Judith’s review:
One of the things I appreciate most about Rox&co is that they keep on surprising me. After so many years following them around and so many shows behind me one would think – what is there to see?
Well, Thursday night was one of those ‘rediscovering’ why I love them so much nights again.
I had been reading reviews and comments since the tour started but I didn’t watch any video. Mostly due to lack of time but also a bit because I wanted to wait to see it myself.
Some of the songs I had seen at the smygpremiär but it was still a wow effect on some “known” songs.
Luckily it didn’t rain! We had been checking our weather apps the whole day and were happy to see the forecasts were wrong again.
The mood in the venue was very calm too. The audience sounded good from where I was. Not wild but sang along loud enough.
Now to some comments about the songs!
The show started slow with På promenad genom stan. It sounded a bit different to what I remembered from Leif’s but it had the same warming up effect with the shalala sing along. I like the arrangements on this one, it has become a very poppy-song.
The mood totally changed with Juni, juli, augusti. With this song the whole set up changes. Per gets a new guitar, lights become alive, the band goes crazy. It felt like going from 0 to 150 km/h in 1 second! Awesome party moment with this and Det hjärta som brinner.
Time to slow down a bit again. Första pris sounded much much better than in June. Also the intro with Segla på ett moln fits very well and sounds very cool.
Finally I got to hear Tittar på dej när du dansar! It was followed by Puls. I am still not sure if Puls is in the right place because it is a fast song again in between 2 rather slow ones. But happy to hear it anyway! I loooove the drums!!!
It Must Have Been Love was one of the big woooows of the night. I started crying right from the beginning. What can I do? I just miss Marie so much and well. It just happens. On the other hand, it sounded so good and was happy to hear it live again. When Helena started to sing wooow!! She has a wonderful voice and she does a great job making the song hers. All in all a very nice sweet and emotional tribute to this jewel. Also incredible response from the audience.
Honung och guld was the second aaahhhh of the evening. I was looking forward to listening to it and it surpassed all expectations. Very nice version!!
The rather slow calm part went on with Kung av sand and Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång (nice Flickan sing along!!) to then go up tempo again and go into the best part of the show for me – incl. band presentation and The Look. The four songs (from Ljudet to The Look) are pure craziness!!! My fave was Spegelboll. Just.loved.it!! And The Look was a fab ending of the main part.
When Per introduced Magnus, he mentioned some of the countries represented by all the fans in the first rows. Nice!!
They came back after a short break and change of clothes (Per) to play Varmt igen. I love this song. One of my fave by Per solo! Was looking forward to listening to it again. Helena’s voice is amazing here too. Incredible performance with goose bumps!!
After Tycker om när du tar på mej it was time for Joyride. My least favourite of the setlist. I wish they would have kept Dressed For Success instead of this! Or exchanged it with any other Rox song. Be it Dangerous or How Do You Do! or any of the other 500 songs by Per that he has never played live before…
The 2nd encore started by incredibly strong drum beats by Andreas. It was time for partying to Sommartider!! Crazy one. Which then led to the last song of the evening. A very nice version of Småstadsprat. It is great to hear Helena singing Lars Winnerbäck’s part. From what I could hear from Swedes standing around me, many were expecting Lars to join as guest in Stockholm. It didn’t happen but there are still 11 shows to go?
All in all a very vacker evening. Looking forward to Borgholm!!
Some more tiny details from Patrícia:
Before the show there was a meet & greet with Mr. G. Those who won on Spotify’s contest could meet him and have their CDs or LPs signed. According to those lucky winners, Per was in a very good mood, he was very nice to everyone and took his time signing everything and taking pictures with the winners.
The crowd was very international that night, or at least the front row. Fans came to cheer Per Gessle from several countries and continents: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czecz Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, Uruguay. I hope I could list all countries. Impressive, isn’t it? It’s always easy to recognize fans from South America, having their country’s jersey on and their flag banners, so during the band presentation Magnus even mentioned Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Uruguay being represented. HERE you can watch the video of it.
Among the guests there was Niklas Strömstedt in the crowd, having a blast with his wife, mostly during (Hon vill ha) Puls. Haha. Probably, there were other famous people too in the audience.
