As you all know, Roxette gave a “surprise” concert at Leif’s Lounge (at Hotel Tylösand, Halmstad) on Wednesday 4 of August. Here’s my personal review of the before and after.
We arrived at the hotel at around 5 pm and went to get our reserved tickets. There weren’t many fans waiting outside/inside the hotel, must have been maximum 10. After getting our tickets we headed to the beach, the weather was nice, so why not wait for my 3 Spanish friends and the 3 girls coming from Malmö/DK enjoying the sun? After a while sitting near Bettans Bar I suddenly heard Marie’s voice, I was like “what?” I am not sure if they had been playing for a while already, if so, I didn’t realise until I heard Marie’s voice: Rehearsal! Some curious Swedes and me headed to Bettans to try to see the band. I had always wanted to see / hear a rehearsal and there they were! Tylösand, sun, beach and Roxette. I was wondering when would I wake up from this dream…
After a while Poli, Saar and Stina arrived. I informed them about the rehearsals, and we thought they had ended them, but then suddenly they played “How do you do!”. We were all “huh! they are playing THIS song?”. It was just a preview of what the concert a few hours later would be.
I had booked a table for 2 at Leif’s Terrace for dinner at 7 pm, which was the time the doors at Leif’s would open as well, so we headed to the hotel. Right on time my Spanish friends arrived, so we all went in a few minutes after 7. Of course, some people were already sitting by the fence front row. Txiqui kept a place for me (thanks!!) while I was eating at the terrace. We got a nice table, with a great view over the stage, which was perfect for Connie, since she didn’t want to stand in the crowd.
At about 9 pm I went to the front since it started to get full of people. The atmosphere was great, many people, and many Swedes wanting to be close to the stage!!! I got to meet Ted, I think we had seen eachother shortly at GT’s concert in 2004, but had never really talked to him before. A pleasure!
And now starts the interesting part for you. The concert started about 15 minutes late, at 10:15pm. We were all very nervous, excited, shouting for Roxette, and finally there they were! The show started like a bomb with the “yeah yeah yeah” to Dressed for Success. It was an explosion of happiness, light, guitars, drums, Marie’s voice. The version was similar to the one during Per’s tour last year. Of course, with one BIG difference, MARIE!!! Actually, as you check the setlist, the whole show felt a bit like a recicled Party Pleaser concert, keeping the Roxette songs which worked so well, and adding other Roxette songs instead of Per’s. I don’t mean it negative at all. The show worked last year, the songs rocked, so why wouldn’t it WITH Marie? Of course, we also got some songs we didn’t get to hear with Per solo, and some surprises.
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