It had been, almost five years since Joe Lynn Turner, last visited Greece, but his last stance here was as part of the Rainbow tribute “Over The Rainbow” that brought together, former members of the band from various line-up with the big man’s son Jurgen, in order to play some of the bands best material, with as much authority and authenticity as possible. But it was rather unfortunate that his performance then, was rather poor, since he had given almost 25 performances in over a month, so when the band reached Greece, with little time off, Joey’s voice, was pretty much gone. I can attest to the fact that he was most fantastic on that tour, because I had the chance and the privilege to see him perform also a month earlier than that Greek date, during on the Sweden Rock Festival days with OTR and he was simply astonishing!
So, I suppose it was only natural to want to go and get a second, well third in my case, shot at watching Joe, making light work of some of the songs that made him famous, or at least that was what the tin said… Let me explain!
I arrived at the Kyttaro Club around 8.30 and by that time people were slowly but steadily starting to come in and at long last, almost filled the venue! It was heartwarming to see that the crowds are not completely gone in Greece and that they haven’t turned their collective backs at hard rock and heavy metal... as George Gakis and the Troublemakers took the stage shortly thereafter, the venue was more than half full and everything hinted that a good night was going to be had... the sound was good and the people were eager. Gakis is a long standing figure in the hard rock matters in Greece and has tried hard to get himself established, managing to become a prominent figure in the Greek rock circles, he and his band performed a decent show of standards and originals and tried his best to get the crowd going, almost succeeding it at times. The band started off with an own composition “I Married Trouble”, did a rather low and underwhelming version of “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, then went on to do another original called “Fame” and then “Cold Sweat” by Thin Lizzy that sounded more appropriate, another original “Days of Rock‘n’Roll”, and then a Rory Gallagher number – the well-known “Moonchild” for which they invited on stage Mr. Bary Barnes who’s a member of the cover-band Sinnerboy, then they did Whitesnake’s “Gimme All Your Love Tonight”, “Love in an Elevator” by Aerosmith, “Have a Nice Day” by Bon Jovi, in a triplet of covers, to close with a duo of originals – the not so imaginatively titled “Street of Broken Dreams”, which is however a nice enough ballad and one of the better songs of Gakis and the traditional “Μη Με Κοιτάς Στα Μάτια”.
A while passed and a bunch of unknown guys got on stage and started soundchecking. Apparently those were to be JLT’s backing band, a band of merry fellas he picked up in Italy or somewhere... ehm while they weren’t exactly bad, maybe they weren’t entirely great either, as they seemed to lack the sparkle of “magic” and grandeur and possibly due to some of their performance shortcomings, several candidate songs – had to be “axed” from the show, resulting in no solo material being aired, no Yngwie stuff getting played and even MK2/3 stuff of DP getting priority over other more obvious or favorable, selections... Hmm... I mean, fair enough, the poster said Deep Purple & Rainbow and that was delivered, but... still (I’m a little sad :P) or at least I could have been a little happier!
People loved and cheered the performance, which wasn’t bad... Joe, being in really good form this time, did well. He had a good interaction with the crowd and was as much a star as he needed to be and as much an entertainer, switching seamlessly and managing to keep the crowd eating from the palm of his hand, while singing very well and posing wildly so the photographers could snap pictures... and making it all look very effortless!
The performance started with “Death Alley Driver” which was predictably storming, and then “I Surrender” after a little “playful” tease from Joe, with the crowd really reacting in a big way... there was “Perfect Strangers” which made little sense, but was awesomely performed and then Joe told us that once upon a time he had a “Jealous Lover” that phoned him up in the middle of a tour and accused him of cheating on her, prompting him to dump her on the spot, because he wasn’t and go out and “cheat” then and btw, just change the next song he wrote into “Jealous Lover” by writing the lyrics in the bathroom in 15 minutes... oh well. Plausible theory... or good concert banter, who knows! Well “Can’t Let You Go” made us go bent out of shape, and Joe told us that he wrote “Street of Dreams” for a very special someone and she made his life complete and that he’s very fond of all the memories... you get picture. He then went on to remember the late and great Ronnie James Dio. The “Man on the Silver Mountain” in a really cool rendition that showed that while he can be very sweet and sentimental, Joe’s voice can also channel quite a bit of aggression when necessary. “King of Dreams” got aired as well and it was pretty cool and “Highway Star” with all the high pitched shenanigans... obviously not what you’d expect, but still great songs nonetheless. “Pictures of Home” made us slightly melancholic and “Can’t Happen Here” made us erupt. One of the best MK3, numbers “Strombringer” was then unfurled... and it was awesome, but I was thinking c’mon, man – you could have done “Love Conquers All” or something else... from “your” catalog in its place... ah well... but i wasn’t going to complain at least too much!
“Long Live Rock‘n’Roll” then got a celebratory overextended rendition that included bits and bobs from “Black Night” and “Lazy” as well as probably the worst “drum solo” I’ve heard in a while, before it resumed. The band then sort of left the stage for about 3 milliseconds to return for “Burn” (oh dear) and god forsake us all “Smoke on the Water”.... making me really pissed off that they left out “Paranoid”… (ooops, off course I'm joking)
Right... it wasn’t a bad show by any means, but I sincerely hope that they next time JLT, comes to our land, that he starts a “Riot In the Dungeons” or that he does a “Fire Dance”... well... there’s “Magic” in you JLT, but we only say, select glimpses... of it... we’ll be waiting there for you... “Endlessly”... who knows... “Maybe Next Time” you'll do us the favor and maybe even include “Heaven and Earth” as a bonus, right?
