SPECIAL   ANATHEMA II PART                   I part: Anathema in Rome

Mylos Club, Thessaloniki, Greece

December 22 -  2003

report  by Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

all fotos ©  by Dimitris Theodoropoulos

The public use of these fotos is strictly prohibited without written permission.

INTRO      

        Chances to see an unplugged show are not so many but after the very good unplugged gig of Antimatter in Greece about 6 months ago, it was Anathema’s turn this time. The Cavanagh brothers came to Greece for four unplugged shows, two in Athens and two in Thessaloniki. The big interest for tickets made the promoters to move the gig to a bigger venue for the second day in each city. These bigger venues were sold out with no problems at all from people who wanted to see something different from all the other metal shows, a different perspective of the anathema songs. A night full of passion and music from the 2/4 of Anathema.    

ALMOST FAMOUS  

         The support band was from Thessaloniki called Almost Famous. The band was consisted from 2 guys who played live acoustic cover versions of some very famous songs from the whole Rock/Metal genre. We heard songs from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode etc. For the covers of Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd, Almost Famous were accompanied by Danny Cavanagh of Anathema on keyboards. After their half hour set a short break followed and the time for Anathema had arrived.

ANATHEMA

          Anathema’s show started with songs off their Eternity album and then we heard many songs from the Judgment album in a very nice atmosphere and a stage with low lights and lit by candles. Every twenty minutes or so they played a song from their masterpiece album Alternative 4 and fragile dreams was played near the end of the show although the fans demanded for it from the beginning of the concert. At one point Danny brought on stage a 17 year old girl which was with them from the Athens shows two days ago. The girl played guitar and did lead vocals for a cover version of Boat On The River along with the two Anathema members. She stayed on stage for one more song, another cover song and this time Vinny did vocals and the girl just acoustic guitar. Vinny seemed to be a little annoyed from the smokers and mentioned how much we Greeks smoke and if it was possible for some people to stop it because he couldn’t breath well on stage. Danny asked us if we wanted to hear a cover to Iron Maiden’s Wasted Years (which they played the previous night and those who witnessed it said that the song was transformed into an epic ballad) or an instrumental medley on the piano consisting of good old Anathema songs. The biggest part of the crowd shouted for the second choice and we heard some brilliant music from the first albums of the band and I had shivers when I heard Danny play some parts from Silent Enigma. A song that they had never ever played live was Regret, according to Vinny, and they did an attempt to play it and although he didn’t remember the lyrics so well the fans from the front rows helped him finish the song. Danny didn’t forget to mention Anathema’s ex-bassist and songwriter Duncan Patterson and his band Antimatter (Antimatter live - review) and said that if we want to hear the Eternity song we must see this band live. Anathema’s unplugged gig lasted about two hours with many encores. Every time the band left the stage the fans kept shouting for more and the band couldn’t disappoint them of course and kept coming out for more and more songs. The very last song was the hidden track from the A Fine Day To Exit album, a very pleasant surprise and a cool song to finish this nice concert. I must also mention the brilliant cover of John Lennon’s Imagine during the encores.

            These two acoustic shows of the two brothers and main members/songwriters of Anathema was something fresh and different from what we were used to. Unplugged shows are always welcome and cool to watch.

Dimitris Theodoropoulos

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