Italia 2014 - 3 gigs in 3 days - Day 2 - Arcade Fire in Rome

I've been meaning to see Arcade Fire live since The Suburbs album, but never quite had the chance. I remember there was a great gig that I missed at Hyde Park in 2010? Or was it 2011? Anyway, I was lucky that they were playing the day after The Rolling Stones, in the same city.
So first thing in the morning I had to move to another hostel closer to the train station (Roma Termini) as opposed to Circo Massimo. Then I had to figure out how to get to Ippodromo Delle Capannelle. All I knew was that Bruce Springsteen had played there last year. So as soon as I had identified the proper train to take, I was on my way there.

The first thing I noticed once I got out at the station was that the place was quite outside Rome. Plus the venue was quite a few minutes walk from the station.

 

There would be night buses going back to the city though and I identified the correct bus stop. As soon as I got to the venue though, I found a kiosk from which I could buy a ticket back to the city, on a special last train, after all the other trains had gone. So, with no worries about heading back I was ready to have a beer, walk around the venue and enjoy the gig.

First on the stage were the support band, Antibalas, "a Brooklyn-based afrobeat band that is modeled after Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra" as they are described in Wikipedia.

And then it was time for what we were all waiting for: Arcade Fire. So there they were on stage but... wait a minute that's not them! That's a fake band wearing "bobbleheads". 

We realize that just as the real Arcade Fire get up on stage kicking the fake ones out. "I'm sorry, they keep doing that" says Win Butler before the band launch into "Normal Person" from the new album "Reflektor". 

 

And yes, the new album is as good or even better than "The Suburbs". I never expected to say this, but testament to that is the response the title track receives from the audience when it's played next. 

And yes, they play "The Suburbs" and "Ready To Start" but the song from the previous album that gets the crowd dancing is "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) at the end of the proper set.

It's not a gig anymore, it's a party. And yes there are some effects like the Reflektor robot, but these complement the music, they're not meant to grab your attention away from it. And that's the precise moment that I realize that we're never going to see this band in Greece...

And so the encore kicks off with a guest appearance by the Pope! Unfortunately it's a fake one with a bobblehead and I think it was Win Butler behind the mask. 

But then the party continues with "Here Comes The Night Time".

So it was over and then there was the long(ish) walk back to the train station with the other fans as in the end we gathered sitting on the platform waiting for the train. And on the opposite platform were those who were going to the airport.

And upon coming back to the hostel, I realized that it was full of Arcade Fire fans, who had come to Rome for the concert. As I was sitting in the lobby drinking my beer, there were people playing Reflektor on their mobiles and explaining about Arcade Fire to those that didn't know them...

Setlist:
Rebellion (Lies)
(intro played by fake band)01.Normal Person
02. Reflektor
03. Flashbulb Eyes
04. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
05. Rebellion (Lies)
06. Joan Of Arc
07. Month of May
08. The Suburbs
09. Ready To Start
10. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
11. No Cars Go
12. We Exist
13. Afterlife
      (w/ 'My Body Is a Cage' intro)
14. It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
      (Régine on B-stage)
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
      ('Damian Taylor Remix' intro)
Encore:
Pie Jesu
(played over PA, with Pope bobblehead)16. Here Comes the Night Time
17. Keep the Car Running
18. Wake Up

Italia 2014 - 3 gigs in 3 days - Day 1 - The Rolling Stones in Rome

My yearly trip to Italy was originally planned for this concert. (I have already given a brief review here). But, as I do every time I go to a concert abroad, I looked at the listings around that date, to check if there was anything else I'd like to see nearby. And there was. In fact two of them, Arcade Fire and Motorhead in the two days following The Rolling Stones. But more about these later, in my next posts...

So, it seems that the Rolling Stones concert was the big event for Rome this year. It was taking place on a historic site (Circo Massimo) and although I've been to several Bruce Springsteen concerts in Italy (one of them in Rome) which normally attract huge crowds, I've never seen road closures to such an extent. I was able to walk from the Colosseum to the Circo Massimo in the middle of the road. It's like the historic centre of Rome was brought to a standstill.

Nevertheless, we arrived early and managed to get close to the stage. (No roll calls, this wasn't Bruce Springsteen!). And then came the long wait. It was quite a hot day, but it wouldn't be so bad if people were not walking back and forth trying to get to a better position within an area that was already too crowded. (So crowded, that even those people selling beer would not reach us. And this was the biggest problem of all!) On the other hand, it would not do much good to complain about that, remember, this was an open air concert (I still remember the lady from the couple sitting (actually lying) next to me who would complain each time (ie all the time!) somebody would step on the edge of her blanket and move her umbrella from its proper place!).

