2 days ago I never thought another Swedish show could top Gothenburg, but I must say, Stockholm was so far (to me not only in Sweden) the coolest and most energetic concert with the funniest communication between the band and the crowd. Best ever in my book! One could say despite the shitty weather, but I say because of that.
Waiting time and the security team
Since there were many Roxers who attended the show in Gothenburg and travelled to Stockholm either after the show by car or in the morning by plane or by train, the waiting time in front of the venue started a bit later than usual. The weather forecast we saw wasn’t too promising. It said heavy rain from 6 pm until 6 am… Weather forecasts are always wrong. It was heavy rain already from after 3 pm! Lining up was quite ”funny” this way… There were approximately 150 early entrance ticket holders waiting for the inlet. After they got their merchandise stuff some could put it in their cars, but others had to hold it during the whole night. I’m curious how the tour program and the bag survived it. The ordinary ticket owners were lining up at a different entrance again. We used the foil the security team fixed on the fences to hide the view and we were hiding from the rain under it. The inlet on both sides was again very smooth. All respected the system and acted according to that.
Hats off to Show Security Sweden for having the patience also in this heavy weather. Thanks so much for all their efforts, understanding, support, help, smiles and kindness. Thanks to all of them, not only in Stockholm, but also in the other 3 cities we enjoyed their service. Since I won’t be there in Rättvik, I wanted to highlight again what a great team they are and all other countries should learn from them. How about a security team conference in Stockholm to train all the sec teams in each and every country and tell them how it works the best? 😉 Wishing Show Security Sweden an easy day and night in Rättvik and hope to see them very soon on another upcoming tour related to our beloved artists.
Preparing the stage and the awesome job of the crew
Once we were inside we had nothing above our heads to keep ourselves safe from the rain. Only our raincoats and ponchos. Well… they didn’t help too much. We were watching what was happening on stage. Everything was covered with water and the rain was not falling straightly, but more towards the stage. Even if the cables and boxes and instruments were covered, as well as the front part of the stage with a huge foil, it still didn’t look too good. We started worrying twice that the show would be cancelled. Once when the lights on the left side of the stage got lower without anyone touching them, but the crew fixed it very fast. Then the second time was when BoJo came up on stage with at least 9 other crew member and started discussing things. We asked him if everything was alright and he said yes, don’t worry and showed thumbs up. So all, good, we just had to wait for the concert to happen.
We had a fab waiting time in front of the stage, watching every move of the crew members. How they cleaned the stage from the water which didn’t help too much, because after 5 seconds they could have started again and again and again. Then how they decided what to put where. They moved Eskobar’s instruments and mics more towards the back of the stage for having the chance to avoid more rain falling on them and on the band while playing. Then we thought they would probably set Marie’s and Per’s place also more towards the back, in front of the drums and keyboard. Bo walking on the stage, checking the situtation was extremely funny. Once he acted like swimming on the stage, there was so much water. Thomas Johansson from Live Nation, as well as Miss Dimberg also came to check how it looked.
The crew was really awesome before, during and after the show. They did their best to clean the stage from water as much as it was possible and save the instruments and mics and all the gear from the rain. Setting up everything according to the new plan in a very short time. Cooperating with each other to get the best out of the situation. They are really the best crew on Earth! They are also a very important part of the Rox family, we all know it. Thanks for all their hard work especially last night.
Eskobar
The time schedule was kept as much as they could keep it, so Eskobar hit the stage not much later than 19:30. It was the last time I saw Eskobar on this tour and I must admit I was charmed by their performance. Despite the heavy rain, their mood was on a high, they even found the situation cool I think. At least that’s what I could read from their facial expressions. They enjoyed performing to us very much and we had a great party to their songs. There was even a surprise for us Roxers. Daniel asked Dea to come to the stage for singing Someone New as a duet. It sounded beautiful. Dea is so talented! I love having her as Roxette’s backup singer, I think she fits the band very well, but she certainly should find more time for her solo career in the future. She already showed with her EP how amazing singer / songwriter she is. Back to Eskobar, the crowd was loud, singing along and clapping. They didn’t play all songs they have on their setlist, Freedom was left out for example. Hopefully, Frederik’s keyboard is safe now after last night. He had to wipe it with a towel several times.
The break between Eskobar and Roxette
During the break between Eskobar and Roxette we could see some more hard work of the crew. They cleaned the stage again and again. Wiped the instruments and took away the covers, created new foil covers for the keyboards and Magnus’s Blue Swede Sex Machine and Per’s monitor. BoJo came to check the heaters they set up for Marie and started kidding and acted like he was having a shower, washing his armpits. Haha. Then while sitting, one of the crew members started giving him a massage. It wasn’t the easiest preparation for a show for sure, but they looked like having much fun and this made us smile and laugh, so we took the whole situation easier. Marie’s chair was placed in line with Dea’s spot, so more towards the back, as well as Per’s mic stand. Until Marie arrived to her spot, there was a foil and towel on the chair to keep it dry for our Queen.
