Tony Macalpine-Agent Cooper-Daniel Pique Live @ Kyttaro,
The week was coming to an end and there was only one more stop we had to make before reaching its epilogue. That stop was none other than the gig of Tony Macalpine at Kyttaro Club. Tony is one of my favorite guitarists of all time, a true master of the guitar as well as a great keyboard player, and I couldn’t wait to see him live for the first time. I like most of his projects, but his solo works are definitely on the top of my list. This tour was called “Dream Mechanism Tour 2012” and with him Tony had a bunch of excellent musicians like the ex-ANGRA drummer, Aquiles Priester, one of the top drummers of his era as well as a candidate for Mike Portnoy’s place in Dream Theater, bass player Bjorn Englen, who has toured with Yngwie Malmsteen as well as Uli Jon Roth and Quiet Riot, and last but not least, Nili Brosh, a very talented young guitar player who has played with Stu Hamm (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai), Guthrie Govan (ASIA) and Andy Timmons (Danger Danger). Tony had announced that he was going to play a few songs from his new record as well as some of his older stuff, but the greatest part was that he was going to play his extraordinary debut album “Edge Of Insanity” in its entirety.
The first disappointment was a sudden change of schedule. The gig was supposed to start at 21:00 and only a few hours before, the time changed to 20:00. I knew then that I’d have to miss the first support act, Daniel Pique, who was supposed to play between 20:15 – 20:30. The second disappointment came when I arrived at the gig. Agent Cooper, the second support act, who was originally scheduled to play between 20:45 – 21:30, had cancelled! So when I arrived at about 20:40, Tony was already on stage! I rushed in only to find myself disappointed again for a third time. Tony and the rest of the group were giving a helluva show in a crowd of… 30 people. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A guitar player of this caliber and should get a little more recognition, although the tough economic situation in Greece, along with a couple of other gigs in Athens that night (one of them was the legendary Arthur Brown) must have had their impact.
Tony played for an hour and a half and his performance was excellent. Another 20 people must have joined the gig during the show. The whole thing looked more like a “music seminar” than a normal gig. I don’t know the attendance on the rest of the tour but on that night, it was really short. But also the atmosphere was also “warmer”. Tony was unstoppable, he’s an actual “music instrument machine”, jumping from one instrument to another with total control and ease. Nili was a pleasure to watch, simply great playing beyond anyone’s expectations and what can you say about Bjorn… the guy was 100% into the gig, always dancing around while playing the bass; he was definitely bringing a very nice breeze to the whole concert. Aquiles on the other hand was playing like a maniac! During the middle of the show the band went on a very small break and he played an extraordinary drum solo which made the very few people in the club go totally crazy at that time.
Overally this was a very good show and the band, despite the fact that they had a ferry to catch in a few hours, stayed for a “meet & greet” with all the fans. They stood there for anyone to take their photo with them, signed autographs and talked about the tour among some other things. I only hope that they’ll come back real soon for another gig and not be affected by the small attendance of this one.
Also on Burst.gr -
Also on Burst.gr -