Anyway, the time DID pass and it was time for John Mayer to get onstage. He was quite good actually and he was clearly thrilled to be there, but when you're waiting to see the Stones, you tend to find most support bands a bit boring.

It was almost time for the Stones now. While waiting we were noticing a lot of activity in the VIP sections. Could that, for example, be Dan Akroyd in the stetson?

So the Stones where on stage and I realize it's probably the first time I'm seeing 70-year olds playing live. With no new album to promote this is going to be a "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" show (actually a "Grrr!" one), so it looks very promising. (The "new" song "Doom And Gloom" is of course played). And there are actually a few surprises: "Streets Of Love" which I did not hear on The Bigger Bang tour is played! And since they haven't played many ballads on the shows that I have attended, the addition of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" during the encore is a bonus for me. (There was a rumour circulating in the Greek music press back in 1998 when they played Athens that Mick didn't want to play "Angie" anymore but this was probably untrue judging by the setlists that I've checked and the DVD's that I watched).

The second surprise of the night is "Out Of Control" from "Bridges To Babylon" which brings back memories of the Athens concert in 1998.

The night's request is "Respectable" which sees John Mayer coming back on stage to join them.

The songs that one always expects to hear on a Stones show are of course played (for example "Gimme Shelter" with Lisa Fischer), but in my opinion, the most important part of the night is Mick Taylor's presence, a link to the band's history, "Midnight Rambler" being his best, in my opinion at least, performance.

Keith's part consists of "You Got The Silver" and "Can't Be Seen". So no "Wanna Hold You" this time.

 There were rumours that the concert was going to be filmed for a DVD release (maybe, we'll see) and that Bruce Springsteen would make a guest appearance on "Tumbling Dice" like he did on a previous date. The latter, proves to be untrue... 

So the show is over and everyone's happy having seen a band play that have already celebrated 50 years of being together. The only thing that leaves a bad taste are the TV reports the next day showing all the rubbish left at Circo Massimo and the authorities wondering whether concerts on this site are worth the disruption they are causing on the city's life. Well, only the Romans can answer that. Would it be better at Stadio Olimpico? I think not, because it was this site, Circo Massimo that made this concert special...

Setlist

01. Jumpin' Jack Flash

02. Let's Spend the Night Together
03. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
04. Tumbling Dice
05. Streets of Love (with Mick Taylor)
06. Doom and Gloom
07. Respectable (with John Mayer by request)
08. Out of Control
09. Honky Tonk Women (band introductions)
10. You Got the Silver (Keith Richards on lead vocals)
11. Can't Be Seen (Keith Richards on lead vocals)
12. Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor)
13. Miss You
14. Gimme Shelter (with Lisa Fischer)
15. Start Me Up
16. Sympathy for the Devil
17. Brown Sugar
Encore:
18. You Can' t Always Get What You Want
19. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (with Mick Taylor)

One (festival) for the road

On June 21st I was flying to Rome to see The Rolling Stones. En Lefko Festival was announced in Athens for that very same weekend, the 20th and the 21st featuring among others The Simple Minds, who I would like to see (again). I was lucky because they were chosen as headliners on Friday which meant that I could go see them and catch my flight the next day. I was even luckier because the other band that I wanted to see, Hooverphonic were billed to play just before them.

So, I arrived at Technopolis, just as Hooverphonic were beginning their set, and after some problems with my ticket (which looked more like a receipt) I got in.

(Apparently, the scanner could not read the barcode, but that's to be expected when they print the tickets on cash till paper where the ink gradually fades away - duh!)

Hooverphonic first came to my attention around 2002-2003 with "Sometimes" and continued later on with the "More Sweet Music / No More Sweet Music" package. For most Greeks they are famous for "Mad About You" though.

They played songs from the whole of their career, and they did play "Sometimes". The last song in an acoustic version.

Now, it was June, the beginning of summer and my last gig was surprisingly at an indoor venue. This one was outdoors, but, after the Hooverphonic set was over, it started raining.

We took shelter away from the stage and started worrying if this was going to affect the Simple Minds set which we were all waiting for, but thankfully it stopped just before they came onstage. (And yes, the first thing Jim Kerr said to us when he appeared was "show me your hands". Typical.)

