Live Review : London After Midnight @ Kyttaro club, Athens, 07.06.2019

Although all of Europe’s (and not only) dark scene is focused on the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig Germany this weekend, we had the opportunity on Friday June 7^th to attend one of London After Midnight’s rare live appearances here in Athens, 2 days before their appearance at WGT. It had been 11 years since London After Midnight last played in Greece, so the anticipation was big and we were lucky that Death Disco and Evolution TV organized the event, giving us the opportunity to see the band live again. For me it was my first time.

After a small delay from the scheduled time, the lights went out around 11:00 pm and the video wall started projecting promo videos of the bands releases. Then the band took to the stage and plunged into "Nightmare" starting in a dynamic way. Straight after "Psycho Magnet" was played followed by one of my favorites "Shatter (All My Dead friends)" and other oldies like "Demon", "The Spider And The Fly" and "Claire’s Horrors" where guitarist Matthew Setzer switched his electric guitar to a 12 string acoustic. At one point, a female fan offered frontman Sean Brennan a rose, which he kindly took and held it by his microphone.

Then they played "Let Me Break You", a song they hadn’t played since 1996! "Complex Messiah" from their latest till date 2007 album "Violent Acts Of Beauty" followed, before playing "Revenge" which they introduced as “This is an anti fascist song” with the anti swastika symbol projected behind them on the video wall. They continued making their political statements and forwarded the next song by saying “This is about our president” and started playing "America’s A Fucking Disease" with political attired projections showing Donald Trump as well. As things started to heat up, the guitarist teased us by saying the next song is going to be slow one but they delivered a fast one instead. Then they played us another live rarity, "Inamourada" that hadn’t been performed since 1994.

Then it was time for "Love You To Death", another of the standout from "Violent Acts Of Beauty". Singer Sean Brennan with his characteristic look, two toned color long hair, black cobweb bondage garb and tall leather boots, seemed to be having some technical difficulties with his sound. Something that might have made him seem a bit restrained. Guitarist Matthew Setzer gave a more theatrical tone with his moves and poses. With them on bass was original member Michael Areklett, a really good asset to the live outfit, bringing something in from their glorious past. They also played us a new song that was fast and speedy with a really hard sound with words sung as “Singing after the end of the world”, sounding more like their latest work and more rockier compared to their more gothic romantic past. The mood switched with "The Bondage Song" that suddenly became more industrial/techno. At this point, the band left the stage for a break.

With their reentry, guitarist Matthew introduced the other band members, Pete Pace on drums, original bass player Michael (Williams) Areklett and last but not least frontman Sean Brennan. With that, they played for an encore their most massive hits "Kiss" and "Sacrifice" leaving their fans screaming and cheering. Overall it was good gig, with a really good setlist, which I think left all their fans happy. The band also seemed to have enjoyed the concert and their trip here, despite the heat, which could be considered as warm up before their headlining slot at Agra Hall tomorrow Sunday.