It's more usual to prefer a nice warm cup of coffee with your female company, doing all kinds of dirty stuff, than going out with a temperature that reminds all of my favorite Scandinavian bands.... but instead of doing all of the above the Chief Inspector of our mag, Greg, asked me politely (go there and do some job you asshole!) to attend Danny Cavanagh's event and report.
So, having nothing better to do I accepted the deal and tried to find someone to accompany me to the show. Finally, I found a friend of mine and we headed for the venue. As she was late, I got worried since the show was supposed to start at 10.00. Also there were some fires around the place of the venue makes me quite anxious if any riot acts will burst again that night. Hopefully, we arrived at the exact time but to my surprise, as we entered the venue there were only 50(!) people. Oh shit, I thought it's gonna be a failure. We found a peaceful place and started talking about my favorite subjects (MANOWAR, BATHORY and Satanism in general). As more people kept on coming I noticed the variety of the crowd. I suppose people like me knowing the past Danny has with ANATHEMA and Death Metal were few in number. Few metalheads, some wannabe gothsters and people that had no connection with that kind of music and maybe it's more obvious to see them dancing in a night club than headbanging in front of the stage. As my third beer was ending, the never ending waiting for Danny to appear on stage made me mad. Who the fuck he thinks he is, I thought.
It was the moment I was thinking what I could write to bury Danny deep into the ground, when the lights went down... but what was going on? This isn't Danny on stage! Danny would like me to ask you if anyone of you have a soft pick as he run out of them... said the guy and I think that everybody heard my laughter at the club. ...also Danny asks you politely not to smoke because he suffers from an asthma problem that was it! My friend yelled Not again, my god! I can't believe it! I can't smoke at home, I can't smoke at work, I can't smoke with my boyfriend, I can't even smoke here? Ironically I answered ..at least he will let us talk to each other. Finally, at 11.00 Danny was on-stage (an hour late), greeting the crowd of 150 people and asking us if we could be a little bit quiet as this kind of show is very sentimental and melodic. Now it was time for my friend to laugh at me, See this? Now we can't even speak to each other! But all the bad things ended for me since the first notes of Deep filled the place. For the next two hours Danny's guitar guided us to a trip deep inside to everybody's emotions. You could see on everybody's face that they weren't there at all. The set was a nice travel through the history of ANATHEMA and Danny's voice was in perfect condition.
A huge amount of the crowd was of course in front of the stage but you could see many people just sitting around the venue, not even looking at the stage but just letting the music guide their thoughts. I even saw my friend crying but please don't tell her I mentioned that! Danny was really friendly and warm with the crowd, telling us of the certain connection between Greece and ANATHEMA all these years. Every time we were in trouble and lost the meaning for the band, those rough times Greece was the place to remind us the meaning of all these... remember our gig in 2004?
Danny also played some songs on piano, certainly the encore with the piano version of IRON MAIDEN's Wasted Years was the top moment of the show. For the end I want to say that...sadly I saw you had some bad times with riot acts here in Greece... I just want to say that in the end of it... the only thing we really need is love... nothing more and ended the show with a beautiful version PINK FLOYD's High Hopes. As we were leaving the venue, entering back again into the long (even) colder winter's night, suddenly I felt like everything was clear to me at last ...yes... maybe all you really need is love...
Five things you shouldn't forget next time you visit a Danny Cavanagh show:
01. NEVER go there without bringing any picks with you from home... or even an instrument... you never know...
02. NEVER go there if you are a heavy smoker... you'll end up smoking at the boys room...
03. NEVER go there if you are recently divorced... it may cause suicide attempts
04. NEVER go there with a female company, in case she is just a friend of yours... there will be many lonely girls waiting for you at the show
05. NEVER go there if you are deeply in love... you'll end up paying a month's salary for your cell phone... dedicating most of the set to your beloved one....
THANKS TO: Greg (for ultimate patience), Elina (for the arrangements), Dina (for tears,cigs and beers), Katerina (for camera and not responding calls).
Setlist:
01. Deep
02. Lost Control
03. Forgotten Hopes
04. Destiny Is Dead
05. Leave No Trace
06. Inner Silence
07. One Last Goodbye
08. Are You There?
09. Wish You Were Here (PINK FLOYD cover)
10. Hope
11. Angelica
12. Temporary Peace
13. Flying
14. Exit Music (For A Film) (RADIOHEAD cover)
15. Fragile Dreams
16. Wasted Years (IRON MAIDEN cover)
17. Nothing Else Matters (METALLICA cover)
18. Angels Walk Among Us
19. Winter Cottage (LEAFBLADE cover)
20. Legions (ANTIMATTER cover)
21. Big Love (FLEETWOOD MAC cover)
22. High Hopes (PINK FLOYD cover)
