review by Panos

At last!

Mark Lanegan returned for a show in Athens after five years. Long wait and great expectations. Five years ago he ended the Scraps at midnight tour, and this time he starts In Athens. I remember his previous show: He and the band seemed to not know what to expect. The venue was packed and the crowd cheered at the beginning of each song and then silenced in order to listen to the magic voice. A strange show that peaked after Borracho and Winding Sheet. Boy was i curious for tonight. During these years Mark released excellent albums, joined QOTSA and written with them some really heavy songs, and the tracks of the Ep i knew through the undertow web site where quite different from what we used to expect, plus Mike Johnson was not part of the band... But Mark surprised us all. What a perfect show indeed it was. Kicking off with Borracho and One Way Street and ending with a long version of Fix, he made the club go crazy. Three encores and almost 90 minutes of magic. The tracks were (not in correct order On Jesus' Program, Don' t forget Me, No Easy Action, Miracle, Pill Hill Serenade, Creeping Coastline Of Light, I'll Take Care of You, 4 new songs (Methamphetamine blues, Clear Spot, Sleep with Me and Message to mine), and total highlights: medley of Because of this with Hotel in between. acoustic version of Mockingbirds, electric version of Death Don't Have No Mercy and starting with She Done Too Much and then switch to The River Rise. His voice was absolutely fantastic, even in the end with Fix, and the band played quite well.

Some remarks... When Mark turns to psychedelic rythms he is pretty unbelievable and when he playes acoustic he is majestic! I really cannot decide what i prefer the most. Second i think that his affiliation with QOTSA has influenced his songwriting as well as his performance (boy did he shouted last night)...Last but not least one complain : Too little of the Whiskey album...

Anyway the wait was worthed. I think that apart from admiring the music and work of Mark, i also think that his choice of redefining his songwriting and exploring new forms it is quite impressive. He is an artist and a survivior.

Take care Mark

Panos Athens Greece

review by Andrew

Here are my thoughts and my experience on the show (Thursday 11-20-2003) in Athens, Greece. We arrived kinda late, missed support band and caught the very first song as it was just finishing. I was surprised by the size of the croud. Alot of people had gone that night to check out Mark Lanegan and his great band. The space was pretty smoky including weed and the lighting was great. In the stage I see Mark Lanegan with his unique mellow-depressed style holdin the mic, as singing passionately with his god given Lenoard Cohen-ish voice.

Every once in a while Mark would light a cigarette and would look down (secs) when not singing as music went along. It's more like the style he has. I don't think it's a matter of creating an image or anything. It's just how he feels acting on stage and around I guess, comes from the soul. It was actually my first time seeing Mark Lanegan but I have been into his music for like years. As a matter of fact I like his old stuff and especially the album Winding Sheet so I didn't really know any of the newer songs. I really enjoyed the whole show. One thing I didn't like was that some dumbasses were shouting "Screaming Trees" in the back and that's not so cool for a musician who's trying to present their new work. During the gig Mark said about 4 times "goodnight, thank you very much" or "see you next time" and left/came back and it was funny how he just simply said thanks when the show real ended, but I was cool with that. That's why when he "really" left people didn't believe that and thought he'd come back again so they kept cheering till CD music went on. The show ends, some people leave and some others hoping to get an autograph in case Mark or any other of the band members decided to come in the front (they went backstage duh!). I was so damn lucky that my friend George sugguested that we should go wait near the backstage door in case any of the band members came out. I was sure nothing was gonna happen until i saw the guitarist Brett Netson - (rythm) a funny dude with cool hair easy going and all that - coming out and walking away to exit maybe... Some people asked if they could get in but the bouncer was clear, SORRY NO! :)

After a little while Mark Lanegan approched the door, stood there and the scenery changed immidiately. People starting coming and coming till it got so fuckin' stuffed that the bouncer took alil bit of "action" as we'd say... I was so damn close to Mark so approached him and asked if i could have an autograph. Gave him my ticket and as he was signing he asked me how i was doing. I replied good, and that it's nice to see you and all that. I wanted to sit there for a while and have a chat about Seattle and shit.. but other people were waiting and I'm sure they were ready to kill for an autograph so I decided to bail the fuck out slowly...

As we left the venue and start walkin to my car we saw Brett Netson again sittin on his own few metres outside from the venue and we chated him up for a while. I asked him in what other bands had he been apart from the Lanegan band... I asked if he knew Cornell which i think he said he did... I don't recall that very well. He also told me that Mark and Layne (Staley - AIC singer) were really good friends. We talked a lil' bit with Brett and then me and George finally decided to bail out for good.

It was a great fuckin' night....

Later
Andrew