I know that many people around freaked out in May because they couldn't afford traveling to Bradford, UK, to attend Firefest 1. That didn't happen with Firefest 2, which was held in Nottingham, UK, a few days ago, as the Greek edition of Firefest had been announced since August. Although there were significant lineup changes for the Greek concert, the importance of the fact that an already famous festival was about to take place in Athens makes us all realize that Greece has gradually turned into a Melodic and Hard Rock metropolis during the last couple of years. After the gigs of Bonfire, Tyketto, Dokken, L.A. Guns and others, seeing bands like Blue Tears, Danger Danger and House Of Lords (and Michael Bormann, previously of Jaded Heart, being the new vocalist of the Greek Redrum) playing for your eyes only doesn't sound like wishful thinking anymore.
So, the three of us, the Metal-Temple.Com editors (Greg, Michael and I), together with (male & female) friends and co-fans of the genre, headed for the Oxygen Club (which is by the way owned by the most famous Rock persona in Greece, Vassilis Papakonstantinou) in the centre of the city. Comments on each band's performance follow, so the few things left to be said here are that the event was attended by 250-300 fans, lasted for 6 hours, the sound was mediocre and the venue was not suitable for such a festival. Fortunately, listening to some people almost crying because "they had grown up with these bands" was enough, at least for me, to leave the place satisfied in general, although I think the Greek Firefest probably left the majority of the audience with mixed feelings.

Mike (reporting on Redrum): First a few words about the club. Sorry to say this but I found it unworthy of the names that appeared that night. The club looked like those clubs in the Steven Seagal movies (where Steven kicked everyone's ass). The ventilation was… nowhere, the equipment used was even worse than the ones at the legendary crappy An Club. Too bad to see bands like Danger Danger trying to fit their energy on such a small stage. And by the way, why did the beer have a seven (!!!) Euros tag? Was it because of the trendy club? Give me a break.

Anyway, the festival started in the best way possible. Local poser heroes Redrum exploded on stage and their catchy (but also quite heavy at times) Rock grabbed us by the balls. Do I have to mention that everyone's attention was set on their cult vocalist? How often do we see a Greek act led by a legendary singer such as Michael Borgmann? Not too often I say. And though Michael has lived countless days of glory in the past, he seemed to be enjoying every second on stage with Redrum. Even when the microphone annoyed him (during the clapping), he didn't lose the smile from his face.
Redrum performed songs for more than 50 minutes from their soon-to-come debut album (come on, hurry up!). If I stick to Michael's performance only, it would be a shame since all the members kicked ass on stage (ok, maybe the drummer needs some extra work). And what better way to close their show than performing the ultra classic Phil Collins cover "Easy Lover" (keep in mind that Borgmann has indeed done a studio cover of this song with Jaded Heart). All in all Redrum left us with the best impressions. It was a sign of all the good things soon to follow…

Grigoris (reporting on Blue Tears): Well, it definitely wasn't a good day for Gregg Fulkerson and Co. as Blue Tears hit the stage in front of a 'suspicious' crowd. Even if the band's same titled debut back in 1990 did score some remarkable recognition in the US, this act did not manage to be well known in the European side. Still, this would not be a drawback for Blue Tears since their music - an amalgam of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, in my ears at last - had the potential to "win" you. The problem was - as mentioned and obviously witnessed - Gregg's lack of 100% good health. 'Pale' in most tracks, unstable to combine singing and guitar playing, Gregg did not have the chance to convince the mass for their musical reliability.

They did try hard, even if the stage sound was not 'trustworthy'. "Rocking With The Radio" was a killer - Gregg spit his guts out there - while "Halfway To Heaven" and "Thunder In The Night" proved to be so more crowd-friendly than expected. Taking command of the keys, "A Date With Destiny" - featured on the upcoming "Dancin' On The Back Streets" album - brought up sentimental air while "Innocent Kiss" rocked the house - even if Gregg was semi-singing. Unfortunately, the 'weak' keyboards sound did not let a powerful ballad like "Blue Tears" speak for the spirit of love. In general, I was kinda let down by the band's appearance. Be it the flu or the sound engineer's ears, hope this was not a typical Blue Tears performance.

