Highlights from the 2015 edition of the steadily growing Plisskën Festival which took place at the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center on June 5 and 6.
Savages, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
The Athenian alternative music festival which made its debut in December 2010, has further expanded this year to include a total of 4 stages and a strong, diverse line-up of more than 60 acts, featuring ..And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Ariel Pink, The Horrors, Mogwai, Mudhoney, Savages and Thee Oh Sees. Let's have a look at the performances we enjoyed the most on the first day of the festival which had its best year yet:
June 5th
As you can guess by the photo we chose to feature at the top of this article, the performance that impressed us the most in this edition of Plisskën Festival came from Savages, the fiery rock quartet who is responsible for one of the best debut albums of this decade. Two years on, the band seems more confident than ever on stage and, judging by the quality of the new material they included in their live set, it seems certain that their comeback album will be just as thrilling.
Jehnny Beth's commanding presence on stage easily won over the crowd and soon ended up singing among the festival goers, while the trio of Ayse Hassan, Gemma Thompson and Fay Milton was simply amazing. By the time they reached the end of their thrilling 45-minute set with the powerful "Husbands", Savages had made a lot of new friends in Athens and received the warmest applause of the day.
Savages - I Am Here (live @ Plisskën Festival 2015)
Other notable performances of the first day of Plisskën included the return in Athens after many years of Texan noise rockers ..And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead who played an explosive "best of" set to triumphantly close proceedings on the second open-air stage of the festival, grunge godfathers Mudhoney and their latest Sub Pop offspring, Metz, who both caused noise tsunamis in the early afternoon on the main stage, Iceage who have recently started mining a more melodic, folk-influenced, vein of punk, Pharmakon, a.k.a. Margaret Chardiet, with her pulsating electronic tremors, the soothing electropop of Austra, the primitive garage rock of The Coathangers, The Twilight Sad's sad, gothic-tinged tales, the psychedelic goth-grooves of The Horrors and the experimental techno of Squarepusher.
Check out below photos and videos from all these performances and stay tuned for our highlights from the second day of the festival:
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
Mudhoney, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
Metz, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
Pharmakon, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
Austra, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
The Coathangers, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
The Twilight Sad, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
The Horrors, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
Squarepusher, live @ Plisskën Festival 2015
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Richter Scale Madness (live @ Plissken Festival 2015)
Mudhoney - Get Into Yours (live @ Plissken Festival 2015, Athens)
METZ - The Swimmer (live @ Plissken Festival 2015, Athens)
Iceage - Abundant Living (live @ Plissken Festival 2015, Athens)
The Coathangers - Watch Your Back (live @ Plissken Festival 2015, Athens)
After an extended sabbatical from blogging and quite a bit of traveling, time to reboot C.M.C. by sharing some live photos from three gigs we've attended while checking out the sights of California this August.
First stop: San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop on August 12th, for a show by female punk trio The Coathanges with White Fang and Twin Steps:
The Coathangers, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)
White Fang, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)
Twin Steps, live @ Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (August 12, 2014)
The Coathangers have released earlier this year their highly recommended third LP "Suck My Shirt" and below you can check out album highlight "Adderall", from their San Francisco gig:
The Coathangers - Adderall (live @ Rickshaw Stop)
Next stop, a few days later, the famous Roxy Theater on LA's Sunset Strip for a show by The Helio Sequence and Liam Finn:
The Helio Sequence, live @ The Roxy, Los Angeles (August 16)
Liam Finn, live @ The Roxy, Los Angeles (August 16)
Here's an old favorite from The Helio Sequence's set at the Roxy, "Can't Say No" off the 2008 LP "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" (unfortunately, by this point of the trip, our camera had given up the spirit and we had to rely on our phones for photos and videos):
The Helio Sequence - Can't Say No (live @ The Roxy)
Last, but not least, a new band we came across by lucky coincidence: Amanda X from Philadelphia - one of the many bands performing at The Echo during the Echo Park Rising weekend (August 17):
AmandaX, live @ The Echo, Los Angeles (August 17)
Click here to listen to "Amnesia", the distortion pop debut LP by Amanda X, while below you can check out the new video for the album's opening track "Guatemala", where the trio share with us their experiences from life on the road:
