The Swedish tour leg with 5 shows started tonight in Kalmar, where Roxette had never played before. Many posters welcomed us in town everywhere we walked, either the poster of the Kalmar show or the one with all the Swedish dates on it. All 5 concerts are open air gigs, so we prayed for good weather for the start. It worked so-so, because during the waiting time we had some heavy summer showers, but all in all the temperature was fine and the sun came out to shine on us in the afternoon.
You know you are in Sweden when the first thing organized at the entrance is the toilet. Haha. It may sound stupid, but no other country can tell they have a security team thinking about those who are waiting all day in front of the venue. And you know you are in Sweden when Show Security Sweden is in charge, with good old Atli as the head of the team. They are really the world’s best security team! Helpful, patient and kind all the time. Not only the supervisors, but the whole bunch of people they are working together with at the venues. Thanks for all your support, guys!
Swedish shows got a bit different vs. earlier years because of Live Nation’s Early Entrance ticket policy. Actually, today there were approximately 30 people showing up with an early entrance ticket, but most of them just wanted to have a calm walk inside and find a place at the bar, on the grass or at the very side of the venue, more in the middle, not in the front. They first had to register, appr. 1 hour before the inlet and they got their merch stuff which was a tour programme signed by Marie and Per and a Roxette XXX tour bag. Then they were let in 15 minutes before all those with normal tickets. Even if there were hundreds of people waiting for getting let in, everything was calm and no one was really nervous about the entrance. It feels good when after all the inlet mess in other countries you get to experience this.
Eskobar hit the stage a bit later than 19:30 and it was very nice to hear them in their homeland. For me the best they were in Vienna so far, but their tonight’s show comes very close after that. You could feel they were comfortable playing at home, however Daniel, the singer of the band enjoyed the German-speaking countries so much that he used the expression ”ein bisschen” several times.
After they went off the stage, the crew was setting it up for Roxette. While looking around and checking the seats where guests had their places, we spotted Crown Princess Victoria with her husband Daniel and Prince Carl Philip with his wife Sofia, who are on holiday in Öland now. They were sitting in the last row, which was at the highest place. They disappeared for some minutes during the break and as you could see on Eskobar’s Facebook page, they visited them in background. Victoria is a Roxer, so surely, they met Roxette backstage, too.
It’s summer, but Swedish summers are unpredictable, so it was a good option to install a heater for Marie on the stage. BoJo tested it himself to see it was working properly. After all guitars and other instruments were tested, the mics were set to the proper height and Åsa set the iPhone to video mode, it was time for Roxette to come up stage. One of the characteristics of Swedish summer is that the sun goes down quite late, so it was still daylight when they started the show. The intro didn’t have the same adrenalin kick effect on the crowd this way, but still it was very energetic how the band hit the stage.
Being at home, both Marie and Per talked in Swedish. The talks in between the songs were more or less the same as the English version, but one huge difference was that Marie talked much more than usual. She felt very comfortable and it was easy for her to talk. We all loved it so much!
The crowd did well on the sing along parts, but it wasn’t the most enthusiastic audience of all. There were however Roxers from several countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Greece, etc.) who made more noise and moves. I tend to believe Swedish crowds are really this reserved most of the time. Or maybe tonight it was because they thought the royal family members were watching them and taking notes of who behaves how. By the way, they showed how to party, during The Look. HERE you can watch Svenska Nyheter’s video about it.
Crush On You was very cool this time again, however, the effect of stopping after ”no Elvis in the leather / I want you now or never” was a bit strange with the sun still being up on the sky. Nevertheless, the crowd reaction sounded the same as in any other country where it was complete darkness at this point.
During The Heart Shaped Sea, in the era of smartphones with flashlight app, someone lit a real sparkler, but as it’s quite dangerous in the middle of the audience, Atli had to take it away.
After THSS Marie and Dea were preparing for Watercolours In The Rain / Paint and Marie started talking. That was the funniest of all. HERE you can watch it in a video. She said (in Swedish):
Now we’re going to play a really really old song. It means so much to me. Micke… ah … no, he’s my husband… it was a little mistake, but Per wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music and I’m so proud of it.
One must love her! It was such a cute little mistake!
I must mention Marie’s talking during another song, too. During Dressed For Success, when it comes to the crowd clapping choreography, she usually shouts into the mic: ”C’mon and clap your hands, everybody!” When she got to this point tonight, she wanted to shout it again in English, but before she did that, she realized she was in Sweden and shouldn’t talk in English, so she just started laughing instead. Then she made the crowd clap along.
After the balloon song, Roxette went off the stage and the audience didn’t want to stop shouting ”En gång till! En gång till!” to have them back on stage. They didn’t let us wait for long and came back with the usual 2 extra songs.
It was a nice first gig in Sweden during the XXX tour with 14612 people in the crowd. Hopefully, the next 4 shows will get the crowd into party mood and it won’t be ”only” the band on fire.
KALMAR UPDATE: Oh yea, the Swedish tour has finally started. Almost 15000 showed up tonite at Fredriksskans and sang along. And no rain in sight. Thank you!!! The band was sooo tight, have to love that!!!! Badabam from P.
Next stop should be Borgholm tomorrow (and for many of us Roxers it will be a sightseeing stop at least), but the next gig is in Halmstad on 22nd July. Can’t wait!
Articles and photos
Göteborgs-Posten
24kalmar.se video report from the queueing
24kalmar.se during the concert
24kalmar.se about the concert
barometern.se about the stage
Expressen
TV4
svenskdam.se
vaxjonytt.se review, photos
FotoRoddan blog article; FB album of photos
Videos
Roxette hitting the stage
It Must Have Been Love
Royal crowd members having fun
Most boring audience ever?
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: Här kommer Pippi Långstrump)
Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
Since the news about the 
The first very short snippet of The Look 2015 remake KappAhl shared some weeks ago already sounded extremely promising and hoped for similar feelings as with Travelling when the complete song sees the light of day. Now the remake is out digitally in 2 versions. (A physical 7-inch vinyl single will be released on 28th August.) 
