Twisted..Sister/Dio/Anthrax/Katatonia/Olethrio..Rigma
Rock..Wave..Festival/Greece..2005
There's not enough words to describe how good last night was!....
First to say, that , because of last time's after-the-show transportation problem, the bus organizers (a travel agency) had offerd me two passes
for last night's show: well, it turned out that they were VIP passes, which
guaranted free drinks in the VIP area(!!!). As, you can tell now, things were already better. My guest (Nikos) and I had all the tequila drinks and
juices that we pleased :D and then, shared some with friends and acquaintances that we met there...
At first, it seemed that there were not so many people as last time I was there (for Black Sabbath: 21 thousand tickets sold), but, as the evening progressed, it seemed like there were MANY people around. Out of curiosity I'll check with the ticket office, but for now let's say, there were about 15 thousand.
The greek group, that opened the evening, was "Olethrio Rigma" .
"Zyklon" was supposed to appear after them, but they never did, because
of one of their member's injury.
"Katatonia" was next, and they sounded alright, but we were busy exploring the grounds and meeting people, so we didn't go anywhere near the stage until they had finished...
This time there was no giant screens, so if you wanted to see the bands, you had to move as close to the stage as possible. (Or stand on the VIP
area, and see everything, but, from a distance.)
It was easier, than I expected, to make my way to the front of the stage.
Also now, there were no buckets full of water thrown at us, but only the occasional water bottle or beer can, coming from the audience.
There were some minor sound problems and co-ordination gaps between
the bands, with the stage props (for Dio) and T.S. took too long to come on stage, but all of this was coppensated by their performance.
Being in the front, I took enough photos of the last three bands (Anthreax, Dio, and T.S.) , although , only T.S. were favoured by the time and light, and appeared in the evening with the stage lights showing.... The sun was setting as Dio was playing and only during the last songs, we
could enjoy him on stage with a breathtaking red glow (!so evil!), from
a spot light above.
"Anthrax" were EXCELLENT. I had never seen them before, but had heard their music. After last night, I am a fan! While they played, I stood there, watching and listening and , not even once I thought to myself that I was impatient for the next (star) bands to come on.
They played during sunshine: they announced:
"You guys are hot out there, because that's the only way to be, right?"
It was hot, so were they! Everyone loved them and when they finished,
they said they want to come back soon - we can't wait.
"Dio" was who I came for....and that was the part of the evening that people went wild. There was a lot of jumping and dancing and crowd surfing. This all was triggered by the "Man on the Silver Mountain", escalleted with " Long Live Rock n' Roll", went out of control with "We Rock", "Gates of Babylon", "Egypt", "Rainbow in the Dark", "Heaven and Hell". Dio announced that "it's hard to be evil in the daylight" as the sun was shining through out most of their stage time...but , the crowd danced, in circles, on top of each other, wild and non-stop.
They too, announced at the end of their performance, that they can't wait to come back and added : " Athens, you kicked our asses"!...
As, for "Twisted Sister", they had it all going for them: Evening was there, the stage lights were on and they all looked so impressive with their colourful stage gear and make-up....and they were ready to ROCK.
The crowd was already worked up by Dio (and Anthrax), but definatelly not tired. This time, Dee had control over us: he told us how to put our
fists up in the air , when to jump high and when to sing and for how long;
we responded gladly and all through their show. They played songs from all of their albums and they also did a cover of "Long Live Rock n' Roll".
They were very pleased by our adoration and they too said they want to come back soon. Their last words, for the evening, were: "Athens, we kicked your asses"!...
All this sweet talk...
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