“fever in the head…”
Friday night on a small venue, with music we love, cheap ticket and smiles, many many smiles for two great Greek bands. Headliners were the experienced THE SCREAMING FLY with a great mix of old and new tracks and along with them DIESEL CINDY that presented their great debut album.
“Nobody’s different…”
The area around the venue is full of trendy bars packed with people so I was wondering who are those that still choose to spend their Friday night in an alternative way. My question was quickly answered when I reached the place and there were plenty of fans already there as Diesel Cindy got on stage a few minutes after 21:30. They are a quartet from Athens that recently released their debut album Spill The Dirt, a great album that many didn’t have the chance to include it on their best of lists but worth to be checked 100%. And although they are a new band the members are all known already from other bands of the local scene.
So, it was this album they brought on stage and all the tracks became even better as their fuzzy garage rock is really addictively catchy and has the kind of energy that grabs you immediately and it kept going like this through out their 40 minutes long set. Their music of course includes many elements from other genres too, so you can hear some heavy rock groove here and there and this pushing your body and head to shake or to reach the bar for another beer to go along with their energy. They played all the tracks from the album apart from The Walk that closes the album in a Tom Waits-y way but this will would have changed the rock n roll energy of a live performance. To avoid a self-goal they decided to go with a safer choice and this was a cover of Stooges which of course brough more smiles on the face of everyone. “And I’ll lay right down in my favorite place…”
Diesel Cindy video:
Diesel Cindy setlist:
Sons Of Nothing / Angels / Seeds / Bazooka Witch / No Truth No End / Chieftains / Spill The Dirt / I Wanna Be Your Dog
As expected, during the break many fans moved towards the merch corner to catch the vinyl of Diesel Cindy but after a while were all stood in front of the stage for The Screaming Fly. They are an experienced band and this shows when they play live but I still think that they false themselves with their tiny discography (only two albums in thirty years).
“you are wiser than your brain…”
But it doesn’t really matters as this is great power trio that worth to catch them live every time they are around. They kicked off with Hole just to warm up and then they offered us Real, a favorite track from Super Zero album. Kostas was great on drumming (I really love his rolling at times) and matches super smooth with Stasinos on bass while Stefanis was doing his own tricks with his guitar and pedals. The vocals could be a bit louder on the mix but in general the band had a great sound on stage and no one complaint. Evol is a small diamond that lasts less than three minutes but this is enough to get high with them, this is what I love on this band, the psychedelic touch they add to their garage rock is always down to earth and they are not just some stoner band that hides behind some never ending fuzzy pseydo-psychedelic trippy sounds.
They also added some new tracks that they start to become old as we get used to hear them live lately so they must record them on a new album soon. One of the best moments of their set was Mushroom when Konstantina Latzaki (vocalist of Lotus Emperor) got on stage and spiced up their performance. The cover of Last Drive’s Baby It’s Real made people go crazy while my personal favorite Animal closed their show. But fans wanted more and they never say no and played two more songs, with an ideal closing as they played Dead Moon’s Don’t Look Back. Indeed, don’t look back but when you will it will be nights like this to remember…
The Screaming Fly video:
The Screaming Fly setlist:
Hole / Real / Evol / Summer Dope Death / Burn / Mushroom / Electric Sea / Dimension X / Baby It’s Real / Fuck / Animal / Sucks / Don’t Look Back
® live report/photos/video: Konstantinos Mindcrimek Vlachos