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Ejekt Festival 2010

Tuesday afternoon we arrived at the indoor stadium of Tae Kwon Do in Faliro for the Ejekt Festival. Let's start with a list from a "plus" and "minus" of the whole festival ...
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Last week was one easy to be qualified as a week of several decibels, of memories from other decades, dust, sweat, of blind light, of hot dogs, beer, and generally a week of concerts.

Within seven days we went to Rockwave, Ejekt and Cranberries yesterday. All at once. Having in mind that the World Cup this year changed the programming of many organizers around the world justifies this.

Tuesday afternoon we reached the Indoor Stadium of Tae Kwon Do in Faliro for the Ejekt Festival. Let's start with a list from  "plus" and "minus" of the whole festival:

In pros

+ The Ejekt really rocked out and satisfied many who were disappointed by the composition of this year's Rockwave.
+ All three groups (Bad Religion, Faith No More, UNKLE) were good and the bands were at high spirits (especially Bad Religion).
+ The Graffin and Patton. The voices of the singers of Bad Religion and Faith No More are just like old wine.
+ People. Fortunately the venue was filled and there were no low turnouts that we have seen in previous days. In fact the audience knew very well why they had come to the Tae Kwon Do and I can say that it was the best and most informed I've seen.
+ After last year's rather unsuccessful - ticketwise - year, fortunately Ejekt took place, even though many cuts have been made.
+ The air conditioning when we got there was a bless because of the heat that was out.

In cons

- Venue. We were saying it even before the Festival. First it is not suitable for Summer Festivals in Greece, but it is not even easier to have the right sound there.
- Sound. I do not know much of the work of Sound Engineers, but logic tells me that when you have a concert of a rock band (which is even more difficult than other concerts soundwise) indoors there is one more obstacle: the reflection of sound. Then again how are the concerts indoors abroad? How come it was  crystal clear in Jean Michel Jarre's concert (though another style of music there)? Unfortunately, the sound overall in Ejekt was not good. Further away from the stage (where there were more reflections), the sound was even worse. Those who were in the rear seats have probably gone mad several times ...
- Cigarette smoking and ventilation. OK, we're not smokers, but don't we stand a chance? After the appearance of Bad Religion and shortly before Faith No More sweat combined with the "thick smoke" of tobacco created a pretty ugly combination. In open space there would certainly not be such issues.
- Cuts. From a two days festival it became one day festival. From the wide open space and the area of  Elliniko, in Tae Kwon Do Stadium. Tough times for Festivals in Greece, we know.

Unfortunately we haven't seen our own Zebra Tracks. For Serbs Obojeni Program I do not have much to say. I do not know if bad sound was to blame, but we couldn't wait for it to finish ...


BadReligion

Bad Religion [by ody]

How quickly time passes by... I was young and aged ... and other such clichés but real phrases are going through my mind as I go into an indoor (at summer time) Stadium of Tae Kwon Do and Bad Religion have already began their  only second appearance in Athens in their 30 years of history. Exactly 14 (fourteen!) years ago and more or less the same time I was a few miles away, on the Pier 3 at the Piraeus port (as we are reminded by Leonidas here ) where veterans Californians punkers made their debut in the Greek audience at the festival Rock of Gods, playing before the Jesus And Mary Chain.

Well, if I were to say that more or less the set was the same, would you believe me? If you consider that most of the songs played the almost 90-minute «best of» set were from that time and back, you understand that it is likely that memory serves me.


BadReligion

If you also add to our data (to speak scientifically, as we have before us a professor with PhD ) that Bad Religion have not changed anything in their sound since they started with the historic "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?" at the beginning of the '80s (OK, they added a melody later), it is easy to understand that what we heard in 2010 is in no way different from what we remember the oldest since 1996. And probably, sound wise at least, we would listen the same if the time machine would take us back 30 years in a hole in Los Angeles in their early steps.

The essential difference is that 30 years ago we would see the story in its beginning (there is no doubt that the explosion of hardcore punk, where Bad Religion have a major contribution, is where some of the major rock names later - by Pixies up to Nirvana have their roots), while 14 years ago we would saw a group that was at least near the peak of its popularity. But what we saw in 2010, only as a history lesson for younger and nostalgia for the oldest can be seen (the same naturally applies to Faith No More who followed or Pixies we saw last year).

