You Trip Me Up
15. The Living End
16. War on Peace
17. I Hate Rock 'n' Roll
18. Reverence

KASABIAN
01. Ill Ray (The King)
02. Bumblebeee
03. Eez-Eh
04. Underdog
05. Shoot the Runner
06. You're in Love With a Psycho
07. I.D.
08. Club Foot
09. Re‐Wired
10. Treat
11. Empire
12. Bless This Acid House
13. Stevie
14. Put Your Life on It
15. L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)
Encore:
16. Comeback Kid
17. Vlad the Impaler
18. Fire