Gary Hughes | Ten Acoustic Set @ Bat City | Friday 08.05.2015
Preceding their live show at Kyttaro, Gary Hughes accompanied by Ten members presented a show for devotees, an acoustic set made of songs to-die-for from his entire catalogue. Needless to say it was pure delight. Gary Hughes’ voice is made for such heartbreaking performances. Backed up by an amazing lady (whose personal album will feature his compositions), he gave us tons of emotion, the highlight being his flawless performance of the anthemic Loneliest place in the world. My only setback for the night was my foolish mistake to go by car and therefore not enjoy Gary’s ballads with a proper drink… In the end it was a fine night (not a very crowded one though, sadly), an appetiser before the main course: Ten live at Kyttaro the following night.
Ten @ Kyttaro | Saturday 09.05.2015
Yet another visit to Kyttaro for me this year, most of the concerts I have attended in the last months have been held here. To be honest I enjoy this place, the sound always rates from pretty good to perfect and it’s a very nice venue for medium sized gigs.
The night started with Kostas Varras Perpetual. I have heard their CD years ago and found it fairly good, but their live show did not make justice. I am sorry but it just didn’t… Maybe I’m turning into an old grump (well that’s almost certain), but they didn’t manage to thrill me. The band sounded incoherent and the perfomances by the guitar player and the singer didn’t do it for me. The singer said he had a cold (he obviously did) but he couldn’t perform. The guitar player’s Malmsteen-ish style didn’t work on stage (and I’m a big fan of the Swedish). Greek support bands have improved so much in the last years that the bar has been set higher. I’ll try to attend some future live show of this band because I really want to be proved wrong and I wish this was just an unlucky night for them because their music paths are dear to me.
Moving on to Ganzi Gun. Seeing them on stage made my inner old grump grouch. Their look is totally to-the-day (well it’s not their fault that I’m stuck to the ’70s’ turtlenecks…) and their modern hard rock is not my style, BUT… their on-stage performance is amazing! Full of energy, performing flawlessly and passionately. Well that shall teach me to not judge a book by its cover, they are a well-built band and they were great fun.
And then the main course, the appearance of Ten. The band nowadays counts 7 members! Having three guitar players is a choice that signifies their return to more guitarist sounds (and a very wise one, I’d say). Their show was just perfect. I might be affected by my love for Ten, I admit that. I can assure you though that it was one of the best melodic hard rock/metal performances held in Greece in the last years. They played lots of their anthems, the highlights being Fear the force, The Robe, Red and the impressive The name of the Rose, although the rest of the tracks were just as good. A great performance by a fresh band surrounding the great Gary Hughes. As a true Whitesnake fan I always valued Gary’s low notes and the feeling he gives out. He is a master and he knows it, that’s why most of his vocals are on the low side. Their performance as a whole was superb and their return to more hard-rock tracks sounds great on stage (although their AOR era rocks). Their back to back releases Albion and Isla De Muerta (to be officially released on May 20th) give us hope for a new Ten tour and for future dates in Greece.