Before the band started playing Juni, juli, augusti, Per talked to the crowd and said he had never had a concert at Skansen. Only performed on TV shows there. Talking about TV shows, the whole concert area at Skansen seemed to be much bigger on TV. And… Skansen crowd seems to be much louder on TV than live. I really expected an incredibly loud sing-along audience at this show, but well, there is always room to develop. Per and the band were on fire anyway. At the end of the show Andreas even threw a drumhead to the crowd.
Åsa was there at Skansen and filmed a lot as usual. What was surprising is that there were no photographers in the pit. I’m still wondering if there was no press present or they just had another spot somewhere at the side or in the back from where they could take photos. But not seeing too many media shots from the show, I would say most of them were probably at Alice Cooper’s show in Gröna Lund at the same time. Or who knows…Tack alla härliga människor som dök upp på Skansen i Sthlm ikväll. Inget regn, ingen vind bara good vibes och sköna leenden överallt. We had a blast.
Tionde gigget o bandet börjar bli ordentligt tajt. Visst var Helena o Malin-My extra grymma ikväll??? Och Quincy o Ola. Herregud vad bra de är! Och The Swedish Sex Machine på bas peakade nog i livet denna glada torsdag. Clair o Chris dundrade på som den nya V-12:an i Ferrari 812 Superfast. Kort o koncist: I’m in good company! Tack alla! /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. Tittar på dej när du dansar
7. (Hon vill ha) Puls
8. It Must Have Been Love
9. Honung och guld
10. Kung av sand
11. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
12. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
13. Spegelboll
14. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
15. The Look (with När vi två blir en as intro)
Encore:
16. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
17. Tycker om när du tar på mej
18. Joyride
Encore 2:
19. Sommartider
20. Småstadsprat
Videos:
På promenad genom stan: 1; 2;
Juni, juli, augusti
(Hon vill ha) Puls: 1; 2;
It Must Have Been Love
Honung och guld
Kung av sand
Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta: 1; 2;
Spegelboll
Gå & fiska!
The Look: 1; 2;
Tycker om när du tar på mej
Joyride
Sommartider: 1; 2;
Småstadsprat
Articles, pictures:
Svenska Dagbladet
Allehanda (for subscribers only)
The festival crowd seemed to be in great party mood already before Per & Co came up on stage, so it was predictable they would be a loud audience for the main act too. Loud? It’s not even the right word to describe them. Ass-kicking crowd for an ass-kicking band. People cheering during the whole show, singing along all the time and clapping, whistling, dancing, jumping, whatever you can imagine.
Lots of fans (even from Brazil!) were waiting outside the park which closed at 3 pm because of the concert and the gates opened again at 6 pm. This time we had to try if our running shoes were still working fine, since both entrances opened at the same time. Still all hardcores could find a decent spot in front of the stage.
The next song was På promenad genom stan and Göteborg let its voice heard. Heavy sing along on this one and dancing even in the back.
The set ended with Småstadsprat and the audience cheered the band while they were saying goodbye.
Besides praying to the weather gods, we were also praying for PG talking seriously when he wrote he was thinking about a couple of new songs for the show. We of course were quite sure he wouldn’t play Oh Yeah Oh Yeah (Oh Oh), but Solens vän sounded promising. However, if we were him, we would still go for some more PG solo instead. Mr. G and the band arrived for soundcheck at 16:15. There was indeed a ”new” song to be rehearsed and it was (Hon vill ha) Puls. They played it 4-5 times and Per all the time asked the band to make it slower. He found it too fast how they were playing it. We already found the fast version too slow though. Haha. They also rehearsed Första pris and Min plats. And that was it… They finished at 17:00. So we were sure Puls would be included and we just hoped it wouldn’t replace any other song, but added to the set. Wishful thinking…
PG & Co came up on stage shortly after 9 pm, the crowd was cheering them loudly. The opening song this time was På promenad genom stan. Even if they rehearsed Min plats at the soundcheck, they skipped it. Not that we have anything against starting the show with a well-known song. It works quite well. The audience starts singing along immediately and it sets the mood.
Småstadsprat was very popular among the people in Grebbestad. The crowd was singing along loudly. Nice ending of the show, but still, when even Per himself mentions in the 
1. På promenad genom stan