“guided to the strangest of fruits…”
The first Poltergeist festival took place in the middle of summer (July 6, 2024) and it was quite a success as an attempt to give gig opportunities in summer for underground greek bands. This time Poltergeist festival was back as a two-day festival, with three bands each day, at the same venue, while the temperature was way lower than the burning heat of July.
I was there the first day and saw Penny Dreadful, New Zero God and A Monkey Shine without knowing the order of appearance of the bands as this was decided by draw the last minute, a unique move as this level there are no small or big names.
“deep in the mud…”
Level 69 is a great place for gigs, located in Moschato (a bit out of Athens but only 500 meters away from the subway), a beautiful venue with a raised stage, good lights and ideal sound system. The drink prices could be cheaper though, as they were in contrast with the low ticket price of the festival (only 10 euros per day).
A common complain of many when it comes to live concerts in Greece is the fact that they tend to end up way too late, many times after midnight, when it’s hard to find public transportation to return back home. So, in this case there was no such a headache, as they changed the timeline and the doors opened early in the afternoon and the last band would get off the stage at 22:00! That’s why I got there at 19:00, when the first band was ready to start.
Τhe lottery between the bands at soundcheck drew out A Monkey Shine, so they were the unlucky ones that had to play in a venue that wasn’t really packed early in the afternoon. But these guys didn’t seem to bother much and they gave a professional show, they took advantage of the great sound, presenting us compositions from their debut album Altered State, that was released some months ago. They call their music swamp rock, I guess due to the fact that the band was formed by George Tolias (bass) in New Orleans, but to be more precise they play alternative rock, not far from 90s grunge, with several cinematic patterns, kind of dreamy also, most probably they have a wide range of influences but the final result is great. That’s why they managed to hold my interest through out their 40 minutes long set.
A Monkey Shine video:
A Monkey Shine setlist:
Late Wait / Lazy Eye / Cotton White Overdrive / Interstate Love Song / Audiotrip / Get To The Point / Make Ends Meet / Deep In The Mud
“circus of tortured melodies…”
After a ten minutes break the stage was ready to house New Zero God, the main band of Mike Pougounas, who is the founder of Poltergeist Festival. Apart from New Zero God, he also plays at the more experimental Nexus but he’s been around for some time in general and he is an artist that I follow since the Flowers Of Romance years (a great dark rock band that gave us some great albums back in the 90s). All the musicians of New Zero God have experience and as a band they have many albums so I had no doubt that they would be good on stage like all the previous times. This time they played compositions from many different albums but the debut Fun Is A Four Letter Word got the lion’s share, with four out of the ten songs they had in their setlist been from that work. What’s more, the fans’ favorite Angeline was groovy enough, Mike seemed laid back as always (hands up for the hot coffee at the corner of the stage), he performed in a unique way the songs but also played the tambourine. The rhythm section was highly solid (Semertzoglou on bass, Psimopoulos on drums) but all the eyes were on Panagiotis Arsenis, a great guitar player, with a sound that made us feel like we were watching Carlos Santana playing dark rock! They finished their show with a cover from Flowers Of Romance, an ideal closure for us.
New Zero God video:
New Zero God setlist:
Damaged / Strangest Of Fruits / Angeline / Dead Inside / Kiss The Witch / Hell Bet On Me To Lose / My Reaper / The Love Hatesong / What’cha Gonna Do / Reptile Dance (-Flowers Of Romance cover)
“all the way down the freeway…”
As I mentioned already there were no real headliners but at 21:00 it was time to see the last band of the night. Penny Dreadful is an alternative rock n roll band from Athens. They play a nice mix of garage, country and dark american, a great mix if you ask me that would also sound great on a road trip. In fact their music brought images of saw rural Arizona corners, like a scene from a western film, huge cactus instead of tress and an outlaw getting inside a saloon to tell stories about the devil etc
This nice power trio was really catchy and stunned the fans, especially the imporessive bass lines of Panos Tomaras. On drums we noticed Giannis Psimomoulos again (who played earlier with New Zero God) while Ioannis Kalifatidis was in the center of the stage, responsible for vocals and guitar. Some us we knew him from his old band Into The Abyss but Penny Dreadful is something completely different. Most tracks they played were from their two studio albums but they will bring to light new material soon.
Penny Dreadful video:
Penny Dreadful setlist:
Polemos / Devil In The Attic / Death Blow / No Meaning At All / Love Walks On A Wire / Maze / Love Born The Machine / Over / Burnin’ Hole
® κείμενο/φωτογραφίες/video: Konstantinos Mindcrimek Vlachos
