After a lot of thought I decided to buy a ticket for the much expected -from many Greek metalheads- live, of one of the most important bands in the progressive metal genre. As I had never watched Fates Warning during their previous appearances in Athens and since this time the line-up was going to be the “Parallels” area one, considered as the “good” line-up by many fans, and “Paralles” would be performed in its entirety, I didn’t need more reasons to head to the new Fuzz Club.

This was the first time I was going to Fuzz Club for a concert and my first impression was absolutely negative: There is nowhere to park your car unless you pay, it was extremely hot inside the club, even though its only March, which was devastating, the sound wasn’t good enough and the prices at the bar were disgraceful. However, that was not enough to make me lose my good mood, especially since Fates Warning, from the first notes of “Leave The Past Behind”, made us forget these details and from then on we enjoyed the 8 magnificent songs from the “Parallels” album. Best moments were, of course, “Eye To Eye”, “Point Of View” and my personal favorite “The Road Goes On Forever” in an amazing performance. The stage presence of the band was more dynamic than what I expected and especially of Ray Alder, who with his excellent voice proved my opinion about him wrong, since I had always considered him as a medium frontman. Right after the end of “Parallels”, it was the time for another very good but forgotten, by many, LP “Inside Out”, from which we heard 4 songs. The crowd’s reactions were soft until the encore when everybody ‘woke up’ as it was time for the the “Perfect Symmetry” part of the show. We only heard “Through Different Eyes” and “Nothing Left To Say” but the crowd went crazy. I‘m sure that the whole setlist would have been stronger if we heard more songs from “Perfect Symmetry” than from the “Inside out” album. 

And as we were sure that the concert was over, Fates Warning jumped back on the stage for an extra encore with two songs that rarely the band performed live in the past, “Quietus” from the “No Exit” LP and the astonishing “Another Perfect Day” from “FWX” which I hadn’t heard in years! The best way for such a good and complete live show to come to an end…