Electric Wizard
Gagarin 205, Athens , Greece
25/3/2011
Grab your weed, get stoned and drunk and let’s go for an Electric Wizard trip! That was my plan. And if you think about it, it was probably the plan of anyone who attended the show. Not a surprise when we talk about a stoner/doom band rising from the grave of demonic midfields and satanic rites! It was their second day in Greece after a gig in Salonika and black masses where gathering in the heart of Athens to pay their devotion to the wizard.
Agnes Vein, a Greek black/doom band, open the show for the night. Let me get this straight. I always support small bands and I respect the fact of all their efforts but seriously: that was the most boring opening act I ever saw in my life! It may sound a little too much to say something like that but I prefer to say things as they are. Lack of inspiration, extremely bad presentation I was begging to stop. And judging everyone in the audience I think everyone was thinking of pulling out their eyes with a spoon and plug them in their ears! Really annoying performance
But anyway enough with this and let’s cut to the chase. Electric Wizard appear on stage and the mob goes wild! The sounds of Sabbaths and kabala were about to fill the place! Jus Oborn reminding their roots with a Saint Vitus patch on his back, Liz Buckingham (Jesus Christ what a woman!) astonishing stone lady and the demonizing Tas Danazoglou and Shaun Rutter enter the ritual with ” The Chosen Few” . Doom in his majesty. The whole place was filled with weed essence and the satanic video projections on the back was giving the impression of being in a Devil worshipers temple of doom. Spooky hein? The band gave as the live taste of their last album “Black Mass” with the three tracks “Scorpio Curse”, “The Nightchild” and “Black Mass” wich was a blast! From the past came “Return Trip” the amazing “Satanic Rites Of Drugula”, “Withcult Today” and for the ending track the fullstony “Dopethrone”.
The amazing surprise was that they pack their stuff and exit without an encore.. Music from a player, lights on, doors open, everyone were astonished as we couldn’t believe they didn’t gave us an encore. As I heard from a security guard later there was a disagreement between the band and the sound technician. But you can’t ignore the presence of all these worshipers begging and so… music off, light out and here they are! Jus giving his middle finger to the sound technician and start playing what else… “Funeralopolis”.
To summarise if you are a fan of the doomy sounds and dark dopeful sounds this was an excellent goats head soup served by “Electric Wizard”! Looking forward to see them in another show.
Logan Chevet