I arrived at the Kyttaro Club around 8.30 and by that time people were slowly but steadily starting to come in and at long last, almost filled the venue! It was heartwarming to see that the crowds are not completely gone in Greece and that they haven’t turned their collective backs at hard rock and heavy metal... as George Gakis and the Troublemakers took the stage shortly thereafter, the venue was more than half full and everything hinted that a good night was going to be had... the sound was good and the people were eager. Gakis is a long standing figure in the hard rock matters in Greece and has tried hard to get himself established, managing to become a prominent figure in the Greek rock circles, he and his band performed a decent show of standards and originals and tried his best to get the crowd going, almost succeeding it at times. The band started off with an own composition “I Married Trouble”, did a rather low and underwhelming version of “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, then went on to do another original called “Fame” and then “Cold Sweat” by Thin Lizzy that sounded more appropriate, another original “Days of Rock‘n’Roll”, and then a Rory Gallagher number – the well-known “Moonchild” for which they invited on stage Mr. Bary Barnes who’s a member of the cover-band Sinnerboy, then they did Whitesnake’s “Gimme All Your Love Tonight”, “Love in an Elevator” by Aerosmith, “Have a Nice Day” by Bon Jovi, in a triplet of covers, to close with a duo of originals – the not so imaginatively titled “Street of Broken Dreams”, which is however a nice enough ballad and one of the better songs of Gakis and the traditional “Μη Με Κοιτάς Στα Μάτια”.
A while passed and a bunch of unknown guys got on stage and started soundchecking. Apparently those were to be JLT’s backing band, a band of merry fellas he picked up in Italy or somewhere... ehm while they weren’t exactly bad, maybe they weren’t entirely great either, as they seemed to lack the sparkle of “magic” and grandeur and possibly due to some of their performance shortcomings, several candidate songs – had to be “axed” from the show, resulting in no solo material being aired, no Yngwie stuff getting played and even MK2/3 stuff of DP getting priority over other more obvious or favorable, selections... Hmm... I mean, fair enough, the poster said Deep Purple & Rainbow and that was delivered, but... still (I’m a little sad :P) or at least I could have been a little happier!
People loved and cheered the performance, which wasn’t bad... Joe, being in really good form this time, did well. He had a good interaction with the crowd and was as much a star as he needed to be and as much an entertainer, switching seamlessly and managing to keep the crowd eating from the palm of his hand, while singing very well and posing wildly so the photographers could snap pictures... and making it all look very effortless!
The performance started with “Death Alley Driver” which was predictably storming, and then “I Surrender” after a little “playful” tease from Joe, with the crowd really reacting in a big way... there was “Perfect Strangers” which made little sense, but was awesomely performed and then Joe told us that once upon a time he had a “Jealous Lover” that phoned him up in the middle of a tour and accused him of cheating on her, prompting him to dump her on the spot, because he wasn’t and go out and “cheat” then and btw, just change the next song he wrote into “Jealous Lover” by writing the lyrics in the bathroom in 15 minutes... oh well. Plausible theory... or good concert banter, who knows! Well “Can’t Let You Go” made us go bent out of shape, and Joe told us that he wrote “Street of Dreams” for a very special someone and she made his life complete and that he’s very fond of all the memories... you get picture. He then went on to remember the late and great Ronnie James Dio. The “Man on the Silver Mountain” in a really cool rendition that showed that while he can be very sweet and sentimental, Joe’s voice can also channel quite a bit of aggression when necessary. “King of Dreams” got aired as well and it was pretty cool and “Highway Star” with all the high pitched shenanigans... obviously not what you’d expect, but still great songs nonetheless. “Pictures of Home” made us slightly melancholic and “Can’t Happen Here” made us erupt. One of the best MK3, numbers “Strombringer” was then unfurled... and it was awesome, but I was thinking c’mon, man – you could have done “Love Conquers All” or something else... from “your” catalog in its place... ah well... but i wasn’t going to complain at least too much!
“Long Live Rock‘n’Roll” then got a celebratory overextended rendition that included bits and bobs from “Black Night” and “Lazy” as well as probably the worst “drum solo” I’ve heard in a while, before it resumed. The band then sort of left the stage for about 3 milliseconds to return for “Burn” (oh dear) and god forsake us all “Smoke on the Water”.... making me really pissed off that they left out “Paranoid”… (ooops, off course I'm joking)
Right... it wasn’t a bad show by any means, but I sincerely hope that they next time JLT, comes to our land, that he starts a “Riot In the Dungeons” or that he does a “Fire Dance”... well... there’s “Magic” in you JLT, but we only say, select glimpses... of it... we’ll be waiting there for you... “Endlessly”... who knows... “Maybe Next Time” you'll do us the favor and maybe even include “Heaven and Earth” as a bonus, right?
