Today is the first day of August 2024, the third month of summer, and the high temperatures continue to make us suffer. It’s a sign of the climate change, but, anyway, we are in deep summer, so it’s natural that it is hot outside. Most festivals have finished here in Athens, Greece, since the concert season is over in the capital of Greece. Both Release Athens Festival and Ejekt Festival are past now, and with the exception of the Placebo and the Lenny Kravitz live shows, we don’t have other major concerts here. So, it is time to see what significant we lived this summer in the live stages of Athens.
First of all, the best show belongs to Rammstein, who literally set everything on fire. They had an amazing, incredible production and if you take into consideration their super loud sound, you can understand why – in my opinion – the German industrial rock superstars mad the best live performance of the summer. This season began so empatically, so the bar was high for the rest of the bands that were scheduled for Athens, Greece. The Offspring were the next big thing to happen, their show in Release Fest was great, however, I think that they could have been even more energetic and vivid with their fans. Coldplay gave also an incredible show and touched the Greek audience with their evocative melodies, yet, as i mentioned before, the top belongs to Rammstein. And one thing with the live appearance of Coldplay, I think their concert had some weak moments and wasn’t cohesive. Release Athens Festival continued with Blind Guardian and Megadeth – well, these two top acts are a guaranty for the attendees, who all enjoyed the superb performance of these historic, legendary bands. It’s always a pleasure to experience the formidable force of Hansi Kürsch and co and the thrash mania of Dave Mustaine and his gang. The best day of Release Athens Festival was the evening that Accept, Bruce Dickinson and Judas Priest played for us! We are talking about monumental live performances from Bruce and Priest, plus a nice introduction by the Teutonic armada of Accept. Dickinson was at a great mood, he even played the refrain of “Alexander the Great” by Iron Maiden for the Greek fans. After the incidents with the flare guns in OAKA last year, Dickinson was somehow apologetic. Priest were also stunning, having a great Rob Halford, who sang better than Priest’s last gig in Athens two years ago. Some other highlights of this summer were the extraordinary live show of Rotting Christ at the Rockwave Nights Fest on the Lycabettus hill, the otherworldly live show of Opeth on the Lycabettus hill too and the compelling gig of Ross the Boss at Temple – he played a 100% Manowar set! The concert that disappointed me was the one of Smashing Pumpkins, who didn’t have a good sound (too blurry and too much bass, I would say) and the show which made me think and prompted me to explore the bands back catalogue was the show of Massive Attack. As far as I know, the concerts of Behemoth at Release Athens last day and Steel Panther in Thessaloniki were also unforgettable!
So, in a couple of days the summer concerts in Athens, Greece, will have passed – with a positive feeling of course. I would like to wish you nice summer holidays, if you still haven’t gone for holidays, and stay active and … metal! We will be in touch through the digital pages of Myth of Rock and our official social media pages! Take care, my friends.
Dimitris Zacharopoulos
photo by Iro Kalligeri (@irokalligeriphotography)
