Live Show: Fading Echoes, Chipper
Place: Cafe Santan, Volos, Greece
Date: December 6th, 2024
Live Correspondent: Kostas Boudoukos
The 6th of December, 2024 will certainly be remembered by those who were in the historic Café Santan in Volos. The reason was the first live performance of Progressive Metallers FADING ECHOES, who after several years of efforts managed to make a dream come true. After all, 2024 had already proven to be a lucky year with the release of their first full length album, “Shadow Of Another” by WormHoleDeath.
The night begun with the Heavy Rockers CHIPPER from Thessaloniki who did exactly what they were supposed to do. They stirred up the almost packed venue with their incredible energy on stage and their solid, speedy Heavy Rock / Stoner. A genre that in our country has notable representatives such as NIGHTSTAKER or 1000MODS and its main advantage is that whether you listen to it or not, there is no way it will not lift your spirits. Surely, the mood of the band members and especially Nikos Antoniadis, singer and guitarist of CHIIPPER who did not stop interacting with the crowd, as well as the fairly good sound (some big venues in Athens should probably learn a thing or two) helped a lot with the atmosphere. So, after presenting us with 7 songs from the album “Self Parton” as well as “Oldschool Rocket Army” from the EP, “Reality Check” left the stage having successfully completed their work.
Setlist
- Everybody Hates Somebody
- Self Parton
- Oldschool Rocket Army
- Silverstone
- Expresso
- Lonesome Killer
- Brains On The Railings
After the necessary preparations, it was time for the headliners, FADING ECHOES, to give their first credentials. I don’t remember ever having been to a similar situation, namely an album presentation that is also a band’s debut on stage. The feeling for both the audience (at least for me) and the band members is very special. For the audience, it is curiosity about what they will hear (and especially how it will be comparing to the studio version of an album), impatience and the feeling that you are part of an important event for the band’s musical career. For the band, if we ignore the anxiety and stomach upsets that this may cause, it is definitely a moving moment and a confirmation that the endless hours of rehearsals or the endless nights of work are finally paying off. Especially in Metal music, no matter how many albums a band releases or how many T-shirts they sell, the confirmation from the audience and the satisfied faces of the crowd after a live show are the most important fuel for a musician in order to decide and spend even more time or money.
You can find the album review in our web magazine (click here!). It is a concept album focusing on the five stages of grief, so FADING ECHOES began their musical narrative with that. After the orchestral “Denial” dominated by Vasilis Sarou keyboards, the rest of the stages followed until they closed the first part of their set with the beloved “First Step Forward”. The second part was a bit more diverse since we had the chance to hear SAVATAGE (“All That I Bleed”) and DREAM THEATER (“Forsaken”), as well as an unreleased and anonymous song that will be included to their next album. The set closed with the last two songs of the album. Despite any anxiety the band members had, this was forgotten as soon as they stepped foot on the stage. In fact, if we take into consideration that two of the five members, drummer Theoharis Theocharakis and guitarist Giorgos Theodoropoulos, have essentially joined the band in the last two months, then their performance on stage was a pleasant surprise since they appeared to be completely in tune with Petros Printezis (guitars), Dimitris Stratikis (vocals and bass) and Vassilis Sarou and well-rehearsed. Dimitris Stratikis gave his all on stage since as he has mentioned, to a large extent “Shadow Of Another” is personal and this was clearly evident. The sound continued to be quite good given the circumstances and Café Santan was almost full. It was also interesting that the keyboards had a leading role not only musically but also on stage since we usually get used to the keyboardists occupying a small corner on the stages.
Setlist
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
- First Step Forward
- At The Dead End
- Forsaken
- Χωρίς τίτλο
- All That I Bleed
- Rumination
- The Final Act
At the end of the evening, no one left dissatisfied with the absolutely successful first performance of FADING ECHOES. Their next big step is certainly their Athenian live on January 17th at Temple and I hope the Athenian audience will embrace them as they deserve.
P.S. 1: When someone sings with everything he has on stage, especially in a ballad-like song, it would be good when we talk to the person next to us not to gargle trying to cover the singer’s voice so that we can be heard. Just saying…
P.S. 2: Not that I expected anything different, but the anti-smoking law has been abolished practically everywhere.
Live Correspondent: Kostas Boudoukos
Design, Editing & Text Correction: Kostas Boudoukos
Photos: Dimitris Vasdekis
Videos: Dimitris Vasdekis
External Links: FADING ECHOES – Official Page
CHIPPER – Facebook Page
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