Monday, August 05, 2019

Live: Ejekt Festival 2019 with The Cure, M. Kiwanuka, Ride, Khruangbin (Athens, July 17th, 2019)

The Cure, live @ Ejekt 2019 (Athens, July 17th, 2019)
In the third and last post of our three-part series presenting the live music we got to enjoy during our July vacation, we have photos and videos from Ejekt Festival 2019 headlined by The Cure and also featuring Michael Kiwanuka, Ride, Khruangbin and The Steams.


Khruangbin, live @ Ejekt 2019 (Athens, July 17th, 2019)
We arrived at Plateia Nerou, the seaside location of the festival in recent years, just in time to catch the summer vibes of Khruangbin, the Texas trio which we also enjoyed a few days earlier at BST Festival in London. The early afternoon heat did not hinder their breezy set which brought us the sounds of their recent album "Con Todo El Mundo", an interesting, laid back mix of global music, soul, funk, garage and psychedelia.



Ride, live @ Ejekt 2019 (Athens, July 17th, 2019)
The logical flow would suggest that after Khruangbin we should be hearing Michael Kiwanuka's soul sounds, but instead the musical mood changed drastically with the classic shoegaze guitars of Ride. The Oxford band has defined this sound with its early '90s output and in the almost 60-minutes they played, we got to hear several of their classics including "Seagull", "Dreams Burn Down", "Leave Them All Behind", "Taste", "Vapour Trail" and "Drive Blind". Ride's return to action in recent years has also brought us some exciting new music and their set also included songs from their 2017 comeback album "Weather Diaries" as well as a couple from their forthcoming work "This Is Not a Safe Place", with closer "Kill Switch" being one of the highlights of their performance.


Michael Kiwanuka, live @ Ejekt 2019 (Athens, July 17th, 2019)
Michael Kiwanuka and his band with the easier to the ear melodic soul and folk sounds allowed us some time to relax and enjoy our beer before the mammoth, two and a half hour headline set of goth godfathers The Cure.


The Cure, live @ Ejekt 2019 (Athens, July 17th, 2019)
Robert Smith and his band have not played around these parts for almost 14 years, so the long set filled with highlights from The Cure's early years until their late '80s - early '90s hits was more that welcome from the huge crowd of all ages that filled the venue to see them. It was certainly one of those occasions where different rock generations meet, some to remember the music of their youth, some to see for the first time one of rock's legendary bands, that although it has not produced any new music for several years now, its classic output is more than enough for a great festival show.


Here's The Cure's set list at Eject Festival which this year celebrated its 15th anniversary, plus a couple of videos from the event:


The Cure - The Caterpillar (live @ Ejekt Festival 2019)

Ride - Drive Blind (live @ Ejekt Festival 2019)