Athens Walker

2012-12-18

Music venues and concert spaces in Athens

I just wrote up a major update on the "upcoming cultural events" in Athens (see tab above) and it dawned on me (what a genius!) that a map featuring all the major music venues in Athens ("concert spaces", "concert halls", "live music spaces", arenas, or whatever they may be called) would be a useful feature to have in this blog. So, here it is: a map of music spaces in Athens (for all kinds of music and types of concerts) and a list of them with a few words about each space.

An Club

Description: A historic rock'n'roll music "joint" or "dive" or something of that sort, depending on what variation of English you speak. Almost exclusively hosting alternative, indie rock / punk names. For this simple reason, the financial crisis seems to have not touched it, as it features a full schedule of acts for the coming months whereas other music spaces struggle to stay afloat.Address: 13-15 Solomou St., [Exarchia district], Athens

Access: Right next to the rather infamous Exarchia Square, 10 minutes walk from Panepistimio and Omonia Metro Stations.
Website: http://www.anclub.gr/

Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Moussikis)

Description: Athens' major concert hall, the Megaro Moussikis (which stands for "Music's Mansion"), has been hosting classical music concerts and an expanding array of shows, performances and events for 20+ years now. A rich, deep schedule of events and performances runs all the way from September till May of each year. The Concert Hall's creation was pushed through by late media mogul Dimitris Lambrakis and the" Friends of Music Association, finally to become reality in 1991. Located near Athens city center, at the museum avenue Vassilissis Sophias, in a large, marble mansion, with a Metro Station bearing its name and a newly inaugurated urban park as its garden, this is the major cultural space in Greece. [Update: As of 2014-15 its future is in peril due to serious accumulated debts from past years and the State's inability/unwillingness to fund the arts]

Address: Vassilissis Sophias & Petrou Kokkali St., Athens

Access: Megaro Moussikis Metro Station (Line 3). More info here.

Website:http://www.megaron.gr/

Badminton Theatre

Description: Built as a temporary construction for the 2004 Olympics to host badminton and other "exotic" sports, it was later converted to an indoor theatre, where one can usually watch traveling musicals and other relevant performances.

Address: Goudi Olympic Properties / Alsos Stratou park [Goudi area], Athens

Access: 10min walk from Katechaki Metro Station (Line 3)

Website:http://www.badmintontheater.gr/

Fuzz Club

Description: An urban, live-music space hosting interesting international acts of mostly rock and world music. Occasionally big names.

Address: 209 Pireos St. & 1 Patriarchou Ioakeim St., Tavros [Greater Athens area]

Access: 15min walk from Tavros - Eleftherios Venizelos Metro Station (Line 1)

Website:http://www.fuzzclub.gr/

Gagarin 205

Description: An urban space hosting, mostly, rock concerts. Greek and international bands, occasionally big names.

Address: 205 Liossion St., [Odos Liossion / Plateia Attikis area], Athens

Access: 6min walk from Attiki Metro Station (Line 1)

Website: http://www.gagarin205.gr

GazArte

Description: A multi-faceted culture centre / club / bar hosting world music, jazz, blues, sould and funk acts in the noisy, night-life neighborhood of Gazi. You need to make a reservation. Prices can be fairly high.

Address: 32-34 Voutadon St. [Gazi area], Athens

Access: Right outside Kerameikos Metro Station (Line 3)

Website: http://www.gazarte.gr

Half Note Jazz Club

Description: The name (almost) says it all. A jazz club hosting big names from the international jazz and blues scene as well as up and coming Greek musicians (and established ones - yes, they do exist!). It occasionaly ventures to neighbourhing music genres (ethnic, flamenco, traditional, etc.). It's been in operation since 1979, thus being a virtual staple of Athens night-life. Very reasonable prices.>

Address:17 Trivonianou St., [Mets neighbourhood], Athens.

Access: 10min. walk from Acropolis Metro Station (Line 2)

Website: http://www.halfnote.gr/

Kyttaro Live

Description: Another historic rock club in operation since for ever (1970 to be exact); it has recently been restored and refurbished trying to make a comeback in the city's rock scene. It's usually punk, rock, garage and other "similar", "underground" types of bands that play here (both Greek and international) but mostly no "big names".

Address: 48 Ipeirou St. & Acharnon St., [Plateia Victorias area], Athens

Access: 7min walk from Victoria Metro Station (Line 1) or 10min walk from Larissis (a.k.a. Larissa) Metro Station (Line 2)

Website:http://www.kyttarolive.gr

OAKA Olympic Stadium

Description: Normally not associated with cultural events (unless you count soccer matches as such) but occasionally hosting big name concerts (of the U2, Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers variety).

