The 13th concert took place in Kaunas tonight. The 13th. Some say it’s a bad number… Definitely wasn’t a lucky one today.
Appr. 30 fans went to the venue earlier than any other local guys or girls. We chatted, had fun waiting. Fortunately, we found a warmer place inside one part of the building, so we didn’t have to stand outside in the very cold. When it was time to line up, we went to the scanners and waited for the security guys to come. At every 1st scanner there was a security guy, at every 2nd there was a security girl to check us before we entered the venue. The problem was that a guy could only check a guy, a girl could only check a girl. So there they messed up all our lines and some of us had to switch to another scanner. It’s not too useful, when no one speaks English there from the organizers’ part and you get the info quite late… Whatever. We started running like hell to get to best places. Some Roxers were already inside the arena, got to front row when some of us were stopped and were shouted at that it’s not the entrance. However, it was. Just they shouldn’t have let us in until 19:15. They just forgot to close the doors. So those fans, who were already inside, having their good places, also had to come out. What an organization…! There was another half an hour waiting in front of 2 doors that lead to our fan heaven. When the doors opened, the running started again and fortunately, all fans who were waiting there quite long got to the front row. It was again an international team there.
The support act was the same as in Tallinn and yes, they are from Finland, so they will most probably come to the 2 Finnish concerts, too.
During the intro, the band got on stage and we could see Marie was wearing her white jacket, Per’s funky jacket found its way back to the spotlight and he had new trousers on. Sleeping In My Car was over and The Big L. started. And then our worst nightmare happened. Marie got so insecure she fell to the floor. Everyone was shocked seeing what happened and we all felt so worried about Marie we just wanted to jump over the fences to help her. Dea was very fast reacting, approaching Marie, but she couldn’t help her to stand up. Per also checked the situation and couldn’t decide whether he should stop playing or not, but when he saw Marie showed she was fine he went on, however you could see he was so worried, too. In the end Peter Fredriksson, one of the technicians came on stage and helped Marie to stand up. When she was already standing, she mimed: ”I’m alright!” and smiled, but also showed it was hurting she fell down. She looked at everyone on the stage, shaking her head that it shouldn’t have happened, but at the same time smiled, so we hoped nothing serious happened to her. Still, it was so heart-breaking to see her falling. But how she got up and continued singing like nothing happened shows how strong she is. She is just amazing!
The show went on with Stars and before Spending My Time started, Per said: ”If you know the songs, please join in! You probably know them better than we do.” I’m not sure anymore that we know the lyrics better than them. When there was the crowd part of Spending My Time, we messed it up totally. It was surely because we were still too shocked by what we saw before. Marie couldn’t wait for us finding the right words to sing, so she went on with her version. So lovely!
After Crash! Boom! Bang! now Real Sugar was introduced the way like it’s a song from Room Service album, which Magnus really hates. Then Magnus said: ”No, it’s my favoruite Roxette album in the world! Except for Joyride, Look Sharp! and Travelling.” Per replied laughing: ”I’m speechless!” You can watch this part of the gig in THIS video.
Then we had another tough part, when She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) started. At the beginning of the song Marie got insecure again and we started worrying about her again. Dea was there next to her very fast and asked Marie if she wanted a chair. Marie said yes after a while, so BoJo brought a chair for her and they helped her to sit down. It’s very hard now that Marie stands there alone, she can’t have anyone too close to her, like she had Jokke on her solo tour, where she could just grab Jokke’s arm for the whole show in Malmö to be able to stand stably. Dea is helping her so much, being there when she needs her, but she just can’t stay next to Marie during the whole concert. Since this point Marie was sitting during whole gig. Her facial expressions showed what she wanted to do with her body and we loved her dancing with her legs while sitting. She’s still so powerful even if she’s sitting! BUT: we do want the team and Marie herself to consider some safe solution. If it’s that she’s sitting during the whole show, let it be. It just can’t happen again what happened tonight. And it’s not because our fan hearts get broken when we see her like this, but her own safety and health. What if next time she falls and she breaks her arm or leg? No! We know she’s an amazon and we do know she’s so strong, but please, do consider something safer than just her holding the mic stand. Tonight we could see it’s just not enough on a worse day.
