I can’t remember how many times Spiritual Beggars have visited Greece, but I do know that Friday was the first time I ever saw them live, and they did not let me down. Almost six months after the release of their new album, “Earth Blues”, those 5 guys from Sweden presented it to the Greek audience along with their older and much loved tracks.
The poster for this live show stated that doors open at 20:00 and there would be two support acts (Full House Brew Crew and Drunk Motherfuckers). However, at some point SiXforNinE were added to the list of opening acts and the time changed to 19:00. Out of pure luck I arrived to Kyttaro Live Club sometime after 20:00 and thank goodness I didn’t miss Drunk Motherfuckers who were just starting.
Drunk Motherfuckers is a heavy rock/stoner local band which have made quite a splash in the independent rock Greek scene by giving a lot of shows this last year. Personally, I have seen them perform 2-3 times in the past and I knew what to expect. Once again D.M. presented their heavy riffs, heavy vocals and heavy drums for the people of Athens and they seemed to like it. That is exactly what makes them a great opening band for such occasions; it doesn’t matter if you know them or not, their songs are perfect to set the mood while you walk in, you catch up with your friends and get a beer.
Right after D.M., heavy rock/progressive metalers SiXforNinE took the stage. Since I had heard (and really liked) 1 or 2 of their songs somewhere on the internet I was wondering how they would sound live, and since I had no idea they would appear that night until... they appeared, I was super-exited to see them. I have only three words to describe them “well-oiled machine”. They might be a relatively new band, but anyone can see that they’re all top notch musicians who have rehearsed their songs many times and in great detail. Therefore, the moment they set foot on that stage each of them knew exactly what they were doing. This gave them the freedom to “play around” up there, teasing each other and communicating with the audience. After all, their singer is none other than Fotis Benardo, the drummer of Septic Flesh, so he has a bit of experience of being on-stage.
When SiXforNinE were done it was time for Full House Brew. To be honest, I had never heard of them before, although the bass player did look a little familiar (I later found out that he’s Van Ace from Rotting Christ). Their heavy/stoner/doom rock sound may have gotten the attention of the audience for the first couple of songs, but it gradually shifted as time went by. Highly influenced by Black Label Society and Metallica’s post “Load” sound, the trio failed to “fill” the stage despite their best efforts. While there was nothing wrong with them or their music, the riffs were rocking, the rhythm was tight and the solos were pretty sweet, everyone there was slowly losing interest in them as time progressed. Or maybe it was that the crowd was getting tired and eager to see the headliners. The fact that their sound was nowhere near as clear as SiXforNinE who were up there before them didn’t help either.
Somewhere around 23:00 it was time for the main act. The place was half full when Spiritual Beggars stormed on stage with “Throwing Your Life Away” and we were all more than ready to bang our heads to their beat. Their old 70s inspired and yet up to date heavy/stoner rock tunes filled the room as the show included songs from their whole career as well as from their brand new album “Earth Blues”. I was surprised to see people not only cheering for a new song, but at times even singing along with the band. When you’ve been a band for 20 years you pretty much know how to put on a show, work the crowd and give them exactly what they came to see and hear. Spiritual Beggars did that and more on Friday: they even spoke in Greek for a significant portion of the concert (and I’m not talking about the standard “Hello/Geia sou”, “Kalimera” and so on, I’m talking about full phrases with a pretty decent pronunciation); after all, Apollo is Greek. Personally, I found the highlights of their set to be “Young Man, Old Soul”, “Wonderful World” (I and most people around me sang our lungs out during those two), “Dreamer” (a Bobby Blue Bland cover), “One Man Army” and “Hello Sorrow”. SB could not have picked a better song to end the night, the last song of the night was “Euphoria” which, I think, described what everyone felt there. It also happens to be one of my favorites, so I didn’t mind that it did run a little longer than it could have.
At the end of the night I and everyone else, judging from the faces of the people around me, was pretty happy with the whole show. Will I go see those crazy Swedes the next time they’re in town? I don’t know, I got my look of Spiritual Beggars for now, so I’ll be good for quite some time.
