Second time for PARKWAY DRIVE in Athens and I would be a fool to miss it! Without any second thought I gathered some friends and went downtown to pay a visit to the historic Kyttaro club, where the Australian quintet was playing. I was surprised to see so many people (kids to be more precise) waiting outside. I was expecting a high attendance, but the club was packed! Oh, and by the way, kids have to realize that a moustache on a 16 year old boy looks totally lame! To hell with those trends!
With only a few minutes delay, the first support act FALL OF MAN hit the stage only to leave me wondering if they were "suitable" let's say for the specific show. Having in mind PARKWAY DRIVE's sound, I was surprised to come across an act that was into emo infused melodic Punk Rock. The sound was also kind of bad, since the drums where "buried" and unfortunately I can't have a fair opinion on them. Thumbs up for the crowd that supported the band and was even singing some lyrics! One of the beautiful moments of that night! Oh, and what's with that fucking new trend with the jumping and running? Damn!
Next band on the billing was the young quintet from Athens, UNMASKING THE BETRAYER. Their weird Deathcore sound seems to have found many fans, since there were many people screaming their name and from the very first note the crowd went frenzy with mosh-pits and a wall of death setting the foundations for some friendly, violent fun. The thing is that the sound was kind of shit here, too, since the drumming didn't have the best possible sound and there were parts that you couldn't even understand whether there were some mistakes or it was a part of the song. The boys though gave their best and the crowd seemed to give its full respect. Definitely better than the last time I saw UNMASKING THE BETRAYER supporting THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER.
The time had come and the Australian five piece act grabbed its gear to deliver a show that good that not a single person in there will ever forget, myself included! I really wasn't expecting such a passionate performance by PARKWAY DRIVE, and definitely not such chaos down in the pit! The youngsters that had swamped the venue really went nuts! And who wouldn't want to bring the fucking place down when songs like "Boneyards", "Smoke'em If you Got'em", "Sleepwalker", "The Sirens Song" and many more moshing hymns were coming out of the speakers? You really can't even imagine what was going on in there if you didn't attend the show! Winston McCall (the band's singer) was calling out for stage diving and mosh-pit all the time and the crowd just didn't want to let him down. There wasn't even a second that you would lay your eyes on the stage and someone wouldn't be up there to jump down! We and the band had a hell of a good time and that was obvious from the huge smiles the guys from PARKWAY DRIVE had on their faces! Plus the sound was a lot better than the support acts, so if someone wants to bitch about something, that would probably be because he didn't catch Gordon's drum sticks, hehehe!
Nothing more or less to say here. That Sunday night will definitely be a night to remember for all those who were in Kyttaro and were pouring sweat and passion (that sounded kind of gay). We're already waiting for them to return…