After The Heart Shaped Sea came Perfect Day and the crowd shouted before Marie started to sing: ”We love you, Marie!” She smiled and told the audience: ”Oh, I love you, too!”. Then came 3 faster songs, Fading Like A Flower, How Do You Do! and 7Twenty7. Marie was a rock star in that chair and she got even a bit tired after these songs, so when they were preparing for It Must Have Been Love she said: ”Oh it’s so nice to rest here!” Then we all started laughing and she laughed, too. She really rocks! And when we shouted we love you, we love you, we love you at them, Marie smiled and Per reacted: ”Thank you! You are very generous!” This, from the laughing part you can see in THIS video.
This time there was no hoolabaloo with Dressed For Success, Mike Lindström learned his lesson. But he still has to be faster with changing the plec holders, because Per almost ran out of guitar picks again. This time there were at least 2 new picks on the stand for the acoustic guitars, the rest were again from the past tour.
After Dangerous, the band got presented and after Christoffer’s intro came Joyride, as usual. The balloons got in the air like they had to and after the song the band left the stage. BoJo came to help Marie getting off the chair. We felt like she should rather stay on stage, because it wasn’t too easy for her to leave the stage.
After we were shouting and clapping our hands, 2-3 minutes later the stage was set for Watercolours In The Rain. Marie was shown to her place, sat down on the chair and gave a great performance of the song. Then it was time for Listen To Your Heart. The ending of the song was so strong and powerful! Marie’s voice is simply amazing! Then there was The Look and BoJo came on stage to help Marie get off the chair. Then we could already think they will miss the lullaby song, Queen Of Rain. And yes, they said goodbye to us, thanked for the wonderful evening, took a bow or even three and then the band walked off the stage, then Marie and Per waving to us walked off, too. Of course, turning back towards us before they finally left the stage.
We had some mixed feelings after the concert. If we consider it sound-wise and performance-wise, it was top, but seeing Marie having a bad day made us very sad and worried. Somehow the whole band was shocked, the talking in between the songs was not as it is usually. One could hear on Per’s voice, too, that he got insecure. And all team members somehow got close to Marie to ask if she was fine. One must love them for always caring!
After the show ended, we went backstage, since we knew they would leave the city by the RoxJet right after the concert. We just wanted to wave goodbye to them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t meet them, just saw the cars leaving with them for the airport. Anyway, we just waved goodbye and applauded them. We hope they saw it from inside the cars. Now there are 2 days to relax until the next gig. Have a good rest, Marie! We love you!
Per’s reaction after the show:
KAUNAS UPDATE: Supergig tonite. First time for us in this town. Great crowd. Funny band playing funny looking funny. but very powerful. Thanx everyone for coming. Vids tomorrow.
r.o.x.a.i.r. in a sec. CHEERS/ P.
Next gig is on Friday (28th November) in Helsinki. See you there!
Articles and photos
kaunas.kasvyksta.lt
15min.lt: including concert photos and a video collage about the concert, as well as photos of Roxette’s arrival with the RoxJet
delfi.lt
lrytas.lt
klaipeda.diena.lt
Videos
It Must Have Been Love
The Heart Shaped Sea
The Look and the goodbye
Setlist
Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Real Sugar
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Perfect Day
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
7Twenty7
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride
Extra:
Watercolours In The Rain
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
All photos in the article © Patrícia Peres
Update – Per shared this article with these words:
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Two days off now. Don’t worry about Marie, folks. Since she can’t see that well on her right eye + her right leg is pretty weak = she stumbled on her mike stand (which is fixed to the floor) during Big L but came back with a smile on her face and new adventures awaiting in the wings. Helsinki next! /P.