It was a punk party of another era, but whoever had the stupid requirement to see something really new, had lost. But judging by the response of the majority of the public, this is fine print. It is also known that in Greece the experience and the security of iteration are popular - new and everything new, let them queue. Welcome to the  '90!


BadReligion

Some of the songs heard : Do What You Want, Sinister Rouge, We're Only Gonna Die, Recipe For Hate, Flat Earth Society, Before You Die, A Walk, How Much Is Enough, No Control, Requiem For Dissent, Atomic Garden, Sanity, Suffer, No Direction, Los Angeles Is Burning, Germs Of Perfection, I Want To Conquer The World, Materialist, Fuck Armageddon This Is Hell, Along The Way, Infected, American Jesus, Generator, 21st Century Digital Boy, Sorrow.



Faith No More [by gbal]

It was evident that most of the people had come for Faith No More. The response of the world (more than Bad Religion), the shirts most people wore and the fact that after their appearance many people left.

At 10:23 PM started Faith no More with Mike Patton wearing a white costume whith "Midnight Cowboy". With this piece, or "Reunited" they started most of their concerts last year and this year. The rest was From out of nowhere in which Patton puts the microphone in his mouth and screams evil ...

He could do whatever he wanted done with his voice! Even though in his forties (hopefully 42), his vocal abilities remain indelible. It was not all. On the stage there was constant motion. He made some classic rounds (as did Graffin earlier) and generally he was  "playing" as much as possible with the public and those who were in the "zone of fire" in the front....


FaithnoMore

Caffeine in a very dynamic performance, Evidence to remember the old delights, Surprise you are dead to rock out loud! The whole set was like the Bad Religion Best of. Highlights of the night "Epic", "King for a day", "Easy", "Ashes to Ashes" & "Caffeine" with the public singing and dancing.

As for the sound we had said it above, so let's not repeat ourselves. At 23:37 the set closes with the last note of "Just a man" and three minutes after Faith No More came back on stage to hand out shirts and devote the cover in "Chariots of Fire" in the "greatest Greek composer" for them, Vangelis .


23.55 second encore with "Pristina" and the end for Faith no More. I would close, with a more powerful song like "We care a lot", but...

Some of the songs heard : Midnight Cowboy, From out of nowhere, Caffeine, Evidence, Surprise you are dead, Last cup of sorrow, Cuckoo for Caca, Easy, Ashes to Ashes, Ben (arranged in a Jackson 5), King for a day, Midlife Crisis, Epic, Just a man. Encore 1: Chariots of Fire (Vangelis). Encore 2: Pristina.



UNKLE [by ody]

The evening ended with UNKLE, multiparty  shape of James Lavelle, who may in the beginning  had more to do with dance and electronic scene, but in recent years have made a clear shift in rock sound (see collaborations with Chris Goss, Josh Homme, Ian Astbury, Mark Lanegan, etc.). So their participation in this year's electric Ejekt was far from being inappropriate - even though it was not appreciated by a great number of viewers, since there were few who stayed after FNM.

UNKLE

The truth is that it is not easy to stay out late when it's a working day. However, those who remained with they were rewarded with a 70minutes set which represented all their works, from the important for its time «Psyence Fiction» (where the «Lonely Soul» in the encore, which even without Richard Ashcroft was heard fine) by the remarkable recent «Where Did the Night Fall» (heard here «The Answer», «Natural Selection», «Follow Me Down», «Ablivion », the latter two were among the highlights of the evening).

Admittedly it is a different thing to see Josh Homme singing in front of you and another to only hear his voice in rousing «Restless», but such a concert that would gather all the stars that occasionally participated in UNKLE's works only in the realms of science fiction could be happening. Otherwise, the visual part of the concert with video projections and suitable lighting kept momentum in our interest, while notable was the energy of the band on stage seemed to stem more from the guitar rather than the computer tricks of Lavelle (or so convinced us).

Note that the sound of UNKLE I found it much cleaner than the previous bands, but this is probably due to my position in front of the stage. Generally, audio in such venue is not suitable for concerts and change of venue was one of the negative charged to the festival.

We heard : The Answer, Burn My Shadow, Chemistry, Natural Selection, Reign, Restless, Glow, Follow Me Down, Keys To The Kingdom, Ablivion, Eye For An Eye and the encore Heaven, Lonely Soul and In A State.



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