Those who came to see Roxette were not afraid of the rain. I guess most people who planned to come, but were not there at the concert didn’t came at all. To me it seemed only a few left after checking the situation and decided not to stay there all night in the cold cold rain. In the loud speaker we heard a woman asking people in the crowd to put their umbrellas away despite the rain, because Roxette will soon hit the stage and the umbrellas would block the view to those who are standing behind someone holding an umbrella. Many booed at this call, but fortunately, they understood it really won’t work holding the umbrellas up. So we really had to trust our raincoats and ponchos.
Roxette time! Woohoo!
When they came up the stage, first they seemed to be worried, Per was maybe even pissed off or upset. I think they were not sure about how the crowd felt, but after the first chords of Sleeping In My Car they could all be sure we would be having fun no matter what. Suddenly, they started smiling, laughing, looking at each other with the facial expression that ”hey, all good, they are fine, so let’s rock!”. Marie (also in Gothenburg, I just forgot to mention I think) started again to point at people while singing ”making love to you and you and you”. Lovely!
Poor photographers didn’t have an easy task to take photos in the rain with all their pro objectives, but from what I saw so far, they did a great job.
As I mentioned, Marie was more to the middle. If I remember right, it was before The Big L. when BoJo came to the stage and helped her getting a bit more backwards with the chair. She was so cool, BoJo was still there moving her, but she didn’t mind at all, the band didn’t stop playing and didn’t go on with some more filling chords until everything was set, so she just started singing regardless. It was her part, she had to sing and she did. Such a lovely professional attitude! She surely was freezing even if she had warm clothes and even gloves on. The heaters most probably couldn’t give her the warmest feeling. But this didn’t stop her singing her heart out, improvising and show the most velvety tone of her voice. She rocked big time!
It wasn’t much more than 10 degrees and the rain was falling on our faces heavily, but after a while you really let it go. Water from the roof of the stage poured on us like a shower every now and then with the funny coincidence during the fitting lyrics were sung out.
So many lyrics with rain and water. It all made sense last night! Both the crowd and the band was smiling or even gesturing when these words left either Marie’s or Per’s mouth. ”It’s where the water flows”; ”I’m freezin’ in the summer”; ”no changes in the weather”; ”in and outside, I’ve turned to water”; etc… One could think Per wrote all these lyrics on a night like it was yesterday. 😉 When he was singing She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) and got to this part: ”Nobody’s got a clue if there is such a reason” they pointed at us in the front with a question mark above his head. It was too funny. Per was again looking into the eyes of the wet familiar faces. Not as intensively as in Gothenburg, but still many times. He has never communicated so much with the crowd. Not in that spontaneous way as in Stockholm.
The stage was quite slippery and we thought Per would stay more at his mic stand. Remembering that pic from some years ago where he holds the umbrella and Åsa is walking next to him we didn’t really expect PG to come to the edge of the stage. We were not sure if he wanted his hairdo to be ”ruined”. But to our biggest surprise, he joined us in the rainy party and came to the front several times. Much appreciated! It was funny to see the splashing water under his stomping leg and the guitar fights with Chris stepped into another dimension in the rain, but while bouncing around sometimes we were worried Per would fall over. But keeping the balance is something he is very good at it seems, so there was no problem at all. Splashing under each and every step of him, as well as Chris, Magnus and Dea was very cool when they came jumping and grooving to the edge. They rocked! So hard that Christoffer’s hat fell off his head and the wind blew it away and it landed almost in front of Marie.
Another thing to be mentioned regarding Per’s hairdo (the most discussed topic of all times in the Rox World, haha) the rain made it curly and it looked very much different vs. when he is just sweating at the show. Damn hot he looked! Maybe he should forget about using the hair straightener at all. 😉
The stage was cleaned from water during every little break between the songs and I think this was the first concert we saw Micke N-S on stage so many times. He continuously had to wipe the monitor with a towel. By the way, the back cells were not used and there was no projection to the background this time. Not sure if there was any problem with the system or it was just because in the rain the projection itself wouldn’t look how it should anyway.
Åsa was filming a lot despite the rain. She rulez! She had waterproof trousers and jacket on, but the cap of the jacket couldn’t keep her glasses dry. I was smiling at it, because I was wearing glasses too and had to wipe them several times during the show to have a clearer view. It was funny to see her in this outfit, but the funniest was that she was wearing a flip flop to these trousers and jacket. She’s cool. Hopefully, the iPhone was also waterproof and it survived the filming.
Hard to judge which was / were the highlight song(s) of the night, because all songs were very special in this set. Before Crush On You there was a nice change in the conversation between Per and Magnus. After Per said Magnus’s fave album is Have A Nice Day, Magnus didn’t mention Baladas en español at all. He said to Per, so you want to play a song from that album. Per said yes and Magnus replied: ”So that’s what we do then!” Per: ”Thank you!” And they laughed and we laughed. It was really nice for a change.
