Devon Graves (of Psychotic Waltz, Deadsoul Tribe, The Shadow Theory) was playing a series of special acoustic shows built on songs from his different bands, but he wasn’t playing them anywhere near us.
Well, if Graves isn’t coming to Metalmoments, Metalmoments will have to come to Graves we thought, and off we were to join in on his double night concert in Athens, Greece.

We met up at the Drugstore shortly after the doors opened and took a seat as we waited for the entertainment of the evening to begin.
Just to make it clear, The Drugstore is in no way a concert hall but rather just a small bar which can house 100-150 people at its max capacity by my estimate. In this capacity it seems great though, as you enter you are greeted by a line scribbled on the wall in front of you saying; ”The mafia stole my guitar”, and on the other walls an assortment of large prints of live photographs, and clothes of musical background (be it special band-shirts or sets of clothes artists have worn in their career), apparently borrowed collections around the world, or so the plaque told me.
In a corner beside the bar stood a mic-stand and a barstool, which apparently was all the “stage” Mr. Graves would need. I was a bit surprised to see the amount of effect pedals in front of the chair though, given that this was to be an all acoustic gig (no one ever mentioned unplugged, so the speakers didn’t bother me). Excited as I was, I tried to document the place with my phone but with the lack of proper stage lights it was near to impossible, and I went and tried the beer instead while waiting a bit more.

“Good evening everyone, so glad you could come out.”
- Devon Graves (guitar/vocals)

Waited was the operative word here.
The first hour we figured that the show was probably just postponed a bit in order to get a larger audience (it can’t have been more than 50-70 people or so, which really astonished me, didn’t people know what they were missing?), but after a while when the queue outside had disappeared, it all just seemed odd.
After about an hour more though, we saw a taxi speeding up outside the entrance, and in came Graves, threw his jacket off as he ordered a bottle of water and a cup of tea, made some short exercises to loosen up, and then promptly sat down and tuned his guitar before going straight to it.
The following three (!) hours would be filled with mostly songs from his time in Deadsoul Tribe, as with the starter, Toy Rockets, fewer Psychotic Waltz songs and a single song from his solo album, The Strange Mind Of Buddy Lackey. Well, one and a half I suppose, as Just Like A Timepiece appears both on this and on The January Tree by Deadsoul Tribe...
Apart from that, Graves also found time for a nice selection of cover songs which fell in well with his own material. And talking.

Devon Graves was definitely in the mood for chatting this evening; before nearly each and every song he was giving us little titbits of enjoyment; be it history or explanations of the songs, personal memories, or simply some fun comments on what was going on right in the moment, Graves proved to be the perfect host for this evenings’ entertainment and just as perfectly synced with his audience. Nothing passed by unnoticed, which could be seen when he greeted a girl who came in (very) late by saying he was glad she could make it, and that the rest of us had been waiting for her; and let’s not forget the break that was held so that one guy could go to the restroom (yes, he was told to hurry up during his time out there, and also asked if he’d remembered to wash his hands at the time of his return).
Regarding the setlist, he mentioned that the reason that the weight of the material came from Deadsoul Tribe was simply that he knew how to play these songs, and that many of these songs he had not gotten to play while in the band.
When it came to Psychotic Waltz songs, he admitted that even though he initially had planned to become a guitarist, his talent simply didn’t reach the same heights as his good friend Dan Rock (although it was apparently Graves who had taught Rock to play the guitar in the beginning), and even though he had learned a few extra songs for these shows, his skills were simply not up to the task of playing most of Waltz's material. Because of this he also kindly asked us to refrain from posting any of the videos that people were shooting with their cell-phones on YouTube, as he didn’t want to upset Rock with what he did to his songs.
There was one topic which clearly filled a more important place in Graves’ conscience though, and he spent a great deal of time discussing this – it was about the much discussed money crisis in the record business, and whether it was due to illegal downloading or simply too greedy record companies. Graves’ own opinion on this was clear enough (the latter) and thus we reached the point of the speech where he informed us that from now on he would have nothing to do with companies and releases, but instead he was in the process of creating a website where he would post all the music he made for free download, with the option of giving a donation if you’d feel like it. An interesting project which we will be glad to follow the progress of.

But let’s get back to the music, shall we?
As I mentioned, the show began with the Deadsoul Tribe song Toy Rockets, but it would be more honest to say that the show began with the Tenacious D song The Warning, as the first lines of this (up to and including “...all you people here are in grave danger”) was used as an extended intro for Toy Rockets, and I must admit that the two worked very well together.
Do you remember me commenting on the large inclusion of effect boards in the beginning? Well we soon found out that these weren’t intended for the guitar at all, but rather for Graves’ microphone, in which he tweaked his voice with effects from time to time to fit the mood of the songs, again to great results. What was more impressive than this though, was that at several times, when he really put his strength behind it, his voice alone carried far above the amplified one in the speakers, and even here, as unplugged as it gets, his voice was still filled with passion and power, maybe even more so than when he used the microphone, and that’s quite impressive in my book! Here we could really thank the intimacy of the bar for letting us hear this.
As Graves used the technique of ending in the same manner as opening, the last song was also a Tenacious D song, Tribute, but the lyrics had been slightly altered to fit the current artist; each time Kyle Gass is mentioned in the original it had here been replaced with Dan Rock, and when Graves instead of singing “we are but men” sang “we’re Psychotic Waltz” the place erupted in cheers and applause!

In fact, the audience was very much into the show the whole way through, impressively much so even.
There was a tense calmness in the air as no one was moving or making noises, but everyone was a hundred percent concentrated on the man with the guitar. Sure, between songs loud applause and shouts could be heard, but during the songs no one sad a thing, and it wasn’t until as late in the set as My Grave and Hotel California that the Greek crowd sang along to any of the songs, in My Grave quite on their own accord and in Hotel California after being invited for the ride by Graves.
Heck, I don’t think even a single beer was sold during the entire three hours, I didn’t see it happening at least!
Another sign both of the audiences’ willingness to listen, but also of Graves’ flexibility and presence, was when there was a request for a Jethro Tull song, and after a short moment to think, Graves played We Used To Know even though it wasn’t on any setlist!

It is seldom that one experiences something as intense and emotional as this was, and if all else fails for him, Devon Graves is permanently invited to come play at any bar in the vicinity of my home in the future.
For now I could only praise my luck that the Greek promoters had book another show with him in the same place the following night; I couldn’t wait to get back!

Setlist:

Toy Rockets (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Time (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Windsong
Some Sane Advice (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Space Oddity (David Bowie cover)
Lady Of Rain (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Regret (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Someday (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
...Into The Spiral Cathedral (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Just Like A Timepiece
Cry For Tomorrow / Spiders And Flies (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Black Smoke And Mirrors (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Under The Weight Of My Stone (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Empty (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Drift (Psychotic Waltz cover)
Hanging On A String (Psychotic Waltz cover)
Fear (Deadsoul Tribe cover)
Catch The Rainbow (Rainbow cover)
I Remember (Psychotic Waltz cover)
My Grave (Psychotic Waltz cover)
Imagine (John Lennon cover)
I Never Cry (Alice Cooper cover)
Hotel California (The Eagles cover)
We Used To Know (Jethro Tull cover)
Tribute (Tenacious D cover)