Sky Guitar met ESP, and the master met the best student. The deep, warm and passionate voice met the absolute metal and the generation that refuses to retire gathered with the younger one to show the road that will never follow, since nowadays that road is a high speed interstate. All that happened in one of the most historical venues in Athens, “Kyttaro”, last Tuesday.

 

Jorn Lande kicked off what was going to be an endless night with a total length of four hours. Together with Ule W. Ritgen, and Jamie Little from Uli Jon Roth’s band, as well as Makis Tselentis on keyboards, he played for almost half an hour songs from his latest albums, as well as an amazing  cover of Black Sabbath’s “Wishing Well”. That was a great performance that brought sheer excitement to the crowd on their first contact with him.

Setlist: Carry The Black, Legend Man, Below, Wishing Well, World Gone Mad, Lonely Are The Brave
 
Gus G followed, again with Roth’s band, and the incredible Mats Leven on vocals. His one hour set included some highlights from his debut solo album “I Am The Fire”, as well as the great covers on Thin Lizzy’s “Hollywood”, Black Sabbath’s “Into The Void”, and Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”. Firewind’s “Kill To Live” was also among the songs they played with Bob Katsionis as a special guest on guitar. From Gus G’s show I have to underline Mats Leven’s amazing performance in every level, as well as the guitarist’s incredible technique and astonishing stage presence. If he manage to establish his own sound we will be talking for one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and that guy would be coming from our country!

Setlist: My Will Be Done, Eyes Wide Open, Summer Days, Vengeance, Blame It On Me, Just Can’t Let Go, Hollywood, Kill To Live, Redemption, Into The Void, I Am The Fire, Crazy Train

 
The man with the Sky Guitar has become something like a permanent resident of Greece, as well as his ex band. His performances offer a great magic to the loyal crowd that always stand by his side, and this show couldn’t have been any different. Just like his latest performances a few years earlier, early Scorpions had the lion’s share. And that’s where the weak spot was, the singer, like last year. He might be the best person in the world but as far as vocals go he couldn’t cope, and he made mistakes. This music is of the highest caliber and this guy is struggling to be Meine, and Schenker at the same time. That’s simply impossible. The rest of the band was great though, with Makis Tselentis doing an amazing job. “We’ll Burn The Sky”, “In Trance”, “Fly To The Rainbow” were welcomed with loads of enthusiasm from the almost 350 lucky people who attended the show at Kyttaro, and I say lucky and I mean it, because shortly after “Dark Lady” Uli Jon Roth called “Unity” on stage. Thus, with Gus and Leven “Pictured Life” sent us to the moon, taking the whole thing up several notches! And that wasn’t all, since Jorn Lande returned to the stage for an amazing take on Deep Purple’s “Mistreated”. The show was over by one of Roth’s regular Hendrix covers, “Atlantis”.

What we witnessed was an awesome 4-hour long show on Tuesday night, right until Wednesday’s first hours! I think this could have been completed within Tuesday… it was a night when generations joined forces. It was a great idea, which I would very much like to see more of with other older, and young artists of the same level.

Dimitris Kazantzis

 
Set list:
All Night Long, Longing For Fire, Catch Your Train, Crying Days, Top Of The Bill, Sun In My Hand, We’ll Burn The Sky, In Trance, Fly To The Rainbow, The Sails Of Charon, Dark Lady, Pictured Life, Mistreated, Atlantis

 

 

 

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