Address:OAKA Olympic Complex, Municipality of Maroussi [Greater Athens]

Access: Irini Metro Station (Line 1)

Website:http://www.oaka.com.gr/

Onassis Cultural Centre

Description: A recent arrival (Dec. 2010) in Athens' cultural scene, it has quickly become the number two cultural center in the city after the Athens Concert Hall with which it seems to be forming a complementary and co-operative relationship. More geared (but not constrained) to modern art (dance, theatre, exhibitions and music) with major European, Greek and international productions as part of its wide-ranging schedule of events that runs throughout the winter season. The Michelin-star crowned Hytra restaurant has recently opened shop (if I may use the expression) at the roof of the Onassis Cultural Centre.

Address:107-109 Syngrou Avenue, Athens

Access:Syngrou-Fix Metro Station (Line 3) See here for more info.

Website: http://www.sgt.gr/en

PassPort Culture Space

Description: A recently opened music space hosting mostly modern Greek music shows.

Address: 119 Karaiskou St., Piraeus [Greater Athens Area]

Access: By Bus 040(Syntagma Sq.-Piraeus), Bus 500 (Kifissia-Piraeus) and many others (049, 130, 904, 906, A1, B1, E90, X96) at the Dimotiko Theatro (Municipal Theatre) bus stops

Website: http://www.pass-port.com.gr/ Also, see their facebook page.

View Music venues and Concert spaces in Athens, Greece in a larger map

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2012-11-27

Freezing your butt off in sunny Athens...

The vast majority of Athens residents live in blocks of flats (a.k.a. 'apartment blocks') regardless of economic or social status. The domestic migration to urban centers, and mainly Athens, that took place from the 1950's to about 1980 has resulted in a scarcity of land. Most single houses have been torn down and sold to developers, to make room for apartment blocks. So, when winter comes and you want to warm yourself, you need to work out a deal with the other tenants (or owners) of your apartment block as there's a central heating system, pumping hot water through pipes running all over the building.

Heating body / Radiator in Athens apartment

The law sure has provisions on the subject, but in the middle of a deep economic crisis, with incomes severly diminished (or entirely cut off) for almost everyone, and with a wave of taxes on heating oil and hikes (lesser ones) in the price of electricity, things get complicated. People will prefer to forego their heating (and bill) as it is no longer considered a bare necessity in these circumstances. I have heard of many apartment blocks where tenants have collectively agreed to not buy heating oil this winter. And I'm talking about "middle-class" neighborhoods. They will, instead, rely on using their electric heating appliances, when absolutely necessary. I have my doubts about how efficient this will turn out to be, heating-wise, but it gives you a clear sign of the challenges people face these days.

Temperature control for individually heated apartment

Newer buildings give each apartment the option to be heated individually (which is fine in theory but innefficient heating-wise if each apartment warms and cools at different hours of the day). Yet, even in that case, all residents have to pay a minimum percentage (e.g. 25%) of the collective heating bill (the cost of oil purchased by the block) as they benefit from the heat transfered by neighboring apartments and that can also be a cause of friction (different kind of heat here...) between dwellers. It's been a very mild autumn thus far -a virtual windfall for all of us- but the 3 months from mid-December to mid-March are always the coldest ones in the calendar. By March we'll know if the title of this post has become reality or not...

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2012-11-03

Athens Photo Festival 2012, pt.2

Find below some long overdue pictures, along with my impressions, from Technopolis-Gazi, the main exhibition space for the Athens Photo Festival which I visited last week. For more details on the photo festival see part 1.

The main square at Technopolis-Gazi, Athens

The first exhibition to your right, as you enter, is the annual Young Greek Photographers (no need to explain...). Curiously, the two Greek photographers I was mostly impressed with this year, are taking photographs that are far away from my style and that I wouldn't bother to shoot even if I could. Highly set up and stylized ones; giving you the impression that the photograph itself is only the end result of a long, copious artistic process. The first one is Constantinos Taliotis with his detailed, precisely choreographed "stills" of imaginary cop- and crime-films.

The second one is Penelope Koliopoulou, with her double exposed self-portraits of imaginary couples in the grey tones of their daily life. I felt that somehow this was the type of project, and photographs, that can leave a lasting aesthetic mark on you, which they certainly did on me.

Further on, there was, it seemed to me, a whole "Italian invasion" of photographers but in retrospect I realized that it was the fact that all three (that's how many they were) Italian photographers' projects greatly impressed me with their socially and emotionally affecting themes such as the documenting of the blind, socially excluded Cameroonese dwarfs and unusual portraits of city animals. The photographers names were, respectively, Stefano De Luigi, Nicola Lo Calzo and Giacomo Brunelli.

Stefano de Luigi - Blanco. Vision of blindness, Technopolis-Gazi, Athens

Nicola Lo Calzo - Morgante, Technopolis-Gazi, Athens

Among the other exhibitions, I mostly remember the ones with the photographs of Stephen Dupont (Raskols-The Gangs of Papua-New Guinea), Jan Banning's Bureaucratics with images of the desks of civil servants from around the world, and Anders Petersen's City Diary.