Kyuss Lives!, Drive By Wire
Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece
25/3/2011.
On the day of the national celebration of the Greek revolution against the Turks, we had the luck, the gift and the eternal joy to witness one of the best and most honest bands of all times in the history of music in our country. The legendary Kyuss with three of the original members on stage, being vocalist John Garcia, bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Brant Bjork, accompanied by Bruno Fevery on guitars, whose presence stole the impressions and made me personally very happy that Josh Homme wasn’t there (I despise him in the highest possible rate for his attitude after leaving the band).
Drive By Wire from Holland had the great honour to open for the heroes mentioned above. Not even in their dreams would they ever think about such an event. For forty minutes, they managed to get the applause of the crowd of about 1700 people that had filled Fuzz Club. They started at 20:30 sharp and played very well. To be honest, I was not familiar with their material at all but it is one of the few days that I desperately want to see a band and the support didn’t tire me at all. Their female vocalist could sing a little louder but her smile didn’t make that look that bad. A nice performance by a nice band indeed.
Kyuss Lives, huh? And who told you they died in the past? If someone could find a definition for a group being split up for more than 15 years and have left such a legacy behind, then the word Kyuss would be the meaning of this. Starting with the invincible ”Gardenia”, this trip without drugs lasted 80 minutes, with fifteen songs filling the fans with frenzy and what made things even worse was not that the sound was great and they played with a colossal performance, but the fact that the four musicians seemed to be fully focused on their music and not the fans. Especially John Garcia seemed larger than life itself, wearing his glasses and just smiling once or twice during the show.
Entering ”Hurricane” and ”Thumb”, we realised that this was not a dream and we were alive and kicking to see some of the songs that have been in our life from a very young age. ”One Inch Man” follows and then came apocalypse. ”Welcome To Sky Valley” which is most fans’ favourite album was represented the most, and it was ”Conan Troutman” that created a large yelling inside the club. ”Freedom Run” with its psychedelic touch seemed to ease things a bit, before the storm continued with ”Asteroid”, ”Supa Scoopa And Mighty Scoop”, ”Odyssey” and ”Whitewater”. What you read is absolutely true, they played four in a row from this godly album!
”El Rodeo” and ”100 Degrees” were the ones that closed the main part of the set, with the crowd screaming as much as possible in order the band to come back on stage. I’ve always been thinking which songs I would listen to if I ever saw the band live, but ”Spaceship Landing” would never cross my mind. And it was the biggest (and longest) surprise for us all. The show closed with a ”Blues For The Red Sun” suite of ”Allen’s Wrench” and last but not least ”Green Machine” (total mayhem). They came, they saw, they conquered. So simply!
I’d like to make known to all the ones who didn’t make it to the show because it was sold out about two months ago, that if you ever have a chance to see them, DON’T miss it for the whole world, starting from Rockwave Festival in summer in Athens. You can’t imagine how emotions will run through you (especially if you are big fans) and how CERTAIN they seem on the stage. Oliveri made me not being nostalgic about Scott Reeder, Fevery can reproduce this riffs 100% right, Bjork is a great drummer who can cause rhythm at all points. For the titan called John Garcia there are no words. Kyuss always lives and Kyuss will never die. End transmission!
Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.