Rockwave Festival 2015, Day 3: The Prodigy, Judas Priest, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rotting Christ, John Garcia, Maplerun, Electric Litany, Exarsis (Terravibe, Malakasa, Greece)

The third day of the Rockwave Festival in Greece was implemented one day before the Greek Referendum. The political climate was heavy in terms of politics, but the musical climate was quite hot. There was an interesting line up including the bands The Prodigy, Judas Priest, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rotting Christ, John Garcia, Maplerun, Electric Litany, Exarsis.

Unfortunately, due to an unlucky incident, I missed the show of Exarsis despite the fact that I really wanted to taste a little bit of their Thrash music. Sorry guys, at least I heard from other people that they had a really good time with the band.

Electric Litany was a pleasant surprise for me because I did not know a lot of things for the band. The post rock atmosphere of their sound impressed most of the people, regardless if the warm weather was not helping, either the band or the fans. Even people that were coming from different musical backgrounds seemed to enjoy this apocalyptic sound and the musicians were having a good time on stage.

Maplerun was the next act to appear on stage. The band is getting a local success after the good reviews from the local press and they had several fans waiting for them. Unfortunately, something did not seem to work on an interactive level and the fans were clapping, smiling, but not being really crazy about the band. Only the cover song from System Of A Down woke up the fans and they went bananas!

John Garcia is having a lot of fans in Greece, since Stoner Rock is a big thing over here! The fans really enjoyed the show and especially the Kyuss tracks burned the place to the ground. It was a good performance, great sound quality and in general a breathtaking experience. The only disadvantage is that the raw sound of the band needs a smaller concert area where you can feel better l the guitar distortion and the dark lyrics like a cinematic hero.

Rotting Christ was the strange surprise as a choice for the concert promoter, how a Black Metal band can prepare the fans for the classic metal experience of Judas priest? I still remember people throwing items at Cradle of Filth before the Judas Priest appears on Rockwave Festival during the early 00s. Fortunately, all the fans enjoyed the set of the band and it is obvious that this group has a large following in Greece and there is a diversity of musical tastes among the fans of the group. The show was a hellish one and the dark energy of Rotting Christ introduced us to the dark world of rock.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was another bet for the concert promoter because they did not fit in the metal or the electronic scene, they are mostly popular among the indie kids.  The band opened their set but the sound quality was horrible, the guitar sound was very strange and the vocals were really low. After several tracks the sound was improved but it was too late because the show was close to the end. I think that if they had a better sound then they would definitely steal the show from the headliners.

Judas Priest was the reason that many fans travelled until Malakasa and most of them were really fans with a lot of knowledge about the band and its history. After Rotting Christ closed the set, the Priest fans remained in the same area without moving to the next stage in order to attend the show of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I can say that there were about 5,000 people in the concert area when the band stormed the stage. I have no words to describe what happened afterwards… Priest had a PERFECT sound and you could hear all the instruments in the same level, it was a CRYSTAL CLEAR sound. They played most of their greatest hits and had a great feedback from the audience. Moreover, there were video screens behind the band that were showing images or videos that represented the lyrics or the history of the band. What a performance!

After the storm of Judas Priest, the Prodigy were about to appear on the big stage.  At that moment, there were only about 7,000 people in the concert area because most of the metalheads left Rockwave after Priest’s show.  The Prodigy went on stage and their fans started to dance while listening to the hits from the band’s old catalogue. While attending the show, I noticed 2 things:

1. The Prodigy is a real band with at least 3 live musicians on stage and had a punk rock attitude!

2.  The band had a poor stage and light show!

I am aware of the band’s playlist, but it seems that they decided to not play a greatest hits playlist and moreover they played only for an hour. Especially, the 1 hour set for a headline act is a shame for the people that paid a lot of money and had been waiting many hours for this set. I know that the rockers attended an interesting electronic rock act, but the Rave fans must be very disappointed after the 1 hour and the poor light show.

Most of the people that turned in the concert area were dressed as die hard metal heads or had a casual dressing style.  The funny fact is that most of the rock n rollers around me seemed to avoid handing out flyers to the casual guys due to the fact that they did not look like a 1980s rocker guy. How far can we go as a culture and as a country by adopting these clichés of the 1980s? The post 1980s era and the rise of the social networks united many persons under the flag of the musical global music. Are we going to accept the challenge or are we going to play the Jimi Hendrix vinyl albums and buy tickets for the Woodstock?

*P.s. We support all the bands that appeared on the festival, but technical issues prevented us from publishing photos for all the participating bands. I apologize for that to all the participating artists

Concert Review: Billy Yfantis
Image Credits:  Silvi Kalfa