Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ Gagarin (inc. Flakes)
So we finally made it downtown for yesterday's live by PBPH. Before the "main event" however, there were 2 supports to be "served". First up were Flakes, an indie punk/rock/pop band from Patra (and a touch of UK). To be honest, we were happily surprised by their energy and sound on stage. Their music is clearly following the leads of Arctic Monkey and other british indie rock/punk-ish bands that emerged the past few years. Nevertheless, they really did make us jump around a bit and were more than enjoyable to catch live (sample song from their debut album below).
Next up were a pure greek band called Common Sense. This was by far one of the worst things I've heard in my life. Uninspiring, uninteresting and completely out of place with the crowd under them. They almost made us leave the venue! Who the hell booked them as an opener to PBPH???
(Song hosted at Unnecessary Umlaut)
After around 50 minutes of suffering, they finally decided to do as the favor and leave the stage for the Pains of Being Pure at Heart! The band from NY was just amazing on stage. They "served" one hit after the other with everyone in the venue dancing and jumping around (or at least everyone around us). They played all their songs (after 2 encores they didn't have any more songs left to play...) and really gave a stunning end to their latest tour. These are the kind of bands we all want to see coming to Athens...fresh and at their peak...unlike most of the old fecking rockers that end up here. This was one Pain we'd love to feel again and again!
