After more than a month break (since Prague) on my tour agenda, I got my proper dose of Roxdrug again. I always wanted to see Roxette live in Germany. In the country where they had their first successful steps outside Sweden and which is still a huge market for them. There is no tour that doesn’t include several German gigs. This time Germany gets 9 shows all in all. Impressive, isn’t it? I was curious about the atmosphere, how the crowd lives together with the band, etc. One could see several videos from earlier concerts and there were louder and more reserved shows, but being there in person, experience the happenings live is always different. After seeing vids from Cologne some days ago, I really prayed for an at least as fab crowd as the Cologonians were. Then Hamburg happened where Marie and Per, as well as the band were in top top top shape and the crowd was very loud from the first minute till the very last. So I started wondering what I could expect at the third German show after 2 wonderful gigs in this country. My prayers were in good hands tonite! What an incredibly amazing concert it was!
Marie probably got a cold, because she was coughing several times, even instead of one rocky ”that’s where I’ll meet you” in Stars and when BoJo came up on stage before The Heart Shaped Sea, when he usually brings Marie something to drink, now he brought a tissue as well. Poor girl! We all hope she gets over this cold very fast. BUT: don’t think this stopped her from being totally awesome! She gave 100% into her singing and her voice sounded extremely fab! Well, OK, some lyrics were missing, but she was again so professional getting over it and just smiling at this fact. She was all smiles during the whole show and flirting with cameras during the photographers’ time. She looked in the eyes of fans in the front which we all loved so much! She enjoyed the whole gig to the full! She said more than once it was ”great to see so many people here tonight!”
Per was in extreme bouncing mood, sometimes running across the stage, sometimes jumping in circle and our charm school guy had thousands of sexy moves and flirting looks tonight. He was also ”kicking” Chris in the ass at least 3 times during their guitar playing.
Chris was very much on a high with his absolutely fab guitar solos and the local song he played kicked ass! The audience loved him!
Magnus was quite reserved and he didn’t look like he was in a good mood during the first few songs, but he started acting with us from Dressed For Success and we loved it so much. It felt like he started really enjoying the show since DFS. During their usual discussion with Per, when they talk about him being a viking and he was lip-syncing to Agnetha in ABBA songs, he mentioned that he saw Agnetha and Frida on the Berlin Pride and it was nice. Regarding his fave album he said: ”You in the front already know which my favourite album is!” Of course, we know it’s not Have A Nice Day, but Baladas en español. He did a little voting exercise asking the crowd to put their hands up which their fave album was. He asked Look Sharp!, Joyride and Baladas en español and the latter one won! But of course, Per insisted on playing a song from Have A Nice Day and yes, it was Crush On You. Damn hot performance it was!
When Per started with the teaser to How Do You Do!, the crowd went c.r.a.z.y. and we started singing the song ourselves. Per was so amazed and satisfied his facial expression was priceless.
Before It Must Have Been Love Per said to Marie: ”Huh! How are you, Marie?” She replied: ”It’s sweaty!” Per told her: ”It’s very warm, isn’t it? This is Germany. It’s much warmer than Sweden.” Then they started to play the once-crappy Xmas song (which is so not true that it has ever been crappy) and Marie missed a part of the lyrics and looked at Per for help, but he couldn’t help her out. They both were smiling like hell and Per sticked his tongue out. Both of them were so cute! It didn’t really matter that they couldn’t go on with the lyrics, we helped them with our singing along anyway.
Before Dressed For Success Per said: ”OK Berlin! It’s Saturday! It’s party time!” And they made the whole arena catch the Saturday night fever, stand up on their feet and dance!!! The crowd was a fantastic one from the beginning with their singing along and clapping, but from DFS and then on they never stopped partying!
There were many international fans (besides the German Roxers of course, there were fans from Australia, Hungary, Poland, Norway, Spain, Bulgaria, Russia, etc.). We were prepared with many balloons, so when the magic word left Per’s mouth, all of them were up in the air and the crowd enjoyed playing with them so much.
When the band left the stage after Joyride, the crowd went crazy again, craving for more. They didn’t keep us waiting so long and when they came back on stage, Per shouted in the mic: ”So, are you ready for more?” and they started playing Listen To Your Heart. Marie while singing the word ”goodbye”was waving like really saying goodbye. Well, soon it was the end of the gig with an incredibly energetic The Look.
When waving goodbye at the end of the show, they just couldn’t believe how fantastic the concert was and the crowd didn’t want to let them go off the stage. Marie and Per were standing there much longer than usually, waving and Marie was blowing many kisses to the audience. Then they started walking and turned back before they left the stage, to wave one last goodbye. Marie even said to Per ”it’s amazing!” It was actually amazing x 3! People leaving the venue, talking to each other said ”What a concert!” Tons of them.
Since the next show is in Dresden without a day off and the trucks should have been packed fast, Micke N-S already started packing the stuff during LTYH. The short videos during the concert were filmed by Micke Lindström tonight.
Anders Roos, the fab photographer of the upcoming Roxette XXX tour book was taking tremendous amount of pictures both of the crowd and the happenings on stage, as well as during the building up the stage, etc. He already has several thousands of photos from which it is probably very difficult to choose only some that would fit in the book. This time he even asked Micke N-S to fix a camera onto Magnus’s Blue Swede Sex Machine. Would be great to see the result one day.
BERLIN UPDATE: Danke!! What an evening! A truly unforgettable Saturday in this mighty city. What a crowd! So much energy we forgot that this was the third show in four days!!!!! Unbelievable to be on stage with almost 11.000 Roxers in front of us!!! Thanx a million. Still got an andrenalin rush!!! Wow. /P.
No rest for the wicked! Next stop is Dresden in some hours (28th June).
Articles and photos
Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7;
bz-berlin.de
Marie and Per getting O2 World Berlin’s present
Berliner Morgenpost
Videos
Spending My Time
Dressed For Success & Dangerous
It Must Have Been Love
Fading Like A Flower
Part of The Look & Joyride
Instavideos:
Sleeping In My Car
Spending My Time
It Must Have Been Love
Listen To Your Heart: 1; 2
The Look: 1; 2
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)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Pack die Badehose ein)
Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
