Live Report: Parkway Drive
Place: Floyd Club, Athens, Greece
Date: June 11th, 2024
Live Correspondent: Kostas Boudoukos
Lucky people! Only with this phrase I can describe how the 2-3 thousand metalheads, who went on Tuesday at FLOYD, must feel today. Because, we don’t get to have a party like this every day. With PARKWAY DRIVE as hosts and us as guests in one of the best events of this year. Agreed, RAMMSTEIN are superb with their impressive show, the legendary JUDAS PRIEST are excellent with a long history and there are many great bands that will come to Greece this year, but I think Tuesday’s battle was unprecedented.
Last summer we treated them at least with disrespect when several people left Plateia Nerou at the end of SOULFLY and TRIPTYCON’s sets (something I’ll never understand especially if I’ve already paid for a full ticket) but PARKWAY DRIVE respected the fact that the Greek metalheads (fewer at first and more and more in the following years) support them from their first steps.
The atmosphere was explosive early on and the impatience was evident. You could see that from the first second of their opening song “Glitch”. This proves that if the band and audience chemistry is the right one, no support band is needed to warm the crowd. There is no need for fires, smoke, water and fireworks either. The fact that it was a single band gig helped to have a solid crowd below without many “I just came for the fuss” guys resulting in a 80-minute test for the strength of FLOYD’s foundations. Which, by the way, succeeded in another test, with perhaps the only problem being that from a certain point on, the air conditioning was not enough to cool the fans. But no one really cared.
Their “best of” set which included a total of 16 songs like my favorites “Prey” and “Vice Grip” but also their other big hits like “Karma”, “Bottom Feeder”, “Carrion” etc., didn’t let us relax even for a second. Literally, there wasn’t a song or a moment where the audience cooled down. The same goes also for the band. Winston McCall in particular proved to be one of the best frontmen of his time especially in terms of his interaction with the audience and the energy he brings on stage. Did I say on stage? Well… We knew that in “Idols and Anchors” he goes down to the audience but what he dared is unprecedented. After initially diving into a sea of outstretched hands, he directed the audience to throw him “into the pit” and from there to join the hundreds of fans singing while chaos erupted around him. And then in the same way to return to the scene. Unique moments for everybody…
I don’t think we need to say more or try to single out songs, performances, moments… because the whole concert was a moment that those of us who experienced it will never forget. It probably won’t be long before we see them again anyway.
Live Correspondent: Kostas Boudoukos
Design & Editing: Alexandros Soultatos
Photographs: Alexandros Soultatos
Video: Alexandros Soultatos, Konstantinos Karastefanis
External Links: PARKWAY DRIVE – Official Page
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