Rockwave Festival 2015, Day 2: Ex-Girlfriend’s Perfume, Kovacs, Robbie Williams (Terravibe, Malakasa, Greece)

Robbie Williams has been a media darling for years due to his musical activity or due to his personal life and TV appearances. Love him or hate him, but his popularity is a strong reason to attend his live show. He holds a world record for the fastest selling tickets and his back catalogue is a top selling one of the publishing companies. The announcement of his visit in Greece was a great surprise for his fans and unexpectedly about 30,000 people turned in for the Athenian show.

On the bill, there were three support bands, but because of the lack of announcement of the exact timetable of the concert, I did not catch the first band, Inconsistencies. Besides this fact, I have to admit that this time the concert promoter did a very good job with the festival’s production. The fans had to walk less distance in order to reach the concert place and the path among the trees was such a beautiful experience. Moreover, on our way back to the parking space there was enough light to help us find our cars. The parking space was limited, but I think that this problem could be solved easily if they buy another place close to the festival area.

The second band on the bill and the first for my eyes was Ex-Girlfriend’s Perfume. This is an interesting band that mixes ska, progressive rock and new wave. They have a melancholic vocal pattern that lies above the paranoid combination of atmospheric and surf music. The female singer sounded like a mysterious Debbie Harry who tries to balance between the unorthodox music style and the Robbie Williams shadow. I think that she did a good job and I am waiting to hear more from this band.

Kovacs was the next support artist to appear at the festival. She is already known to the Greek fans due to her radio hits; however the environment was not the suitable one for her. When I say environment, I am referring to the stage show, the open area, the light show and all the elements that surround her show. Her music is atmospheric, strange and the party atmosphere of a festival does not fit the needs of her show. I guess that she would perform better in a dark place with few lights and the few people that can see her really close. The enormous festival area and the thin voice created a sentimental distance between her and the fans.

Robbie’s time has come and the audience is really anxious while waiting for the headliner act. I can see around me, indie boys, models, die hard rockers, or even middle aged people. It seems that Robbie as a brand name has an extensive target group who loves him for a variety of reasons. The introduction of Carmina Burana brought Robbie to the fanatic Greek crowd! The sound was perfect and most of the people could not believe in their eyes how great does he look on stage and how energetic! Of course he informed us that this type of energy does not have any drug related source and his health issues are gone for sure!

The backing band of Robbie was a really professional one, you could hear clearly all the instruments and most of the songs were as close as ever to the studio versions. The music style of Robbie was a roller coaster of high quality pop and soft rock. The show had everything that the different members of the audience wanted to hear: Melody, romance, dance, and much of fun! He brought one Greek girl to dance with him on stage and teased her with sexual words, causing hysteric laughter among the fans. The black singers that were supporting him on stage, really stole the show. They were beautiful, knew how to dance and their voice was on an ecstatic good level. Moreover, he brought his father on stage to sing with him on an acoustic duet that the audience really enjoyed.

The show ended with the track «Angels» and all the audience became one voice as Robbie really touched the heart of all the boys and girls in the festival area. The bottom point of this experience is that a good showman is a professional showman, regardless if he is into pop, rock or soul. Robbie was such a great professional on stage that it was hard for me to believe that this pop idol could become a Ziggy Stardust of my concert memories.. Best non rock show that I have ever reviewed for Skylight so far!

Written by
Billy Yfantis

Image credits: Karolina Tsirogianni, Apostolos Kaliakmanis