Madrugada @ Γήπεδο Tae Kwon Do

Recently, a few months ago, I've noticed a funny thing: bands I've never listened to or heard of started to appear in my Youtube recommendations.

But more funny was the fact that in the same time names of these bands started to appear on posters around the city lol.

So, I guess, Youtube algorythms learned that I like to watch music videos, and started to suggest bands that performed in Athens (as they clearly know my location).

Seems like they have some kind of agreement with promoters, right?

Well, at least I think so. Too many things point at that.

Anyway, yesterday I've been to this years first proper "stadium concert" in Athens.

A band called "Madrugada" (never heard of them before Youtube suggested me their video lol) sold out their Sunday show, so the second show, on Monday, was added (seems like a tradition here in Greece, if band solds out one show, their promoters most certainly will add cecond one).

So, I decided to go to their concert, since I had no better things to do lol.

Performance took place at the same venue as Peter Murphy's concert in December, at Γήπεδο Tae Kwon Do. But unlike Peter Murphy's concert, when just an ordinary "club" scene had been installed in the center of the stadium, and the only tribune used for seated places had been the one opposite the scene, this time not a half, but the whole capacity of the stadium was used.

And that's why I call it "proper stadium concert" lol.

The day was rainy - well, very rainy indeed. In fact, for three hours straight we had a real tropical rain, umbrellas were absolutely useless and the streets turned into rivers, so shoes were useless too, unless you wanted to wash them (at the same time with your feet, obviously, lol).

But around three o'clock the rain paused for a few hours, and started again just five minutes before the doors of Γήπεδο Tae Kwon Do were opened to the public, at seven o'clock.

So, fortunately, I was almost dry (I had left my umbrella at home since I thought the rain wouldn't start again), and somehow even made it to the first row, lol. However, I took far left spot since all center spots had been already taken.

The public (at least in the front rows) mostly consisted of young girls, although there were some older dudes here and there lol.

As a suport act some US dude called Luke Elliot with his band performed. I didn't like him very much, but it's a matter of taste, I can't call his performance bad.

Then we had to listen to recorded music for about an hour. Songs by The Cure, The Cranberries and Evanescence were played amongst others.

And then - Madrugada.

Honestly, I can't understand why is this band so popular, especially here, in Greece. I hadn't listened to them much before their concert - as I've already told, I went just becaise I had no better things to do anyway.

Their music is for some reason described as "alternative", but it is not the alternative I've used to. I mean, their music is not hard, and for me "alternative music" is an equivalent to "hard music". But their music is not hard at all, although they also played some more intense tracks. In general, it's just blues, maybe with some "indie" vibes, yeah, clearly not "pure blues" of how should I call it, but I definetely can't call it "alternative music".

If I had to compare their music and performance to something I have already seen, it would be the concert of Roxy Music I've seen in 2010 in Helsinki (lol the time flies fast).

Yeah, some artsy stuff, with both guitars and keyboards, drums and percussion.

I can't say I enjoyed the concert much, but public certainly did.

As for the show, the highlight was definitely a song during which the vocalist put on a jacket that was covered with little mirror pieces, like a disco ball, so when the light was projected on him, the jacket behaved exactly as disco ball as the vocalist was moving. It was funny lol.

During one of the last songs he descended to the first rows, and afterwards two confetti cannons were turned on. I've been standing right at the front of the left one lol.

So, all in all it is nice to go to a stadium concert once in a while, after all these small club ones. As I told a few times already, big concerts don't happen in Athens that often.

And yeah, the performance was pretty long, I think about two hours or more.

So the concert ended around midnight, and fortunately it was no rain outside, only stands selling merch and fresh food lol. In fact when I left the venue, the first thing I noticed was the rising smoke, I didn't immediately get what was it, but it turned out it was smoke from kiosks roasting meat, there were plenty of them around the stadium lol.

For a few minutes I waited for the tram, and made it to Σ.Ε.Φ. five minutes before depature of the last train, the final stop of which is Ομόνοια.

Perfect, lol.

Note to self: the last train from Σ.Ε.Φ. to Ομόνοια departures around 00:33-00:34.