The 6th gig on the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour, the 3rd seated show happened in Vienna. The venue being seated, we didn’t have to rush, we could take our time until we entered Stadthalle. First thing was to check the merchandise again. Actually, you can be lucky and at some venues you might find something new included. This time it was Per’s guitar picks. Only the black ones he uses on this tour, but all 3 of the black ones. You could buy 2 picks for 5 EUR. Just so you know when you see them on eBay or Tradera later. 😉
The venue wasn’t too big, but what felt really big was the space between the front row and the stage. There was even a cordon to keep you at least 2-3 meters away from the stage and between the cordon and the first row there was another 1 meter distance. Then we could see 4 security guys in suits and ties. They looked too serious, so the thinking about standing up in a seated area started again… How would they react if we stand up…?
Before the gig I met Anders Roos whose first stop on this tour was Vienna, but he will take pictures of the concerts and the band backstage during 8 shows altogether. Vienna, Zurich, Warsaw, Berlin, Cologne, Utrecht, Halmstad, Göteborg. To me it seems there is a high chance we get a tour photo book about the Per Gessle’s Roxette trip. Fingers crossed!
First we had Lee MacDougall again as the support act. This time he mentioned his Baywatch – The Look story again and also told he heard that Roxette fans love buying CDs, so he invited us to buy his at the merch stand. He also said Roxette has the best fans in the world. We love to hear that, don’t we? HERE you can see and hear Lee performing my most fave song of his, The Devil & The Rolling Stones. So catchy!
Showing that the main act was to start and we should occupy our seats again, bells started ringing. It’s always The B-52’s “Love Shack” that is the last song on PG’s mix tape before the show and that already gets the audience into the mood. Here is what the gang played after. (Nothing changed.)
Setlist:
1. 
The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous
Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride
Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye
You won’t be surprised if I write that already during the first seconds of Per & Co. playing The Look, everyone was right up on their feet? So cool! Another seated show that couldn’t go wrong! The security guys let us be standing, but only in front of our own seats. Some tried to come down the stairs to get closer to the stage, but they sent them back. All good, that’s the way it should be.
So, the party mood was guaranteed and people stayed standing during the uptempo songs, but at least the sides were more into sitting during the ballads and talking.
Per was happy to be back in Vienna. He told the crowd if we know the lyrics, help them out, they love that. Capri is still the most known for its most expensive pizzas. At least PG referred to it before playing CBB in Vienna too.
SGNO got a different ending vs. past shows. Andreas went totally wild on drums and it sounded just fantastic. After last year’s Sommartider intro by him, I can say we missed something like this from him. Now we got it. It could be longer or more! Just saying. 😉
When Micke N-S brought Per the guitar he switched from SGNO to SMT Per told the crowd this is Mikael (pronouncing it like Michael) and he said he found him on Tinder. Then Chris said ”he locked him in the basement”. LOL. Then Per started talking about his good day when he wrote 2 great songs in one day in May 1990. He said his wife, then girlfriend left a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. Per said: ”What could I do? I wrote a song!” Haha. He said then he took a break, had some Swedish meatballs and watched an Ingmar Bergman movie. Then he wrote this one. Yep. SMT followed. There were some technical hiccups during the song. Some strange sound was heard. For me it was funny, because during SMT there are birds flying in the background and it sounded a bit like shooting those birds. Even Per went to the side of the stage to ask the technicians what was going on. The guys were fast and sorted things out, so the sound was soon great again. I must say SMT gets stronger and stronger each time. Probably Helena is getting more and more secure when singing it and she gets braver and braver, so the song sounds now more powerful than at the premiere gig for example.
I only realized now during IGYC that when Per and Helena are singing ”look around, look around, look around” together, to me it sounds a bit like Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue in Where The Wild Roses Grow.
When Per introduced STT as the coming song, the title track off his latest English album, the audience gave him a loud applause and woohoo. And yes, it was magical on October 18th too.
IHAPIMH was a success too. The crowd was clapping along from the beginning of the song.
Before IMHBL Per mentioned the 72 songs he wanted the band to rehearse, but they refused. He was thinking about doing this next song or not, but it turned out to be one of Magnus’s Top3 fave songs among Vienna by Ultravox and Rock Me Amadeus by Falco. Haha. The crowd loved IMHBL, the sing-along was loud and clear.
Party time! OppNox and TBL! One can’t get tired of hearing and jumping to these two songs. After TBL Per asked the audience if we were having a good time out there. He got a l.o.u.d. YEEEEAH in response.
After PG & MB’s ’90s talk, the gang played FLAF, which the same way as SMT gets stronger each time. I remember how I found it a strange, weak version of this power ballad, but now it gets more and more power from Helena each time.
Before DMS Per said he had to teach the band to play this song, because they didn’t know the Party Crasher album. He had to teach them from scratch. Chris said Per was totally lying. Love love this song! And actually, every time I’m there at the concert and hear it, I can fully identify with the lyrics, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
How the crowd reacts during the band presentation, giving a huge applause and shouting and woohoos to each member is always amazing. Even if most of the people in the crowd see them for the first time, their reaction makes it clear they realize how good musicians they all are. Heartwarming!
The teaser to HDYD worked perfectly in Vienna too. Just like the whole song, followed by Dangerous. These 2 songs of course put everyone on their feet and the clapping and shouting didn’t end for a second while waiting for the guys and girls to get back on stage for the first encore.
One of the fun highlights on each gig is PG and CL kidding each other while playing their guitars in the intro to Joyride. Love being close, because you can even see their facial expressions, how much they also enjoy it. One thing happened for the first time during this tour, probably because this was the first venue where there was enough space for that. Chris and Magnus came down to the audience and played there for a while, running from one side to the other. It was so cool!
The 2nd encore… Oh well… this part reminded me of stupid people going to the theatre, not waiting for the actors to come out again for the next round of applause, but rushing to the wardrobe instead… OMG! Some really didn’t think they would come back on stage again? They rushed out. Maybe they ran back when they heard PG’s talking and the crowd’s reaction. Haha. Anyway, their bad if they missed LTYH and TSHTSG because of that.
VIENNA: Gig #6. Thank you so much for making this evening At the Wiener Stadthalle truly remarkable. So many fans, so many nice voices. Wonderful feedback. We loved it so much!!!! Can’t wait to come back and play some more for you! Lots of love from P&Co.
All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.
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