Eleni (reporting on Danger Danger): By the time Danger Danger appeared on stage my almost permanent flu in combination with the previous night's hangover had already exhausted me. Of course I couldn't help going to the front right part of the venue, to experience D2's highly praised live energy. And I can assure you that New York's premium Melodic Rock band compensated all the fans for the really bad conditions we had to face throughout the whole fest at the Oxygen Club.
Despite the heat, the serious technical problems with the bass guitar (which they confronted with a semi-acoustic performance for some time) and a keyboardist's absence, they rocked everything down! Ted Poley on the vocs, Bruno Ravel on the bass, Steve West behind the drum-kit and Robert Marcello in charge of the guitars were in great mood and provoked various extreme reactions to the fans who didn't stop headbanging and screaming along from the first to the last track of D2's show. At a point one of the audience's most excited members climbed on stage, shared the microphone with Ted Poley and in the end he decorated the guitar with a G-string! The band played the game too and just when finishing their playlist, Ted Poley stage-dived into the mad fans.

It's maybe impossible to describe the atmosphere of the place but I could say that Danger Danger proved to be the real headliners of the Greek Firefest, since the 6 hours standing along with the nearly suffocating circumstances, didn't leave the fans preserve their enthusiasm at the same level for House Of Lords.

D2 focused on their first two albums, the ones featuring Ted Poley. They started with "Crazy Nights" from the "Screw It" album (1991) and went on with all their mega-hits, like "Bang Bang", "Boys Will Be Boys", "Rock America" and finally "Naughty Naughty" from their debut album, "Danger Danger" (1989), and "I Still Think About You", "Beat The Bullet" and for the encore, "Monkey Business" from their second album again. I suppose everybody was satisfied with these choices and I only have two little complaints. I wanted so much to hear "Don't Blame It On Love" and my personal D2 favorite, "Grind" from "The Return Of The Great Gildersleeves" album (2000). But I can understand that Ted Poley's return after so many years wouldn't really match the Paul Laine era's songs.

To cut a long story short and concentrate on the thing's substance, I will tell you that their performance had that kind of magic that couldn't be affected by external factors and that I hope we will all see them again very soon, with some keyboards smoothing their sound this time.

Grigoris (reporting on House Of Lords): "When it's time to go to bed, it's time to go to bed", was the thought in the minds of many fans. Thus - standing up for 4 hours already with the clock ticking to 15' past midnight - there were less than 200 people waiting patiently to see the (sequence-wise) headliners of the Greek installment of the 2005 Firefest. Even if formerly known that mastermind Gregg Giuffria was not included in the re-vamped 2005 House Of Lords edition, I was shocked to see that there was no backup keyboard player around. Just imagine Skyclad with the violin missing, or Jethro Tull with the absence of the flute…Hmmm…

Yeap, House Of Lords kicked serious ass. A quartet consisting of non others than really remarkable musicians, delivered 100% music from the heart and - even if they said goodbye after only an hour - it was apparent that if Danger Danger did the party 'thing', House Of Lords did justice to their 'thinking' musical ID. James Christian was fully emotional; a great performer with a solid heart. Guitarist Lanny Cordola was ample, accurate and harmonious while bassist Chuck Wright transferred the band's vibe to the audience with sufficient supremacy and drummer Ken Mary was Ken Mary (for the ones who know…).

Kicking-off with "Sahara" I was too anxious_curious to see what the hell the band could deliver without keys. They did very well - indeed - but the songs were now 'transcribed' to a rather straightforward Rock mode. The sound did again reveal its weakness, still it was House Of Lords all the way. "Chains Of Love" breathed fire, "Love Don't Lie" filled the venue with passion and "Pleasure Palace" offered tons of adrenaline. "Edge Of Your Life" - from the legendary 1988 debut - marked our hearts and "The Rapture" (off the "Power And The Myth" 2004 release) - struck hard. "Slip Of The Tongue" created petite mosh pits in front of the astonished band (yeap, that's true!) but it was cuts like "I Wanna Be Loved" and the "Can't Find My Way Home" encore (Christian grabbed the acoustic six-string there…) that confirmed - in my eyes and ears, at least - the ascendancy of this band. I cannot imagine what would have happened with the addition of keyboards.

(Outro by Grigoris): It was 01:20 am when - walking out of the Oxygen venue - the words of Danger Danger's Bruno Ravel stuck 100% inside my head: "Take care and keep this music alive". This is the case. Discarding the exhaustion, the hunger and the smoked clothes, the message was clear. Even in 2005 - years after the 'golden' Hard Rock era - it's faith we can (and should) relay on. Thanks Red Rum, Blue Tears, Danger Danger, House Of Lords and Reptile Music. Thanks from the depths of our hearts.