BAD KISSINGEN UPDATE! Yes, another great concert in broad daylight (to begin with). Really lovely crowd. The heat was silly (hey we’re from Sweden, we’re not used to these temperatures!!!!) + lots of strange mosquitos the size of Pelle’s cymbals flying around…… but nevertheless a fab show!!! We loved every moment of it, I think you did too! Thanx for stopping by. Day off tomorrow, Formula One qualifying in the UK….can’t miss that…… Cheers, P.
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)
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Auf der Mauer, auf der Lauer)
The first things that come to my mind when thinking about the Stuttgart show? Heat, 34°C outside, no air condition inside the arena, strange waiting lines outside by people who don’t know what a queuing order is, a door that opens much later than the other which means that half of the die-hard Roxers who waited there since 9 in the morning didn’t make it to the front row (things like that happen, yes, but it’s annoying, every single time), sweat, sweat, sweat, fainting people and more sweat.
Photo by Kirsten Ohlwein
How it’s possible that a concert can take place in an Arena without air conditioning when it’s THAT hot outside – I don’t know. It shouldn’t. It’s pretty dangerous to gather people in front of stage and not give them enough fresh air to breathe. This has to be said at this place. It’s not Roxette’s fault, of course, but it has to be said anyway. I have never seen any Roxer being that wet after the show. We looked like as we were in heavy rain but certainly not a concert. When somebody asks me in three years about the Stuttgart show 2015, I will most probably say: It was one of the best Roxette shows of the leg, but it was much too hot, really silly and dangerous.
Which brings me to my next point: the show! What a show! Wow! The heat most certainly did not affect the band and did most of all not affect Marie. She also had a hard time with the heat but her voice didn’t. This could have probably been the best vocal performance by Marie on this leg and it’s most definitely the second best show of the German leg after Berlin. Maybe the only reason why this show can’t top Berlin is that the last spark between audience and band didn’t catch fire. Don’t get me wrong – the audience was great, cheering, full of love and support and understanding, but Berlin is hard to top. It’s just a feeling, but what happened in Berlin is probably a “once in 100 shows” thing.
But Stuttgart comes close for sure. The band sweat their asses off, Per was soaked at the end of the show and he had even changed his shirt. Go figure!
Highlights tonight most certainly were Listen To Your Heart, Crash!Boom!Bang! and The Heart Shaped Sea which for me worked for the first time in seven shows that I have attended so far. Finally I could actually hear Marie. The song which is meant to be a duet found its way back to the duet. Thanks for improving this, guys!
Marie was in top top top shape, which means that some of her gestures and faces reminded of the 1994 Marie. There’s so much energy, determination and love for what she does in her and it totally showed today. She doesn’t have to stand or walk around to let it show. All she needs is her mic, a cheering audience and a good day. It was astonishing to witness these flashback moments. It’s all there in her and you get the most exciting concert when she has a day to show all this.
The whole band seemed even more energetic than in Mannheim, which also was a great show, but this one topped it for many reasons: audience, Marie’s top top top shape, the awesome sound that this arena provided (finally the music was louder again which meant we couldn’t hear ourselves singing which was different in Dresden and Mannheim) and an dialogue improvising Per who didn’t care about the heat and ran his ass off on stage. To say he was soaking wet is probably an understatement.
This show comes right after Berlin, no doubt. One of my highlights of the show was this dialogue:
Per: “We played here four years ago. Were you there?”
Audience cheering.
Per: “I was here.” (pointing at Marie) And you were here. I remember you.”
Marie: “And I remember you. Thank God.”
It says so much, it says a lot lot lot about Roxette, about everything around it, about Marie. Maybe it’s all you need to know when you attend a show.
STUTTGART UPDATE: Oh yeah! 34 degrees on stage and the whole arena was cookin’!!! Fab gig tonight, folks. Thanx for stopping by and making us sweat a bit…… Lovely to see so many people having such a good time. Loads of familiar faces in the front rows! Nice!!!! The Rox machine moves with ease to Bad Kissingen tomorrow. Cheers! /P.
