01. Dressed For Success
02. Sleeping In My Car
03. The Big L
04. Wish I Could Fly
05. Stars
06. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
07. Perfect Day
08. Things Will Never Be The Same
09. It Must Have Been Love
10. 7twenty7
11. Fading Like A Flower
12. Crash!Boom!Bang!
13. How Do You Do!
14. Dangerous
Band Presentation
15. Joyride (introduced with “Nona Manis Siapa Yang Punya”)
16. Spending My Time
17. The Look
18. Listen To Your Heart
Take A Listen To Your Heart, Roxette…
Roxette fans in Jakarta are really in a good treat at the last night concert in MEIS Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia. Not only they get to see Roxette performed for the first time after 17 years, but they got the chance to enjoy the concert by the beautiful beach of Ancol in Jakarta, Indonesia. The location of the concert was taken place at one of the most famous location in Jakarta. It has amusement park, mall, and of course the very beautiful view of an Ancol beach. Roxette’s concert itselt taken place inside the mall. The building itself was still under construction in some part. An Indonesian Roxer informed me that Roxette was actually the first band ever to perform there. When you entered the location, you could tell it’s already has Roxette athmosphere everywhere. At some restaurants they even had Roxette pictures on their menu. All over the place you can hear songs from Charm School were playing over and over again.
The fans started to arrived by 3 pm, but the security informed us that the gate won’t be opened until 6 pm, the show itself supposely begin at 8 pm. Many fans spent their time hang out around the mall and of course enjoying the warm breeze by the beach.
When the gate finally opened around 6 pm, the fans go straight inside the building. We still had to wait for more than twohours before Marie, Per and the band entered the stage. Before the concert, five lucky fans got a chance to meet Marie and Per. They were given photograph of Roxette which later signed by Marie and Per. To Indonesian fans, this is probably likeonce in a lifetime experience.The majority of the fans had never even seen Roxette live before and even today we only get one date. It was quite ironic because many Roxette’s songs from Look Sharp to Room Service were topped the chart.There were some non singles song that was quite famous here too, such us So Far Away. No wonder, at the middle of the concert, a fan yelled,”please play So Far Away.”
The crowd went crazy when Marie and Per first entered the stage. They both looking good in white jackets. The band looked fantastic as well. It felt like a dream to see them here in Indoesia. Of course when Marie screamed “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” at the beginning of the song, it started to feel real that Roxette was really on a stage in front us now and now they were singing “Dressed For Success”.
I myself was continuesly amazed by Marie. This is my 7th time seeing her on stage, and she continues to impress me all the time. I felt like I was back in time. Not only that she looked younger (which is not really that important, but it’s hard to ignore that), She sings better than ever and I am confident to say that this is her BEST performance yet. I hate to make comparison to the “now” Marie and “then” Marie, because I always thought that was a bit unfair, but it’s hard not to do when you see the progress she made these last few years.
I also surprised with the new side of Marie that I never know before. I didn’t know she had another hidden talent. Not only she’s a brilliant singer, but she’s a brilliant comedian! She was so expressive, fun, warm and FUNNY! When I saw her in Argentina last year, I was so amazed by the fact she was moved around more and more on the stage. This time it got even better. She was dancing around, joking around and having TONS of fun. I later notice that there’s a spot on a stage that she loved to go back to over and over again. She kept on waving to the same lucky person in the crowd from that spot. As a huge Marie fan I started to get jealous, because I wanted her to wave and smile at me. Later I learned that the lucky person who manage to get all her attentions was a 9 year old boy who went to the concert with his parents.
During the show, you could tell the confidence in her face. When she messed up the lyrics, she didn’t looked panic but instead she kept on singing and improvising, just like Marie we always know. I am almost sure that many actually didn’t realize that the lyrics were “changed” a bit by her, that’s how good she was. I think only die hard fans would tell, and even then we didn’t mind.
But the highlights of the evening was when she singing “Perfect Day”. This is the best version so far. When she was done, the crowd gave her applaud and a fan said, “what a voice.”
And Per? The crowd cheered him the most when he spoke some Indonesian words like “Apa Kabar” (How Are You) and “Terima Kasih” (Thank You). Per, if you read this, your pronounciations are perfect. Maybe it’s about time to release “Balada di Indonesia”? Just kidding…
Per seemed having good times playing and singing, but what can I say, he was always that brilliant. Another hightlight of the evening is Christoffer Lundquist. The crowd went crazy when he played “Nona Manis Siapa Yang Punya”, a famous Indonesian old song. At the beginning, many didn’t realize what he was trying to play, probably because wemwouldn’t ever guess that he’d do that, but when it was finally clear, the crowd went to sing a long.
Even some Some not that familiar songs to Indonesian crowd, like 7twenty7 and She’s Got Nothing On, still got tons of applaud. Especially, because it sounds rocking live. When they’re on stage, Roxette is actually a ROCK band! A friend of mine was so impressed with Stars. She loved it so much better than the album version.
Of course the song that many waited the most is It Must Have Been Love, Spending My Time, Joyride and The Look. The crowd were sing a long so loud you almost couldn’t hear Roxette. Both Per and Marie looked so impressed with all the reactions. Before the encore, Per and Marie left a stage for just a little while, leaving the crowd who kept yelling “We want more! we want more!”. So,imagine when they back again on a stage, the crowd went crazy again.
When Listen To Your Heart started, another girl in the crowd said,”oh my god, this is the one I’ve been waiting the most.” Then she started to tape the whole thing with her camera phone. Unfortunately, at the end of Listen To Your Heart, Marie’s mic had stopped working, so we didn’t get to hear her blasting her powerful ending like she did in other concerts before. Many were disappointed, because you could tell from her expression, she was giving her all for that ending. Unfortunately the audio problem was unfixable, because they didn’t even performed Church of Your Heart. It’s sad that a supposedly a perfect
concert had to end up in that way. However, the crowd still stayed in their places hoping that Roxette would come back and performed again, it didn’t happen of course.
Anyway, despite that “tiny little problem”, the concert was amazing. Marie was in top shape, sings better than ever, Per was at his most relaxed and fun and the whole band were fantastic.
Later in Facebook, Per promised to comeback again in Jakarta. We do hope they keep their promise. They still need to finish Listen To Your Heart for us. I think we deserve it.
