Show No. 20. 20??? Ojojoj, the second to last gig on this fantastic Per Gessle tour. The concert in Vasa, Finland happened at a festival. First this festival was planned to be held at another venue, but due to the high interest, in June it was moved to a bigger open-air stadium.
When we arrived at the venue late afternoon, there weren’t too many people, so the first 2 acts didn’t get a big crowd. There were 5 acts before Per and Per being the headliner was to start only at 22:00.
During the 3rd act, One Desire, it started raining, but fortunately, it lasted only for some minutes. However, it was freezing cold. Felt like winter and I’m not joking. These summers in the North are fabulous for all who are coming from warmer countries. But also tough for those who live in Sweden or even Finland.
BoJo and the technician guys started preparing everything before the last act before Per. Andreas came checking the drums of the last act (The Heartbeat Band) before PG. He was even filming them during their performance and singing along to their songs.
To set up the stage, the crew needed some more time and Per and the band could start the show at appr. 22:20. I felt sorry for them, because they of course had their stage clothes on and all those clothes were rather made for summer. But they were all on a high, so I guess the adrenalin inside heated them well. They were all smiles during the whole show. We loved it!
The crowd that became far much bigger (appr. 3500 people) for PG than for the acts before him, they also thought it’s better to move not to feel the cold. So they were active. Mostly with singing along, shouting, whistling and clapping though, but waving and jumping during the uptempo songs were also happening.
It was again Kung av sand when the rain started falling, but we didn’t get our ponchos out, just kept our fingers crossed it would go away very soon.
Between the songs Per talked to crowd in Swedish. Vasa is a bilingual city and Swedish is the first language of one third of its population. So it made totally sense. Other acts also talked to the crowd in Swedish.
Malin-My was translating the lyrics of Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) into gestures towards us showing she was also sad that the tour was coming to an end.
During the band presentation everyone got a huge ovation. When Per and Magnus had their stand-up comedy talk, Magnus mentioned that Finland is an independent country since 100 years this year and for this reason he thought they could talk a bit about Finland’s history. Per said ojojoj, Kimi Räikkönen. Haha. Not much he knows about Finland’s history it seems. Magnus asked PG who his favourite Finnish historical person was from the three he mentioned. The first 2 names didn’t ring a bell for Mr. G, but the third, Tumppi Haaranen did. He was a tour manager on the Roxette tour. So he chose him as his fave Finnish historical person.
Chris played Säkkijärven polkka as the inro to The Look (not the first he played this in Finland) and the crowd went crazy for that. They were clapping so loudly. The Look was a highlight again. Chris stayed psychedelic during the whole song and there was a part during his and Per’s guitar duel when Chris was ”walking” on his knees ”attacking” PG. It was hilarious!
Andreas went so wild with the Sommartider intro that at the end of it he threw both sticks into the crowd just after the last tact. The song turned out to be awesome – as usual.
Per offered Småstadsprat as a night snack and with that the concert ended. It started raining again during the closing song and it was raining cats and dogs after the gig.
19 songs! We didn’t expect such a ”long” festival setlist, so we were absolutely positively surprised and loved the fact that Per could finally decide for a longer set on a festival where HE is the headliner and no one else is playing after him, so he didn’t need to keep a short time of playing. Much appreciated!
At the very end, there were fireworks organized by the promoter. Sadly, it was behind the stage, so we didn’t see much of it.
VAASA, Finland. Oh yea! Truly amazing crowd considering the pretty chilly evening. Loved that my solo stuff went down so well. Thanks everyone for singing along and showing us a good time. Promise to come back. Love it here! Kiitos & tack så mycket. /P.
All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.
Setlist
1. På promenad genom stan
2. Vilket håll du än går
3. Juni, juli, augusti
4. Det hjärta som brinner
5. Segla på ett moln / Första pris
6. Min plats
7. It Must Have Been Love
8. Honung och guld
9. Kung av sand
10. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
12. Spegelboll
13. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
14. The Look (with Säkkijärven polkka as intro)
Encore:
15. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
16. Tycker om när du tar på mej
17. Joyride
Encore 2:
18. Sommartider
19. Småstadsprat
Videos:
Juni, juli, augusti
It Must Have Been Love: 1; 2;
Gå & fiska!
