Free Athena: Arctic Monkeys, The Hives, Willie J Healey, The Vaxtones

Photos: Tasos Papaioannou

20.07.2023, 17:02

Response from Water Square 07/19/2023

Unprecedented Circumstances… We lived Beatlemania in the Water Square, except that the night (and the era we’re going through) belonged entirely to the Arctic Monkeys and distant, hot, sexy, utter pop/rock star Alex Turner.

I got to Water Square yesterday for the second Arctic Monkeys gig about twenty minutes before Hives finished their live set, which I really enjoyed.

So while waiting for the Sheffield guys to take the stage, I noticed the audience was mostly teenagers – mostly junior and high school girls – born several years after the band’s formation in 2002.

This was the second concert I attended this summer (after Rosalía) with Generation Z – and especially with its younger members – to create a self-sufficient government, and this fact gave it a special dynamism and vitality. If you ever want to go back to your teen years, you’re a groupie again…

Of course, the appearance of arctic monkeys, who were excellent, played a motivating role in this. A band made up of great musicians who gave it their all and the songs performed beautifully – suggestively and imposingly – by absolute idol Alex Turner. Who does not know how to do it, but when he sings, it is as if he does it to every one of the audience, who looks at him with an incredibly seductive look, which again makes you think that he is only looking at you among thousands of spectators .. so how can thousands Girls not to scream with all their teenage fervor, they almost broke our eardrums!

It was one of the best concerts I’ve attended so far, Arctic Monkeys fully justifies the hype surrounding it. For cool teens, whatever their reasons for loving the English band (Alex Turner? Lyrics?), listening to quality music at this age can only bode well for their development…

Silas gifts

Before the utter doom of the Brits the night belonged to The Hives. The band from Sweden, an outcast for some of us, came in…played and ripped off.

With great energy, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist pivots (as far as he goes) and in the mood to excite the audience and set the already filled Water Square on fire.

The Hives filled us with garage rock sounds, had us dancing, clapping and screaming, and sure enough making lots of new friends and even little ones. They also played a piece with the Arctic Monkeys’ drummer and made us understand from very early on what the frenzy would follow.

The evening opened with the Greeks The Vaxtones who made sure to keep a lot of people who were already ‘melting’ in front of the stage because of the heat. The Vaxtones played feel-good pop/surf/rock, and got a lot of people dancing and smiling early on.

Soon after, it was time for Willie G. Healy, an up-and-coming British artist, who, however, failed to interest us. A little subdued compared to the rest of the work, with pop/blues references and slightly “summer” references, it probably didn’t offer much, at least to our ears.

Christos Calimanis