Athens is a hot place in the summer. Not extremely hot in May but, still, as June approaches temperature reaches 30 degrees and usually stays there (and above). Under those circumstances, watching Nevermore live at the Fuzz, an indoors club, in the end of May can be a hot experience: apart from the environment temperature, Nevermore is no sit-in-your-seat kind of live band and therefore the actual temperature at the pit gets significantly higher. Well-trained Greek metallers would of course not be intimidated by heat, and the gig turned out to be wickedly good.
Arriving at the Fuzz when the audience were already cheering the Seattle band’s name, I missed the band that opened the stage, Rex Mundi, which was a shame as they sound a solid young progster bunch. I just managed to get close to the stage before “Beyond Within” kicked in, at which point the Fuzz started shaking to the metalheads’ headbanging. This is no small club, and it was so fully packed on that night. Needless to say the song is absolutely rocking, and it’s a great opener, a fact that everybody seemed to appreciate!
The set continued with “The River Dragon Has Come”, and it was about time to recuperate and take stock of the situation. Well, the sound wasn’t perfect but Nevermore were in pretty good shape. As usually, Loomis, Sheppard and Williams laid a solid metal framework and on top of it Dane’s voice was giving it flesh and bones. Session guitarist Attila Voros seemed to be enjoying it so much you wouldn’t tell he is not a regular member. Except from the fact that he was smiling, in contrast to the rest of the band which looked overly serious – on the pissed off side of seriousness to be honest.
Partly because of the guaranteed high quality of the aforementioned trio’s performance (they were stunning), and partly because of the idiosyncrasy of Dane’s voice, the band’s performance is typically measured by Dane’s ability to deliver live the miracles he achieves in studio. And the truth is that the clad in cowboy’s outfit frontman seemed a bit unfocussed and at some points not really delivering. However, this never reached the level of being too noticeable or annoying, so overall Nevermore gave quite a pleasing, and very energetic performance.
Assisting the band were an awesome crowd that would sing along, headbang, mosh, and generally do their best in creating a proper atmosphere. No wonder this turned out to be a great gig!
Although the night was supposed to promote Nevermore’s latest contribution, “The Obsidian Conspiracy”, the band played songs from almost all albums, which was a splendid choice. Athens fans may have seen the band live several times but nobody really deserves to go to a Nevermore gig and be denied a tune from “Enemies of Reality” or “Dead Heart In A Dead World”, for example.
In fact, “Enemies of Reality” closed the second encore, at which point the lights switched on. The crowd started moving, and you could now see those sweaty, tired but satisfied faces taking their way back home.
Till next time.
Nikos Tzevelekos
SETLIST:
- Beyond Within
- The River Dragon Has Come
- Your Poison Throne
- Born
- Emptiness Unobstructed
- Inside Four Walls
- The Termination Proclamation
- Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday
- This Godless Endeavor
- The Heart Collector
- The Seven Tongues Of God
- Narcosynthesis
- The Obsidian Conspiracy
- Enemies Of Reality
