Onassis Presents: Stages A/Live | Thrax Punks at WE in Thessaloniki

Thrax Punks Live YouTube premiere at WE in Thessaloniki: On Sunday, March 7 | 21:00 (EET)

Free of charge, with no time limit.

The Onassis Foundation is supporting the local indie concert venue scene through a series of filmed live performances by bands and artists from the alternative Greek music scene, STAGES A/LIVE. By being next to all artists, but also everyone who plays their part – technicians, lighting specialists, and all those professionals without whom the music that has shaped us would never have reached us. This week, STAGES A/LIVE goes to Thessaloniki for something a little more… punk. On Sunday, March 7 Thrax Punks will be bringing the WE stage to life, uniting all the world’s music on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel at 21:00 (UTC+3) with a concert filmed by Cristos Sarris . WE, an old military warehouse, in the city center, used to various ends over the years, has been converted into the concert space.

This alternative urban multi-purpose venue WE, set inside one of Thessaloniki’s historic abandoned buildings, has to date hosted some of the most major artists active in the contemporary Greek rap, punk, and pop scenes. The WE multi-purpose venue opened its doors in early 2015 and, in just a few short months, managed to stake its place as one of the most important concert spaces in Thessaloniki. Hundreds of artists and groups have graced the WE stage. Anser, 12os Pithikos, Social Waste, Vevilos, Panx Romana, Pavlos Pavlidis, Giannis Aggelakas, Bloody Hawk, Warhaus, City of the Sun, Xατ Tρικ (Hat Trick), Vodka Juniors, Novel 729, Bad Movies, Psarantonis, Eisvoleas and others have all breathed life into this building on Tritis Septemvriou Avenue. Together with a new generation of artists, WE has managed to create countless memories in the minds of the city’s youth.

At the concert at WE Thrax Punks are coming to prime us in their very own style of music, which combines rock and punk with Greek folk songs and melodies. Their every live appearance goes beyond the limits of a “standard” rock concert, and this one on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel is no exception: set to make everyone dance, whether they enjoy endless headbanging inside smoke-filled underground venues, or like to attend marathon saint’s-day festivals that get all Greece going, especially in summer. Because, as Thrax Punks say themselves, music is a way of creating our own worlds to live in.

What do traditional carols from Thrace and the punk music scene have in common? Thrax Punks – with an effortless mastery that would make even the most seasoned bands jealous, and all the while making something that, until recently, seemed unheard of come across as the most natural thing in the world – have managed to combine Thracian lyres with electric guitars, establishing themselves to date as a case worthy of study in the contemporary Greek music scene. They draw their influences from Mode Plagal, Slipknot, Trypes (“Holes”), The Clash, and Rage Against the Machine, but also from legendary rebetiko (Greek blues) artists such as Markos Vamvakaris, Yiorgos Batis, and Spyros Peristeris. Armed with their gaidas (bagpipes), daoulis (davuls), bows, drums, and six-stringed instruments, they released their first self-titled full-length album in 2019, and a few years earlier christened their debut EP “Punkopanhgyropsychedeleia” (which roughly translates as “Punkfetepartypsychedelia”) – a name that also serves as a good description of what it is they do.

STAGES A/LIVE is a series of concerts without audiences but with lots of music, hosted by the the Onassis Channel on YouTube. An alternative digital world tour featuring our favorite bands and artists, and everything we’ve experienced with them at legendary past lives held at landmark venues such as Gagarin 205, AN Club, and other music stages in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Until we can all be together again at a live concert, music will be bringing us closer, even though we’re far apart, helping us to relive memories and concerts shared with thousands of people – both friends and strangers – via our screens.

Greece’s indie music stages were created to support young artists, and have supported yet more audiences with bands once unknown that went on to become legends, in no small part thanks to their performances at historic concert venues.

Fuzzy memories that today spark nostalgia, and a need for these stages to pull through – places where we feel safe and full of energy.

In this difficult time for people working in the arts, the Onassis Foundation is actively supporting these spaces that, due to the pandemic, are close to shutting their doors for good. Stages drained of artists, of technicians, of audiences – and of life.

