28.07.2004
ATHENS OPEN AIR
MOTÖRHEAD - DIMMU BORGIR (gig cancelled) -
SENTENCED - CIRCLE 2 CIRCLE -
THE
HAUNTED
JULY
5, 2004
Athens,Greece
Venue:Alimos Beach
review by Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos
- all pics © by Dimitris Theodoropoulos
The public use of these fotos is strictly prohibited without written permission
+ DIMMU BORGIR's cancelled gig
When this fest was announced everyone had high hopes for it. We believed
that after the Rockwave festival that takes place almost every year in
Athens we will have 2 big summer events from now on. But we were wrong.
This festival turned into a disaster and i doubt if the promoter will
organize it again or maybe not in the near future. Let's see how all this
turned out.
The Haunted played for about 45 minutes extremely well and the band was in great form. They tried to ignore the very bad sound that didn’t allow their music to be heard clear in the audience and they managed to play with dust in the air. The festival was in a beach so all the moshing in the crowd created a huge dust clowd that made all people put something in their nose to avoid breathing it and the band seemed annoyed by it. To the musical part of the show as I said before, the band was excellent and they brought the place down with songs such as Hatesong, Dark Intentions, Bury Your Dead. After they left the stage I thought, ok, maybe the sound will be ok in the next bands. The breaks between each band were long and boring and add the hot sun over our heads and you get an idea for our suffering.
When Sentenced went on stage it had almost gotten dark and with the lights system the concert looked better and the dust clowds were less visible but still very annoying. Cross my Heart and hope to die was the opening song for Sentenced and they kept playing many songs from their latest releases until they played their all time classic Nepenthe and everyone went crazy, even the photographers in the photo pit. During this song we didn’t give a damn about the dust or the bad sound or anything else. Such songs can be enjoyed under every situation. During Sentenced show I learned that Dimmu Borgir that were to appear next had cancelled their show and I saw their roadies gathering their equipment and leaving. After Sentenced finished the crowd was calling ‘Borgir,Borgir’ but noone went out to announce the cancellation. Later I learned that they cancelled because there weren’t any backstage rooms for them to put on their corpsepaint. This reason is totally bullshit in my opinion. They should have painted their faces in their hotel and get to the venue with the mini bus. This no reason to cancel a show and leave your fans waiting for you and most important having already paid you. Dimmu wanted to appear so professional and ask for special backstage when noone else from the bands complained. The backstage area was behind the stage and although there was space for everyone to move there weren’t any rooms for the bands to change but you never cancel a show for this. You can change at the hotel after the gig. Anyway, after this fiasco of Dimmu Borgir there was a huge delay when the crowd started getting wild and throwing everything they found on stage, mainly water bottles. The crowd was very calc to throw just bottles. They could all get on stage and destroy everything because the conditions under this event took place were the worst I have ever witnessed.
A riot was sure and noone blamed the crowd if they would have done it but I was surprised by their self control. A guy announced after the huge delay that Motörhead were about to start playing in 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I saw the band arriving and running to the stage and they started with no delay at all. They got their instruments and opened with We Are Motörhead. Suddenly we forgot the long delay because the band satisfied us with their performance. These 3 legends on stage playing good old dirty rock n roll. Lemmy looked like he is never going to die, after so many years he still plays with such power and passion. Next song was No Class followed by Shoot You In The Back and and Civil War. In the next song Lemmy called all the punks to take a step back because the next song was for them. God Save The Queen and the riot in the moshing pit didn’t stop from the very first song. I saw people jumping in the photo pit all the time, about 30 people during each song. Motörhead is the ultimate band for headbanging and moshing. Metropolis was the next song and Doctor Rock and Ramones followed (dedicated to the Ramones guy that passed away). The show continues with Over The Top, Damage Case and Sacrifice (Mickey Dee played a killer drum solo during this song). You Better Run and Going To Brazil were next when one of the most classic Motörhead songs got its chance. Killed By Death and the number of people crowd surfing is increased. Iron Fist was the last song before the encore. The show finished with Ace Of Spades (what can I say!!) and Overkill. Excellent. The band was killer and there can’t be anyone that didn’t like their show. From the moment they hit the stage we forgot all about band sound, dust in our face and the bad promoting. We also forgot about the Dimmu guys that left us there waiting. Motörhead is an all time classic party band. You don’t need good sound or a decent venue to see them. True heavy metal feeling.
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