Well, this has been a night to remember. And let me explain: It is quite an experience to see Jethro Tull playing live, but it is almost a metaphysical experience to having seen them playing a few meters underneath the Parthenon, in the ancient theater of Herodus Atticus! The ancient theater stands there for a few thousand years, and is used in the summers for selected performances. This has been the first time that a rock band played there, and consequently the first time that the "Holy Rock" (as the hill of Acropolis is called) was flooded by black t-shirts and stuff. So the band when on stage could see right above, while the crowd opposite to the stage could see the fool moon. It was magical to listen to Tull's folk tunes, watch the nice light show and being in such a place of mystery which produces awe.

Of course there is always a but. So everything was perfect BUT no one is allowed to smoke inside the theater, no one was allowed to be standing (there was no arena-only sitting people), and the worst: there were many people totally irrelevant to the band and its music, who have been there only because "there was a performance at the Herodion". So in the crowed one could see metalheads, rockers, old rockers with their family (just to remember their wild youth - something that I find wonderful), but also yuppies who came there just in order to say the next day that they went to the Herodion to watch that rock band playing live, a few children with their mothers, and other irrelevant creatures. Plus there have been some quarrels between those who had secretly light some cigarettes (I don't smoke but I can imagine how hard it must be for a smoker to listen to Aqualung without smoking) and some hysterical women who thought they were at an opera performance. And don't get me started with us head banging under the tunes of "Locomotive Breath" and some looking at us as if we were aliens.

Anyway, setting aside those events - that didn't prevent us from having fun - the show was astonishing!!! The band was in a great night performance-wise and it delivered most of its everlasting hymns in the best possible way - needless to say that the sound was crystal clear as the acoustics of the theater is unrivalled. The band these days consists of

Ian - of course -, Martin Barre, Andrew Giddings, Jonathan Noyce and Doane Perry. I had heard about Anderson's unique stage performance and exceptional sense of humor, but now that I saw him live I can verify that the man is a total lunatic! What I enjoyed the most was his lines. For example he humiliated someone who kept walking in front of the stage when the band was playing, by pointing him and saying that he wanted to piss so badly that he couldn't wait until a break between the songs etc. Or the introduction to the songs: "Now we will play three old songs": "Songs From The Woods", "Too Old To R-n-R, Too Young To Die" and from "Heavy Horses", we will play a bit from "Stairway To Heaven"!!!!

Don't ask me about the complete set list, as I was so surrendered to the music, that I cannot remember everything. I can remember that they opened with "Leaving In the Past", and then the one classic followed the other: "Songs From The Wood", "Too Old...", "Songs For Jeffrey", "Fat Man" etc. The night came to an end with "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath" (encore) in total delirium! But if you ask me for the highlight of the night, then I would argue about the exceptional performance on the magnificent "Budapest", which carried us away. During the song Ian climbed on the ruins at the back of the stage and stood inside a natural small cavity to deliver his flute solo!!!! The band played 2 hours and 15 minutes and after the show everyone was applauding in ecstasy, even the yuppies! I looked to the old fat man next to me and saw his eyes sparkling from pleasure. Yes, this is music's power: to bind 3 generations together as one. Rock music is the glue of the world and Tull is one of its strong elements.

by Alex Savatianos