Culture continues to form an integral part of our existence, and the music scene remains a space where we feel safe. The indie music scenes of Athens, of Thessaloniki, of every Greek city now depend on us all. For the sake of everything that connects us with concert spaces, and for all the moments they have given us. Looking to the future together, we miss our collective musical past. Tune in to the Onassis Channel on YouTube and turn the volume up – the Greek indie music scene is (a)live

Credits:

Concept & Curation: Christos Sarris

Production Coordinators: Smaragda Dogani, Elena Choremi

Production: Onassis Stegi

THRAX PUNKS

Vaitsis Charakopidis (Jr): Gaida / Vocals

George Stavridis: Davul / Thracian Lyre / Vocals Panos Gkinis: Electric Guitar / Vocals

Sound Engineer: Markos Koutsianas

WE

Location Manager: Athanasios Krezios

Art Direction: Giorgos Georgiadis

Electrician: Christos Giannakaris

Production

Execution: Production Manager & Coordination: Yotis Posporeli

Production Executive: Takis Giannakopoulos

Production Assistant: Christos Papanantsidis

Filming

Director – Camera: Christos Sarris

Director of Photography: Evan Maragkoudakis

Cameras: Dimitris Zivopoulos, Orfeas Kalafatis, Filippos Zamidis, Koralia Dogani

Recording: Themistoklis Dimitrakopoulos, Alexis Archontis

Mix: Themistoklis Dimitrakopoulos

Monitor Engineer: Kostas Kakoulidis

Stage/Backline Technicians: Savvas Christou, George Tachtsidis, Mimis Konstantinidis Lighting Technician: Nikos Kechagias

Technical Support: Nikos Ntoulas

Editor: Tryfon Karatzinas

Colorist: Manthos Sardis δεν υπάρχουν στο Ελληνικό

Photography: Alexandros Avramidis

Onassis Stegi

Technical Manager: Lefteris Karabilas

Technical Director & Project Support: Phil Hills

Production Coordinators: Smaragda Dogani, Elena Choremi

Read More about Thrax Punks

Thrax Punks are a music group from the Greek region of Thrace – more specifically, from Evros. Their roots date back to 2006, when they first formed as a purely traditional folk band. Over time, the band’s members have – in line with their listening tastes – experimented with contemporary esthetics and styles drawn from a variety of music genres from around the globe, incorporating them into their music. Its core members – Vaitsis Charokopidis on gaida (bagpipes) and kaval (flute), and Yorgos Stavridis on daouli (davul drum) and Thracian lyre – appeared at local events, traditional functions, and weddings, as well as at small festivals across Greece, before making their first appearance as Thrax Punks in 2010. With the arrival of Panos Gkinis on electric and bass guitar in 2015, the group’s sound took on an intensely electronic feel, with live looping, psychedelic bridges, heavy guitars, math outbursts, and a punk esthetic. To date, they have appeared at most major music festivals in Greece, and have also given concerts internationally, in the UK, Germany, and Cyprus. In 2016, they released their first EP titled “Punkopanhgyropsychedeleia” (which roughly translates as “Punkfetepartypsychedelia”), and in 2017 met Markos Koutsianas, a sound engineer who would oversee the sound of their upcoming album, joining the band as its fourth member to date. Together, the four of them presented their first full-length self-titled release (LP) – “Thrax Punks” – in 2019, with which they toured Greece, giving a series of in the main sold out shows. Now based in Athens, they are working with acclaimed artists and writing music for film, while in the near future they plan to record music for ancient Greek tragedy, and put out their latest release on vinyl.

Read more about the concert:

https://www.onassis.org/news/stages-alive-present-thrax-punks-at-we

Read more about STAGES A/LIVE

https://www.onassis.org/initiatives/stages-alive

Διατίθενται ήδη στο Onassis Channel στο YouTube οι συναυλίες του STAGES A/LIVE

STAGES A/LIVE concerts are already available on the Onassis Channel on YouTube

GAGARIN 205 – NIGHTSTALKER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD1W-9By0_w

GAGARIN 205 – ATH KIDS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh2uYrVkx34

AN CLUB – PUTA VOLCANO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ZokXd18x8

Onassis Channel on YouTube

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