If someone wonders where and how the real value of an artist shows, the answer was given on Saturday at the half a century old open air cinema in the center of Athens. The small looking (but very big in reality) Dutch visits our country very often. This time, I don’t know how tempting an acoustic performance of hers was, the truth is that for once more her unique magic dominated the hall and the Athenian sky.
Εntering “Trianon” the sounds and Lia Hide’s voice gave us a foretaste of how that evening was going to roll. The great Greek singer with the international career presented her latest personal album entitled “Home” with her four-member band, who, by playing the piano at the same time, charmed the audience who have bought the tickets for the concert a very long time before. The very decent covers of “Bullets” (Archive) and “Pretender” (Foo Fighters) were also heard. It was the best choice for a warm up in view of the follow up.
Setlist: Sunday Mornings, About Last Night, Northern Lights, Sue, Bullets, Walk Away, Pretender.
Next, Enemy Of Reality gave lessons of how to set and perform an acoustic set. With the songs of their brand new album “Rejected Gods” being performed in a very special way and with the unique voice of Ilianna dominating, they surely deserved the audience’s applause. We must note here Maxi Nil’s guest performance in the “Needle Bites” and the seven piece choir in the “Bargaining”, “Tom Apart” and “My Own Master” who closed the performance of Enemy Of Reality.
Setlist: Lifeless Eyes, Carnival Of Rust Poets Of The Fall, Needle Bites, Bargaining, Tom Apart, My Own Master.
Around 21:45’ and over a big applause, Anneke showed up in front of the audience , alone, standing up with an acoustic guitar and that unique smile of hers which has been her characteristic feature ever since she got on stage for the first time many years ago. For one hour and a half she was talking with the audience by singing songs from her personal discography, from her term with The Gathering starting with “My Electricity”, “4 Years”, “Wonder”, “Locked Away”, “Beautiful One” and more and a lot more from her favorite artists. We heard “I’m On Fire”( Bruce Springsteen), “Wish You Were Here” ( Pink Floyd), “Songbird” (Fleetwood Mac), “Somewhere” (Within Temptation), “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaak), “You are The Voice” ( John Farnham) and many more with a unique performance and an immediacy towards the audience.
Such performances make you realize how difficult it is for an artist to be on stage all alone, without the support of other musicians and to manage to create such an immediate and pleasant contact with the crowd. Believe me, as easy and simple as it may sound, it’s not. On the contrary it is difficult and dangerous. Presenting so many aspects of yourself as Anneke has been doing for so many years now, other than success it is a criterion for your value as I said in the beginning.
This is how the evening went by at the “Trianon”, with a performance which completely enchanted the audience who was there.
Dimitris Kazantzis
Photos: Yiannis Negris i-Jukebox.gr