I had seen them before, again in Athens back in 2006. This time there was more of their early stuff ("Love Song", "I Travel"), stuff that they had disowned when they became famous ("Don't listen to our early albums" Jim Kerr apparently said to Chrissie Hynde, his wife at the time). Suprisingly enough it was these "early" albums that they were promoting a few years ago on their 5x5 tour.

But the problem was that there was also quite a few of their later stuff when just as they became famous they decided to go "epic" ("See The Lights", "She's A River").

But of course there was also stuff from when they were famous AND making great pop songs ("Don't You Forget About Me", "Alive & Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself").

And they saved the best for last: my favourite, "New Gold Dream", a song that should have been a single but it wasn't and was my favourite song in late 1982 / early 1983.

So that was the last song of the second and last encore. We were now ready to go home (and in my case to the airport). But then it started raining again. Hard.

We took cover for quite a while, even visited the dance stage which was indoors.

Finally it stopped. Thankfully, because the next day was going to be a long one...

Simple Minds setlist:

        01. Waterfront
        02. Broken Glass Park
        03. Love Song
        04. Hypnotised
        05. Imagination
        06. I Travel
        07. Blindfolded
        08. Dancing Barefoot
              (Patti Smith Group cover)
        09. Dolphins
        10. She's a River
        11. Someone Somewhere in Summertime
        12. See the Lights
        13. Don't You (Forget About Me)
        Encore:
        14. Big Music
        15. Alive and Kicking
        Encore 2:
        16. Sanctify Yourself
        17. New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)

Like a blister in the summer sun (a.k.a. No more Pliatsikas)

I noticed the Violent Femmes with their debut album back in the early eighties. And I knew one person in my English class who was a fan. This was the time when we used to write the names of our favourite bands on our school bags. So while looking at his bag it seemed strange to me that among several mainstream pop bands of the era Violent Femmes were in there.

10 years passed and we were now in the early 90's. While frequenting a local bar, I noticed that every night the DJ was playing two particular tracks back-to-back. The first one had a very staccato drum beat at the end of each verse and the second one was saying something like "they do it all the time". I leaned over the vinyl turntable (yeah, DJ's were still using these in the early 90's) and noticed that they were the first two tracks from the Violent Femmes debut album. So I went and bought the... CD! And found out that these two songs were "Blister In The Sun" and "Kiss Off". And that there were other great tracks on that album (like "Add It Up" for example).

Next thing I realized, these songs became big hits in Greece. In the 90's! They were also played at the biggest "rock" club of that era "Camel". This even prompted a reaction from the lifestyle press ("NITRO" magazine) saying that "playing this music in a club brings it down to the lever of our high school holidays". Anyway, these 2 songs were now classics, 10 years after their release.

And more than 30 years after their release, last June, I finally got the chance to hear them live, by the Violent Femmes performing that first album in full in Athens. The gig was at a new indoor venue (Stage Volume 1), although summer was now fully upon us. 

The band came on stage, and after about 4 songs they blasted into "Blister In The Sun" and the rest of the album. 

But the fun was not over after that. More instruments were added:

Violin, saxophone...

...cretan lyra (played by G.Dagaki)...

...and bouzouki.

And to top it all off, Filippos Pliatsikas from the Greek band "Pyx Lax" came onstage (we should have seen this coming, he is very good friends with Gordon Gano) and together they played first a Pyx Lax song and then "Blister In The Sun" once more. 

On this last one Pliatsikas adapted the lyrics of the chorus in Greek, that was not a very popular group with the crowd though...

SETLIST:

• 1. Look Like That
  2. Nightmares
  3. Mother of a Girl 
     === "Violent Femmes" album ===
  4. Blister in the Sun
  5. Kiss Off
  6. Please Do Not Go
  7. Add It Up
  8. Confessions
  9. Prove My Love
  10. Promise
  11. To the Kill
  12. Gone Daddy Gone
  13. Good Feeling
      ===
  14. Requiem
  15. Mirror Mirror (I See a Damsel)
  16. Hallowed Ground
  17. Old Mother Reagan
  18. All I Want
  19. Life Is an Adventure / Country Death Song
  20. Jesus Walking on the Water
  21. Gimme the Car
  22. Black Girls
  23. I Held Her in My Arms
  24. American Music
  25. Den tha dakriso pia gia sena
      (Pyx Lax cover)
  26. Omnuei
  27. Blister in the Sun (with Filippos Pliatsikas)