Although according to the printed setlist they planned performing The Heart Shaped Sea, it was left out and after She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) they went on with Watercolours In The Rain / Paint. Before Marie and Dea started performing, Marie said how awesome it is to see so many people in this damn rain. They all were quite impressed by the crowd not just because of standing there in the rain, but how active we were. WITR/Paint got a warm welcome from the wet crowd. This duet can never go wrong! Marie and Dea sound amazing together!
Before they started playing Dressed For Success, Per shouted into the mic in Swedish: ”It’s Saturday! Dull weather! Party time!” The crowd was partying hard anyway, during each and every power pop song. The clapping choreography can never go wrong, but this time it hurt so much because of our wet hands. Actually, our hands looked like we had a full-day bath. Oh well, we did have… Haha.
Joyride started with the intro ”Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” played by Chris. We were wondering what local song he would have played if it wasn’t raining. No matter what, it fitted perfectly. There were less balloons during Joyride this time than usual, because it was very hard to prepare them in the rain, mainly to close them after blowing them up.
When the band went off the stage, everyone wanted to have them back and they came back with a most fantastic performance of Listen To Your Heart. Marie was brilliant! The ending was again w.o.w.! Then The Look rocked and Marie came up again with ”you’ve got the look” pointing at the audience. We love that! The crowd applauded Roxette very loudly, not feeling the pain in the hands anymore. It was so hard to let them go! After the concert ended many were still singing nananana.
While I prefer wiping sweat off my face instead of rain, it was really the best show ever in my life. I’ve never felt Roxette and the crowd so united as last night. I mean it!
You know this show was indeed one of the best ever gigs for Roxette too when you see Per’s (longest ever?) comment after the concert:
STOCKHOLM UPDATE: Excellent! Not the pouring rain. Jeezus! Haven’t played in a shower before. This was far out! So slippery everywhere. And Magnus’ glasses with all that water pouring……surreal….
But the crowd!! Oh my God, over 13000 ppl standing proud for so many hours, then singing along and giving us so much positive energy I feel like a Duracell-rabbit right now!!!
Thanx everyone for making this a one-of-a-kind gig no one who attended will never forget. Day off tomorrow. Then the last gig in Sweden for a while.
Vids are coming, folks (both from Gothenburg + Sthlm), I just haven’t got the time to check ’em out at the moment!!!!
Cheers + lots of love to all of yoi! /P.
One feels so much love for them! This band is the best there is! Next stop is Rättvik on 27th July. It’s going to be a beatiful show in a beautiful setting.
Judith’s review:
One of the things I learnt during my first trip to Sweden back in 1999 is that shows are not cancelled here just because of a bit of rain (heavy storms may be another story). Back then I was afraid my to-be-first concert by Eva D. would be cancelled, as I was used to the Spanish way. Back then rain = show cancelled. When I spoke out my fears my Swedish friends laughed. Cancel because of rain? So yesterday despite seeing the management and crew checking up the situation, I was sure they were just discussing HOW to make the show happen, not IF. Instruments and mics were relocated and voila!
I went to the venue pretty late, as I was supposed to take pictures so no need to queue up for hours. And we landed a first-row spot on the faaaar right of the stage, couldn’t see Clarence though. This time I was better prepared for the rain, after the freezing cold experience of Halmstad 2010, but still ‘only’ my trousers got wet. I know it was worse for those on and off the stage, so thanks for putting up with that and making such an amazing show possible! As Daniel of Eskobar kept saying, heroes! Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures because I didn’t have my (cam is not waterproof) “camera poncho” with me and didn’t want to destroy more than 1000 euro in equipment. It turned out to be a good decision, but that’s another story.
Eskobar started a bit late (because of rearrangements on stage) and skipped some of the songs on their setlist. But they gave it all and more as always. The very nice surprise was when Dea stepped on the stage to sing Someone New. What a version! Dea should release an album. Soon!
And then it was time to rox! For details just read Patrícia’s review above. These are the moments that I took with me, like when Marie said something like ‘damn it IS raining!’ Or Bo pretended he was taking a shower when he tried out Marie’s chair and heaters. Or Per jumped even harder on the wet floor splashing the water. Or Chris played ‘Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head’ as Joyride intro. This is turning negative into positive! What struck me the most was Marie’s voice… Vienna was wow, Zurich was oh my… London out of this world… Yesterday there are no words for that. What happened here? Simply, she’s the best and a hell of a singer!
Articles and photos
rockfoto.nu
Expressen
Svenska Dagbladet
gaffa.se
dn.se
Anna-Lena Ramsten
Videos
Spending My Time
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
How Do You Do!
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
Setlist
Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head)
Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look