“The Strip” is an event taking place once a month and it is organized by the ‘Kids Of The Underground”, a team of young sleaze/glam/rock’n roll lovers and it includes DJ set, video projection, at least one live band and much more. I‘d describe it as one of the best organized events in Athens.

Last Friday, January 30, the ‘Strip Fest’ took place, presenting this time 4 Greek bands. The event actually started after midnight, at 12:45am, when the first band Thunder Dolls, consisted of 5 young ladies, hit the stage playing their debut live show. Delivering a ‘gutsy’ setlist that included some rather difficult yet classic tracks such as “Somebody Save Me” (Cinderella), “Burning For Love” (Bon Jovi), “I Might Lie” (Andy Taylor), “All We Are” (Warlock), Thunder Dolls tried to warm up the audience. The girls obviously lust for rock ‘n roll, however they need to consider seriously that they should work really harder if they want to sound better. Hopefully, that doesn’t sound mean to their ears but I am only trying to be honest and talk fair. I definitely believe that harder work would be much better for the band itself and for the audience.  

The next band on the stage of the full Texas club was Wheelrunner that rocked us for at least one hour with Go Go girls appearing with them on stage and ‘raising temperature’. Wheelrunner’s setlist was based mostly on their recent debut album “Bloodpaint”. It was the first time for me to watch the band live and my first impression was actually really good. Powerful hard rock that I believe they can do even better with somewhat better compositions. They’re all good musicians while their singer Mike proved way the best singer of the evening and Wheelrunner’s strong ‘card’. The band also delivered a good cover of AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rossie”.

Wild Machine took over after Wheelrunner. Although their singer Johnny Hot was suffering bronchitis, Wild Machine appeared in a great mood and ready to play raw and dirty sleaze/glam/rock ‘n roll! They were definitely the highlight of the evening, as their experience and hard work has resulted their good, slick stage appearance. Mostly delivering their own songs, they kept us until 03:45am when XIX were about to hit the stage next.

After a necessary break and with the time being already too late (or early in the morning if you like…), the last band for that evening, XIX, got on stage. It only makes sense why the crowd was smaller because of the time being right then. XIX were pretty good and their new singer, George Theodorou, looked as he has been with the band for a long time. Their setlist was a combination of their own songs and covers from Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, κλπ. XIX delivered good melodic hard rock and I would say that they were the band with the best compositions comparing the the other 3.

At 5 am the Strip Fest was coming to its end in full success. The people who were still at the club were trying to find when the next one would take place. That should be pretty soon. Congratulations ‘kidz’, may Wig Wam be your headliners some day!