Misfits // Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece // 24.02.2014
When a so legendary band in its field like the Misfits come over for a gig, one owes to himself to see them if he is considered a punk fan. The writer mostly familiar with the band via covers of Metallica, Cradle Of Filth, Hatebreed etc etc, was ready for an amazing rock n roll show by the band that combines such feel good music with gore and horror lyrics so perfectly. Something appreciated by the fans that jam packed Fuzz Club, even though it was a Monday night and one thought not many people could attend due to school or work obligations.
Doors opened at 22:30 and the band hit the stage 5-10 minutes later with “The Devil’s Rain” the title track off their latest work. That night we heard stuff from the entire Misfits catalogue, about 40 songs making it the longest concert in terms of tracks I’ve ever attended to: “The Devil’s Rain” (Curse Of The Mummy’s Hand, Dark Shadows, Death Ray, Father, Ghost Of Frankenstein, Jack The Ripper, Land Of The Dead”, “The Monkey’s Paw”, “Vivid Red”) “Static Age” (“Angelfuck”, “Attitude”, “Hybrid Moments”, “She” “Some Kinda Hate”, “Static Age”, “TV Casualty”, “Teenagers From Mars”, “We Are 138”) “American Psycho” (writers’ all time favorite) (“Abominable Dr. Phibes”, “American Psycho”, “Dig Up Her Bones”, “From Hell They Came”, “Shining”) “Walk Among Us” (“20 Eyes”, “Hatebreeders”, “I Turned Into a Martian”, “Skulls”, “Vampira”) “Famous Monsters” (“Descending Angel”, “Helena”, “Saturday Night”, “Scream!”) some various stuff from a boxset (“Ghoul’s Night Out”, “Halloween”, “Horror Business”, “Horror Hotel”, “Where Eagles Dare”) and of course the amazing all time classic “DIE DIE DIE MY DARLING!” off “Earth A.D.”.
Each and every song caused big mosh pits as done by the originators of this art (don’t forget where Thrash metal got the body slamming techniques from! Just ask Anthrax) and wild crowd surfing. What was a pleasure to watch was the sight of old and young fans of the band wrapped together in the same room with no one looking down on the other. The Misfits also have the awesome ability to combine punks, rockers and metalheads in the same room, in times where all 3 categories were arguing which genre is better. Then in came these guys and alongside with Motorhead made every self-respecting rock fan look at them in respect and awe and bond everybody under pure rock n roll live attitude and no bullshit performance. And that’s what they did, no big speeches between songs, no candy coated stuff, just pure adrenaline and a small comment from Jerry Only (“I’ve heard that you guys have got some attitude!!”) who was undeniably the star of the show: communicating with the crowd throughout their and at the end breaking the strings on his bass.
One of the best punk shows I’ve ever had the chance to witness, 1 hour and 45 minutes of moshing headbanging and stage diving and of course singing loud and proud for Misfits. See ya guys!!
Report: John Savvidis
Photos: Andreas Denwar