Hjerte Stop, Social Despair – 15/02/07 – Underground at Kalidromiou Street 94, Athens

Although I don’t really like Hjerte Stop and had never listened to Social Despair before, I headed to the underground social center that this gig was taking place. The gig was supposed to start at 9 which of course didn’t because the venue was empty so I had a lot of time to hang. After an hour or so people have started to gather but the place was not packed and the atmosphere was very pleasant. At around 10.15 the “locals” Social Despair hit the “stage”. The played a good set of short and fast songs of the thrash/crossover style that they do. Apart from their songs they did some covers of classics like SOD, Dead Kennedys, GBH and Motorhead if I remember correctly. Afterwards Hjerte Stop got on “stage” and even before they warm up the people, they started making sex jokes about the greeks and anal sex and were prompting people to have anal sex in order to get free t-shirts from them. Well I’m sorry but I was not very amused by this kind of jokes and when I go to a punk/diy gig, I expect the band to have something more to say than doing dirty jokes. Unfortunately for yet another time the fact that even if you’re a hardcore punk, living on welfare and staying in a squat does not mean you are politically or socially active was confirmed. I’m not here to judge those who act like this but in my world and in my opinion, punk is not (just) getting wasted to have a good time. Anyhow, as I said I didn’t really like the band from what I’ve heard from their studio work but their set was ok and although I was a bit pissed, I wasn’t bored. Fast punk rock with touches of hardcore is what they do.