Sommartider: 1; 2;
Articles, pictures:
Pohjalainen: 1; 2;
Vasabladet: 1; 2;
Hagstrommedia.pic.fi
Österbottenstidning
Samuli Keskitalo Photography
Forth Photography
So when it was PG’s turn, there was no more rain. Per mentioned in his first talk that this is the last show on tour (well at least in Sweden) and the audience was loud and cheering. When Per was talking about looking for a song which he hadn’t played live before now he said he found 470 such songs and he thought to play them all at the show. The crowd gave him a loud woohoo and applause. Oh, how we would have loved it… if he played all those songs! But of course, it was ”just” the usual intro to Honung och guld. And this time Mr. G asked Good Harvest again to join him on stage for the song. After it ended they hugged each other and the girls went off the stage. 
When the show ended, Per pointed at the band to made the audience applaud for them, then they took a bow. Before they went off the stage, Andreas threw a drumskin to the crowd. I met the guy who caught it and could take a pic of it. See the photo what Andreas drew on it. Haha. While Per was walking off the stage, he pointed at the fans in the front rows, thanks for coming. It was lovely!
Per was again like a Duracell bunny on stage, bouncing around, stomping full of energy and the band were also on a high. Everyone! Ola was jumping more than ever, Andreas went psychedelic on the drums, Chris went wild all the time, Malin-My rocked the violin, Helena was jumping around a lot and singing like an angel on the ballads, Clarence kicked ass behind the keyboards and Magnus was bouncing over more to the left side of the stage, having party with Ola and Chris. The whole show was very energetic, everyone was in top top top shape. Not only on stage, but also off stage. The crowd (8542 people) was loud and partying hard and jumping the most during Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, but also joined a bit the waving choreography for På promenad genom stan and was singing along loudly to almost all of the songs. Småstadsprat was a loud sing-along at the end of the show. I would say at least 70% of the audience let their voice heard.
Per & Co entered the stage some minutes after 9 pm and you could hear the crowd was very hungry to see and hear them. They were already loud before the gang showed up. The band started the concert with På promenad genom stan and the first let’s say 10 rows of the crowd, besides a lovely sha-la-la-la sing-along, were even following the choreography Helena tries with every audience, just waving with one arm up in the air.
The crowd wanted the band back on stage before the encore. Some shouted they wanted to hear Billy, some other shouted Sommartider. The first encore was 1 song less vs. Halmstad. In Linköping they didn’t play (Hon vill ha) Puls. Varmt igen and Tycker om när du tar på mej both sounded beautiful. Always so unbelievable how clearly Helena can sing out all those high notes.
During the day, Lars Winnerbäck turned up in town, so we could sense there was a surprise guest appearance planned for the night. It became 100% sure when we heard Per and Lars rehearsing Småstadsprat and Honung och guld at the soundcheck in the afternoon (from 16:15). We were curious how they would rearrange the setlist if at all, now that Lars joined them for these 2 songs. These 2 songs they rehearsed for appr. 15 minutes and then came Min plats and a little Puls. Woohoo, so we were happy that the setlist might be longer, since Puls got back on it.
The SVT cameras for the show weren’t enough, Anders Roos was also there to take thousands of photos of this hometown show and of course, Åsa was also there filming a lot. This time she just couldn’t come to the front row, because the TV guys were moving there with the cameras too, so they would have bumped into each other. This way she was filming from the sides of the stage (and maybe from somewhere else in the crowd too? We will see when the vids are up on GessleHomeVids, YouTube).
Per’s concert kicked off some minutes after 21:00. To hear På promenad genom stan in Halmstad is a real pleasure, here it made even more sense to start the show with this song. It Must Have Been Love was a success and Helena got cheered loudly. Right after IMHBL came Småstadsprat, so there was the first change in the setlist. For the part which is sung by Lars Winnerbäck on the album, Lasse came up on stage and he was singing it. He got a loud applause from the crowd when he appeared. The song sounded beautiful. No other version sounds as wonderful as the one with the original duet, Per and Lars. What a delight! The crowd cheered the duo loudly during the song too and when they finished it as well and Mr. G told the audience it wasn’t bad. Per and Lasse hugged each other after the song ended. Then Per was talking about the rehearsals and that he tried to find songs which he didn’t play live before and he found there were 470 of such songs. He decided for a song off Gyllene Tider’s 1982 album, Puls. He said he knows Lars likes this song too and so they decided to sing it together. So they went on with Honung och guld. Lasse’s favourite album from GT is Puls and HOG is his favourite song off it. It sounded great in this duet version. After they ended the song, Per and Lasse hugged each other again and Lars went off stage. Per told the crowd it’s hard to top now. I have recorded the whole Lars Winnerbäck guest appearance in Halmstad (not the best quality video because of the smoke and lights, but still you might enjoy it). 😉 Watch it 
For the second encore, Andreas went real wild on the Sommartider drum intro. This caught the audience too. Was cool to watch it on the big screens too!