It's Saturday night and there is nothing better than to rock your socks off with an ass kicking power trio from England, known as FIREBIRD. Especially when a few hours before the show you have the chance to chat with Bill Steer and have a couple of beers with him. Except from the incredible show that was about to follow that night from the British rockers (yep, their live shows are guaranteed), I also had the chance to see three Greek support acts that either I had seen again in the past or saw for the very first time.
The show delayed for about one hour and a half since people were kind of late (probably because of the soccer matches that day?) but this didn't spoil BADOG's mood at all. The quartet from Arta, Greece, took on the hard role of warming up the crowd (which was unfortunately very limited at that time), but from what I saw they weren't really bad at it. With a sound deeply influenced from classic Rock bands like UFO, WHITESNAKE (yeah, they had the Bluesy touch, too), AC/DC and more, the band gave its best and the crowd seemed to kind of like them. Their own songs were damn fine, but the truth is I saw some heads starting to move during covers like Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" or UFO's "Rock Bottom".
Next in line were THE 700 MACHINES, a band that mixes Rock, Punk and Garage music just to end up with some hard rocking tunes that will definitely make you wanna dance. The band seemed pretty tight on stage and their dirty Rock & Roll music definitely earned them some new fans. With songs from their debut album (it has been released since November, what are you waiting for?) THE 700 MACHINES proved that they are a great live act once again. This MC5 meets HELLACOPTERS meets QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE meets STOOGES thingie sounds so damn fine to my ears.
It's time for DOWN & OUT and let me say a couple of stuff here. I have seen this band playing live in the past, I have listened to its releases and I can say one thing for sure. If there is one Greek band that knows how to Rock & Roll then it's definitely them! The Athenian trio opened its time portal and brought the American south right in front of us. The black dressed blues-men injected us with a full dose of Blues/Rock music and they proved that if a trio finds this magic chemistry then everything can happen. This trio has two basic rules when it comes to its music, honesty and fun, and who the fuck didn't have fun that night? If it ain't groovy, it ain't funny after all! With a couple of new songs and songs from the band's latest album "Tres Weirdos" ("Hot Dawg Boogie", "Voodoo Dildo") DOWN & OUT put a smile on every face and made every single person dance or at least move his head with their wicked boogie!
The support acts had done their job and it was time for FIREBIRD to do what they know best, to rock the fuck out of us! The Johnny Winter-like figure known as Bill Steer (CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, GENTLEMANS PISTOLS) along with his mates Ludwig Witt (SPIRITUAL BEGGARS) and Greyum May (THE BLACK HAND, OZRIC TENTACLES) visited Greece once again to prove that British musicians still know how to rock. With old ("Zoltana", "Blue Flame"), new ("For Crying Out Loud", "Ruined"), as well as cover songs ("Four Day Creep"), Bill Steer and his gang seemed to be in a really good mood and probably enjoyed that show as much as the audience did. I suppose there wasn't even a single head that wasn't grooving along with the band's "bluesy" Rock tunes. Even if most of us have used seeing/listening to Steer playing with CARCASS, it seems that this is the sound where he belongs after all and I guess that with such quality releases and shows like the one I had the pleasure to witness that Saturday night nobody can doubt it! Oh, and if you remember him shredding his six string goddess with the British Death Metal legends, wait 'till you hear how heavy he can sound when he grabs his harmonica and delivers some wicked grooves!
Nothing bad to say about that night or any band, except from the fact that I would really like to see more people attending such shows. Pure Rock & Roll fury, great atmosphere and most of all, cheap ticket! If you love it, then support it!
