What I have to tell at the beginning of my report is that last night’s show was the best unplugged gig so far. Norrköping rulez!
The video of building the stage recorded by Anders Roos, shared by Per during the day was a great teaser for the evening.
The concert started a couple of minutes after 19:30 and already at the beginning you could hear that it would be a fantastic crowd. You could tell by their first reactions (clapping, cheering, singing-along, shouting) that they would keep the spirits up during the whole show. And that’s what happened.
The acoustics of concert halls are fab anyway and when a crowd is active, its very enjoyable. The crowd took it seriously when Per said after greeting them that they should sing along either if they know the lyrics or they don’t. No doubt they knew all the lyrics.
Before Min plats now PG had a little trouble with the capo, it was difficult to fix it on the guitar. So he mentioned it’s a low budget tour and joked that he could call Ulf Lundell. Per mentioned they have a double bass on stage and asked Magnus if it was his. Magnus clarified that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, so PG asked Chris why he has a double bass at all. The answer was to be able to give it to Magnus to play it on this tour.
The crowd just loved Helena. Not only after Tycker om när du tar på mej, but after all songs she was singing she got an extremely loud applause from the audience. Well-deserved! After a while Per thanked the crowd and said „how kind you are!” and someone shouted „better than Linköping!” Haha.
After Det hjärta som brinner, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage, but before they did that, Chris saw Per had some problem with fixing the capo again and asked him if he could help, but PG told he would sort it out. He got prepared for Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and started twice to get the right intro. Amazingly beautiful this song is in this arrangement, I won’t stop mentioning it! After the LAEAH ended, all band members came back, Mr. G stood up and went to Clarence to high-five with him. Chris told Per it was quite OK, but it’s better with Gyllene Tider. All laughed.
During the band presentation Per told he works together with Clarence since 1986 and he produced almost all of Per’s music since then and all Roxette albums. The crowd gave a loud applause to Mr. Öfwerman and Per told „yeah, it’s really worth the applause… that I have endured with him”. Everyone laughed. Then he remembered Europe’s Final Countdown was out the same year, 1986 and with Chris they organized a little 1986 „fight” mentioning other songs from that year, but Chris only mentioned Genesis songs. Haha. When Per got to Magnus, he said he is the newcomer in the gang, they haven’t been working together for so long, only for 16 years or so. Magnus said it feels like yesterday. Mr. G added that Magnus is from Malmö, but he is nice anyway. PG also mentioned that the sound technician is Mats MP Persson from GT.
Huge part of the audience stood up after the band went off stage before the first encore and didn’t sit down until the guys and girl didn’t come back. At this point and some more times during the concert someone shouted Billy. But there was no Billy on the setlist. Maybe sometime later? Would be cool! The setlist was only slightly different vs. Linköping. När alla vännerna gått hem was not the fourth song in the first encore, but the last song of the concert, kicking Om du bara vill off the setlist.
When you thought there would be no bigger change at this show, the gang on stage surprised you with standing up from their seats, Chris and Per set their own mics to the right height before När vi två blir en and performed it standing. It must have been a strange feeling to stand after so many shows sitting, but it was so cool! At this point, the crowd only stood up at the end of the song, when the gang said goobye and went off stage. They didn’t stop shouting „en gång till” until the band wasn’t back.
When Per & Co. were on stage again, they sat down and the crowd sat back to their seats too. Vid hennes sida was played this way, but then came Sommartider and rebel Per thought he goes spontaneous and stands up. He said he has to stand up for this song too and if he wants to stand up, he stands up. Haha. Chris couldn’t join him because of the instrument on his lap, but Magnus followed the leader. Then you couldn’t hold back the audience either. We all stood up and stayed standing from then on. Fab feeling it was!
During När alla vännerna gått hem, the mobile phone lights were up in the crowd. Looked great! This concert also ended in a standing ovation and yeah, Norrköping really beat all unplugged shows so far.
Setlist
1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går
Band introduction
14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning
Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en
Encore 2
19. Vid hennes sida
20. Sommartider
21. När alla vännerna gått hem
Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.
Per after the show:
Norrköping Yea! Helt underbart gig, fantastiskt att få spela för er. Tack alla för att ni kom förbi med all denna positiva energi, tack band och crew för att vi har så kul ihop hela tiden. Längtar efter att få spela mer! Ha en fab söndag, y’all!
Amazing gig in Norrköping. Still breathless. Thanks! ??
