This particular day of the Release Athens festival, although not an
underground event, had its special significance for us, which was the participation
of New Order. The open air festival
took place at Plateia Nerou, a wide space next to the sea. First band up was
the greek indie pop band Ta Toy Boy
who took to the stage at the exact programmed time at 17:30 when the sun was still
shinning bright and the temperature was 36 degrees Celsius. The three piece
played a really enjoyable set with songs from their terrific debut album
"This Town", released last year by the indie label Make Me Happy, and
some new ones. Next up at 18:15 were Fontaines
D.C. a five piece indie rock/post-punk band from Dublin Ireland. This was
their second visit to Athens after their sold out gig at club Death Disco a few
months back They played songs from their début "Dorgel" that was
released this year, like the opener "Big", "Sha Sha Sha"
and "Boys In The Better Land" that I was more familiar with. Their
frontman Grian Chatten stood out with his peculiar stage appearance and
performance. At 19:30 it was time for Morcheeba,
the English trip-hop/downtempo band that was known from the 90’s. Their singer
Skye Edwards, dressed very elegant in black and wearing a top hat was
magnificent, delivering great vocals and a very impressive stage performance.
They gave the festival a feelgood summer vibe with tracks like "The
Sea", "Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day" and the newer
"Blaze".They also played a really good cover of David Bowie's ''Let's Dance''.
At 21:00 sharp, with
the crowd having by now reached thousands, Johnny
Marr with his band took to the stage and presented a marvelous set. Apart
from songs from his latest album "Call The Cornet", like opener "The
Tracers", "Walk Into The Sea" and "Hi Hello" to name a
few, he performed The Smiths classics "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "Stop
Me If You Think You Have Heard This One Before", "How Soon Is
Now" and "There Is A light That Never Goes Out" with which he ended
his set making the crowd go wild. And as if that wasn’t enough he also played
the Electronic songs "Getting Away With It" and "Get The
Message" on which he brought on stage Bernard Sumner of New Order to sing
it with him. In general, his appearance was better than expected and reminded
us why he is a guitar indie legend. His guitar playing is something else. He
also did a great cover of Depeche Mode’s "I Feel You".
At 23:00 New Order, consisting of, Bernard
Sumner, Stephen Morris (who delivered brilliant drumming), Gillian Gilbert,
Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman, stepped onto the stage and began their set
with "Singularity" from their latest album "Music Complete"
with the video wall showing scenes from the documentary "B-Movie: Lust
& Sound In West-Berlin 1979-1989". The
first treat they gave us was when the played the Joy Division songs "She
Lost Control", "Shadowplay" and "Transmission"
honoring the 40 years of the release of "Unknown Pleasures". Their
set in general had something from all their career "Regret",
"Your Silent Face" (on which Bernard’s harmonica broke at the
beginning of the song making him throw it down angrily and at the end he
threw another one with which it had been replaced to the crowd),
"Bizarre Love Triangle", a more techno version of "Tue
Faith", "Blue Monday" "Subculture" and ending with
"Temptation" in dynamic way. My only flaw was that on "The
Perfect Kiss" the characteristic bass solo at the end wasn’t louder. Their whole performance was supported by great visuals. For
the encore they left us with a really emotional way paying homage to Joy
Division by playing the songs "Atmosphere" (on which the video wall
was showing scenes from the iconic Anton Corbijn video) and "Love Will
Tear Us Apart" (where the video wall pictured at one point a photo of Ian
Curtis and then the text “Forever Joy Division”) leaving the crowd in tears.
Review and photos by Nick Drivas
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