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: Muss i denn zum städtele hinaus)
The concert is going to be a company event though. The 25th anniversary of Inter Cars will be celebrated with a huge party in the National Stadium in Warsaw on 19th September. Besides other Polish artists, Roxette will also perform at the event! Probably, 2-3 songs only (or maybe 5-6?), because they are announced as “the icing on the cake”. Approximately 60,000 people fit in the stadium so it’s quite huge. Gala starts at 20:00, gates open at 18:30. According to the info on the website where the event is announced, concert tickets are free, but will be distributed by affiliates among their clients.
Mannheim! Mannheim left me a bit irritated, but certainly amazed. I was irritated because I (once more) realized that the perception of a concert can be totally different. While I thought that the Mannheim show was much better than the concert in Dresden, not everyone agreed on that. Most of the fans I talked to shared my opinion: Marie’s voice was outstanding, the band had their energy back after a well-deserved day off and most important: The audience was much more affectionate than in Dresden. But then there were a few who disagreed. So all you ever get in our reviews is, of course, a personal opinion.
The SAP Arena, though, wasn’t sold out, many seats were empty. Well – to everyone who decided not to go in the end: You missed a great show, the 45th on this tour. The best way to check if the show was good or not is, though, to talk to or listen to the no-die-hards leaving the venue. Yesterday I picked up words like “Es war so hammergeil” which can be translated as “This was so fucking awesome”. Other people were singing “The Look” while they made their way to their car with several hundred other spectators. The love and affection already showed during the show and once people start cheering, that band cannot stop to rock. It’s not the die-hards who make the show a success – it’s all the people in the back. Once Marie and Per got them they never let go. I witnessed this in Cologne, Hamburg certainly Berlin and now in Mannheim. “How do you do” is the one song that can turn a show in Germany – it never did in Dresden, but it did in Mannheim and the roof almost went off. It doesn’t matter that not everything goes right. Per missed his part in Joyride, Marie cursed a bit about some lyrics she had forgotten and the “99 Luftballons” intro to Joyride didn’t really make the people go crazy – but in the end this is a live band and this is what makes them so special. The sound was terrific – this band sounds damn tight and if we not already had gotten a live CD I would have begged for one at this very point. Yes, maybe, Roxette never sounded better live than between 2012 and 2015.
So, this show was definitely a success – and again I think my point is proved that there’s no better way to end the show than with “The Look”.
It’s hard to write review after review – this has been my fifth show of ten in total and I wonder what more is to come. I hope there are some more surprises hidden (Per’s white clothes, Almost Unreal *hint*).
MANNHEIM UPDATE! Thanx everyone for yet another hotblooded evening in Germany. We had a wonderful time just like we had in 2011! Day off tomorrow, then the mighty Stuttgart: The XXX-trek continues, folks! /P.
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: 99 Luftballons)
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!
Flying Christoffer & Magnus. Photo by Patrícia Peres
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).
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)
nheim show was much better than the concert in Dresden, not everyone agreed on that. Most of the fans I talked to shared my opinion: Marie’s voice was outstanding, the band had their energy back after a well-deserved day off and most important: The audience was much more affectionate than in Dresden. But then there were a few who disagreed. So all you ever get in our reviews is, of course, a personal opinion.
e 45th on this tour. The best way to check if the show was good or not is, though, to talk to or listen to the no-die-hards leaving the venue. Yesterday I picked up words like “Es war so hammergeil” which can be translated as “This was so fucking awesome”. Other people were singing “The Look” while they made their way to their car with several hundred other spectators. The love and affection already showed during the show and once people start cheering, that band cannot stop to rock. It’s not the die-hards who make the show a success – it’s all the people in the back. Once Marie and Per got them they never let go. I witnessed this in Cologne, Hamburg certainly Berlin and now in Mannheim. “How do you do” is the one song that can turn a show in Germany – it never did in Dresden, but it did in Mannheim and the roof almost went off. It doesn’t matter that not everything goes right. Per missed his part in Joyride, Marie cursed a bit about some lyrics she had forgotten and the “99 Luftbal
lons” intro to Joyride didn’t really make the people go crazy – but in the end this is a live band and this is what makes them so special. The sound was terrific – this band sounds damn tight and if we not already had gotten a live CD I would have begged for one at this very point. Yes, maybe, Roxette never sounded better live than between 2012 and 2015.
