Graveyard, Night Knight // Gagarin205, Athens, Greece // 25.06.2016
The return of the vintage rockers to Greece wasn’t as successful as the previous time. Definitely less people attending, and most of all, pretty weak presence both on and off the Gagarin 205 stage.
The nights’ opening act NIGHT KNIGHT, didn’t quite please me until the drum solo on the last song of their set. The almost hypnotized audience started cheering and applauding, since the drummers’ passion passed on to them. 15 minutes later, the nights main’ act, managed to do the same with its music.
GRAVEYARD get on stage with “Slow Motion Countdown”, a sort of sluggish track. Not the best way to kick off a rock concert (although this track is beautiful). Then, the band lifts things up a bit with “Buying Truth (Tack & Forlat)” and “7/7”, bringing the beat up. The heat along with the smoke, created a suffocating atmosphere in the venue, which was fortunately half-packed, so the situation was borderline tolerable.
The audience was definitely affected by the low dynamics of the sound (the drums sounded extremely low, as well as the one guitar), because it was very nerveless compared to the previous visit of the Swedes. The setlist covered mostly the best songs of the band (The Apple And The Tree, Exit 97, An Industry of Murder, Magnetic Shunk, Hissingen Blues, Uncomfortably Numb, Ain’t Fit To Live Here), but they didn’t play the best song on their previous album (Innocence And Decadence) called “Can’t Walk Out”. Joakim Nilsson was very consistent vocal-wise, but we can’t overlook the fact that he was not as impressive as a guitar player. The blues rock style of Graveyard, leaves lots of room for improvisations and stretched out solos that build names in the guitarists’ field. However, both the bands’ mainman and Jonatan Larocca-Ramm didn’t seem to care about showing off.
Siren was the final track of the night, leaving the audience with a sweet taste. Graveyards’ music comes from the past. The bands’ attitude is beyond honesty, playing without lots of exaggerations and tricks. It’s a mistake for someone, however, to believe that in the past, the bands didn’t have professional attitude or didn’t insist on working every detail.