17th of October at Gagarin205 club

Grigoris: This gig surely was value for money; three high-esteem bands from the melodic Hard 'n' Heavy school of Rock showed us their teeth and nothing – not even the coming rain – would stop some hundreds of fans from shaking and dancing on a misty Sunday evening at downtown Athens. An event postponed twice in the recent past – initially having Swedish sleaze rockers HARDCORE SUPERSTAR as the opening act for Germany's BONFIRE and US 'hair metallers FIREHOUSE, later on to be featuring Norway's finest hardrockin' export TNT – was finally taking place with closing contestants pointing at Denmark's legendary PRETTY MAIDS. In retrospect, without the Danish heroes I do not think the organizers would score such ticket sales.

We were caught by surprise as soon as BONFIRE took the stage by storm, conflicting with the announced running order. Not that it mattered anyway, since there was official information all bands would have the same time-length at their disposal. Singer Claus Lessman was quite rich in words with the crowd and showcased some of his Greek (should be also told some 'dirty' words asap, though…) in between the bands setlist, bringing forth a party atmosphere. The rest of the band was in a relevant mood too, and truth is the band performed quite well and – at times – exciting. The setlist did not hide any surprises in case it was not your first time witnessing BONFIRE onstage, but it was overall a fine performance. Thumbs up for GOTTHARD's "I'm On My Way" the band performed and dedicated for the tragic passing of the Swiss band's frontman Steve Lee…

If I remember correctly, the setlist went something like this:

BONFIRE setlist:

1. "Bells Of Freedom"
2. "We Still Rock"
3. "Never Mind"
4. "Hot To Rock" / "Don't Touch The Light"
5. "Under Blue Skies"
6. "I Am On My Way"
7. "Proud Of My Country"
8. "Sword And Stone"
9. "American Nights"
10. "Sweet Obsession"
11. "Ready For Reaction" / "Champion"
12. "You Make Me Feel"

Grigoris: It was time for a beloved living legend now…Hit the lights and pandemonium had just begun! With a new energetic album in their luggage PRETTY MAIDS surely convinced me for who the MVP would be that evening: three songs from their latest "Pandemonium" CD lit the fire and then it was a total chaos banging to the good ol' classics. Ron Atkins still is sight for sore eyes; his voice got weakened gradually truth is, put his passionate singing and experience topped any further hazy thinking. He reacted quite well with the arena and overall he showed he still has the guts and attitude to step on you in a PM gig. Ken Hammer's guitar suffered from some technical problems (hence "Savage Heart" saw no distortion) but pulled the trigger in general, while newcomer Hal Patino (remember this man from his KING DIAMOND days?) took no prisoners rich in experience. The sound was more than good in general – some partial fuzzy mix in the beginning was a misdemeanour – and highlights of the band's show would sum it up to the sensational take on "Please Don't Leave Me", the "Rodeo" surprise plus the hammering "Back To Back"/"Future World" rams.

This is what the setlist looked like, I think:

PRETTY MAIDS setlist:

1. "Pandemonium"
2. "INVU"
3. "We Came To Rock"
4. "Walk Away"
5. "Queen Of Dreams"
6. "Savage Heart"
7. "Little Drops Of Heaven"
8. "Back To Back"
9. "Rodeo"
10. "Please Don't Leave Me"
11. "Love Games"
12. "Future World"
13. "Red Hot And Heavy"

Caterina: It was about 11 o'clock when FIREHOUSE hit the stage. Their setlist was pretty good including songs like "Shake And Tumble", "Reach For The Sky", "Overnight Sensation", "Lover's Lane", "Oughta Be A Law", "Helpless", "Don't Treat Me Bad" and of course the could-not-be-missing "All She Wrote". Their awesome ballads "When I Look Into Your Eyes" and "Love Of A Lifetime" were in, too. "Door To Door" was also a nice moment for this set with Michael Foster on vocals. To tell the truth this huge drum solo could have been shorter, they could have played another whole song… Now about C.J.'s voice: it was awesome. He took us so many years back. he was in perfect shape and he showed us once again that he is an excellent singer. But, to tell the truth, in their 2008 gig in Athens I had enjoyed the show more, maybe because they had played two other songs that I love and now they were missing or maybe because I was so impressed by PRETTY MAIDS that I couldn't pay so much attention to FIREHOUSE. It doesn't matter, though; this gig was also very good and if they ever come again to Greece I'll surely be there.

FIREHOUSE setlist:

1. "Love Is A Dangerous Thing"
2. "Lover's Lane"
3. "All She Wrote"
4. "Oughta Be A Law"
5. "Holding On"
6. "When I Look Into Your Eyes"
7. "Helpless"
8. "Shake & Tumble"
9. "Door To Door"
10. "Overnight Sensation"
11. "Love Of A Lifetime"
12. "Reach For The Sky"

(photos by Vagia Anagnostoy)