Mono, The Ocean, Afformance // Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece // 08.11.2015
Right after a successful tour in order to promote ‘Pelagial’, ‘the Ocean’ are back with a split EP, this time with the Japanese pioneers in instrumental ambient rock music ‘MONO’. In order to promote ‘Transcendental’ the two bands organized a tour which gave the fans the opportunity to experience something unique. Greece was also lucky to host the event too, with ‘MONO’ and ‘The Ocean’ to share the stage along with the greek post-rockers ‘Afformance’, in a ‘must-not-miss’ performance.
With the concert to be held at Fuzz and CTS to be responsible for making it happen, the show starts on time, with ‘Afformance’ on stage and a great number of fans to be present in the venue early, so as to enjoy the support act. For those not familiar with ‘Afformance’, the band is an instrumental post-rock one, with numerous of records in their discography (five since 2006). On stage, the band presented a non-stop performance of solid ambient post-rock. The acted with emotion and devotion, letting their trippy, melancholic guitars and their beautiful and inspired musical vision to take over the attendants. The result; everyone seemed pleased with the half-hour experience of emotional post-rock, which kind of reminded me of the band Russian Cycles and their scores. ‘Afformance’ must be considered as a well-fitted band in the concert yesterday, because their music along with ‘MONO’s seemed like a continuation of ideas expressed by music.
Right after the support act, ‘The Ocean’ went on stage. One year and a half ago, the band visited Greece again and performed the ‘Pelagial’ record along with a few other scores, in a one-time performance. In this concert, the fact that the band will only perform for a limited time and not for two hours or something similar, kind of depressed me. But what can someone do rather than enjoy the concert? From the beginning of the concert the band dominated on stage, even if they seemed tired from the excessive touring. Accompanying them, the band had us surprised by having live keyboards and cello. The audience had the chance to enjoy live ‘The Quiet Observer’ along with tracks from ‘Pelagial’ and ‘Precambrian’. Loic was in a great shape and the sound was quite great too. The non-stop touring got the band exhausted and on stage they seemed less active than the previous concert in Athens, but as far as the quality of their performance is concerted, ‘The Ocean’ made another astonishing concert! I also feel the need to mention that the small ‘lights’ (more like small lanterns) the band has placed on stage so as to fit with the artificial mist were remarkable too.
After about one hour set, the stage was prepared for ‘MONO’, because of the band’s unique stage positioning. Two of the band’s members usually sit on chairs, rather than stand up and flee all over the stage. As a poet expresses himself through words, ‘MONO’ express poems through musical notes. With a setlist that combined songs like ‘Ashes in the Snow’, ‘Recoil, Ignite’ and new songs like ‘Death in Reverse’ which appears in the split record with ‘The Ocean’, ‘MONO’ managed to teach the audience about expression, passion and emotion just with a bunch of instruments and lot of talent. They seemed focused on stage, solid and haunting, trying their best to reach their audience.
In overall, the concert was delightful, as all bands went on stage and unfolded their love for music. Now it is time for everyone to work on new records and why not visit our country again, to promote and support their new material.
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Check S&D Photography for more photos.