Halmstad was cooking almost at the same temperature as Gothenburg! What a great show and what a great audience again!
Since the venue was changed from Halmstad Arena to Halmstad Theater, a much smaller place, everyone who bought the tickets already the first day they went on sale in October was worrying about the seats, how the organizers would solve this issue. We hoped for not sitting in the 15th row if we had a ticket for the 1st row, however, the organizers tried to assure us that it wouldn’t be the case. We were still not sure about how it could work, until we actually got into the theater and saw that they renumbered the seats, so everyone could be satisfied with the new seats.
In the audience – besides many Roxers from abroad (Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Denmark, etc.) – there were Göran Fritzon (from Gyllene Tider) and Jan-Owe Wikström (Hallandsposten; author of the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book among others). We missed 1 big Roxer though, but we hope for his appearance at least in the crowd at a future concert. Per, you must go and see Ms Effe! She’s awesome! But you know that.
Some of us met Marie and the band when they arrived to Halmstad and they were all smiles already then. We were excited to see them on stage again. Before the show, when almost everyone found their places, a girl from the crew came and distributed some signed Marie cards (the one you could get if you pre-ordered her album Nu!) to the fans in the front rows. It was very nice. Thanks a lot for that!
And the show began. Should I mention Marie was barefoot? Now it’s quite evident she performs like that and we just love it.
After the acoustic Så stilla så långsamt we just jumped up from our seats and so did almost the whole audience, so the fab intro of Kom vila hos mig led us to a great party this time again. Halmstad crowd was almost as cooperative as the one in Gothenburg. Marie mentioned it already at this song how fantastic the audience is. She kept the acting she did in Gothenburg during Bara för en dag. So lovely! The bridge between Det regnar igen and Sista sommarens vals is still something fabulous. Ber bara en gång brought the party feeling again, but we were sitting, just clapping and dancing while sitting. At Sparvöga Marie mentioned it’s her favourite song and it sounded amazing this time, too. During Ett hus vid havet a seagull flew to the wrong place, but otherwise the performance was fantastic. Still so heart-warming how Marie and Jokke are performing it together. Then came the 2 most touching songs, Ett bord i solen and Så skimrande var aldrig havet. Marie’s facial expressions and how she feels these songs were again undescribable. Ännu doftar kärlek made the audience sing along. Not too loud, but you could hear more people were singing out loud than before. Party time again AND this time the audience stayed standing also after Så länge det lyser mittemot, so we were still dancing during Om du såg mig nu and of course during Efter stormen. Wow! THAT was a party! By the end of the tour there might be a concert where no one is sitting, but standing during the whole show. Before ES, Marie thanked the Roxette fans in English for being there. She got a loud response from the fans. Some fans also shouted ”I love you, Marie!” several times and they got a reply from Marie: ”I love you, too!” The party at the end of Den sjunde vågen when Marie already went off the stage (helped by MNS) was so intensive that even Christoffer’s hat fell off his head.
During the break we didn’t sit down, were clapping and standing all the time, waiting for Marie to come back. And she came back, of course. Micke was helping her again to find her place at the mic stand. The party went on with Mellan sommar och höst, then came Den bästa dagen. Before the closing song, Tro, Marie thanked in Swedish for all the energy she gets from the crowd. It means a lot to her. And it means a lot to us. It’s really fantastic to see her reactions, how she loves the active audience. One can see the whole band enjoys it much more when the crowd makes some noise. Even Surjo was acting more tonight, clapping and dancing a bit in the background and Micke was playing the keyboards many times standing and dancing more than how I could see them before.
At the end of the concert, a red heart was back. This time there wasn’t ”Tack!” written on it, but it was a heart-shaped pillow Marie got from a fan, Nikolett. That’s what you can see on the picture here.
Halmstad audience was really fab, joining us whenever we stood up and clapping with us to the rhythm. I loved the reactions of some older Swedish people behind me. They were happy about being part of a crowd like this and they were smiling all the time.
After the show Marie came out and gave some autographs. We also met Pelle and Chris. Chris said it really makes a difference to them when we are there. He said his favourite concert so far was Gothenburg and also Växjö, but tonight’s Halmstad show was very close to them. Chris asked us if we know the guitarist of Gyllene Tider… Of course we know! Pelle and Chris said MP (Mats MP Persson) was playing at a place not too far from the theater, so if we want to see him, we should go there. Some of us went there and yes, MP was playing with a band. They were covering e.g. Bryan Adams: Summer of 69 and we were in time for hearing their cover of Tylö Sun from Gyllene Tider. Per’s voice was definitely missing, but otherwise MP’s playing was great. I had a chance to talk to him a bit and he said they play together with this band once a month. He seemed to feel more comfortable with this cozy set up on stage than with Gyllene Tider. He agreed. This ”after-party” was a great closure of tonight.
Marie and the band are in Karlstad tomorrow. Have fun, everyone and make some noise there, too!
Setlist (no changes)
1. Så stilla så långsamt [1992 – DSR]
2. Kom vila hos mig [2013 – Nu!]
3. Bara för en dag [1987 – ES]
4. Det regnar igen [1992 – DSR]
5. Sista sommarens vals [2013 – Nu!]
6. Ber bara en gång [1996 – IETSV]
7. Sparvöga [1989 off the Swedish drama TV series]
8. Ett hus vid havet [1985 – DSV]
9. Ett bord i solen [2007 – TFT]
10. Så skimrande var aldrig havet [1990 off Taube compilation album]
11. Ännu doftar kärlek [1984 – HV]
12. Så länge det lyser mittemot [1992 – DSR]
13. Om du såg mig nu [1987 – ES]
14. Efter stormen [1987 – ES]
15. Den sjunde vågen [1985 – DSV]
16. Mellan sommar och höst [1992 – DSR]
17. Den bästa dagen [1985 – DSV]
18. Tro [1996 – IETSV]
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Ett hus vid havet
When I decided to meet Jonas Isacsson, my story about him was already written – in my head. Back then I didn’t know that it would take me another seven months to finish this text. Why? Just because some bad things happened, I didn’t have spare time to write it, my iPhone crashed and didn’t let me play the recording of the interview – and most of all I wanted to do it right, it was meant to be perfect. But in the meantime I realized that there’s no way to write a perfect article about a guy who deserves it. The more I try, the less it works. I am, however, happy now that I finally made it. Please be gentle about my English. I did it all alone, I am not a native speaker and tried my best.