Finally, the Roxettes are on home ground and perform four sold out shows in Sweden. The first Gothenburg gig at Trädgårdsföreningen happened last night.
The stage was built one day before showtime and those who were walking around in Trädgårdsföreningen could witness the whole process. It’s always fun to see how these things work and how many people work on all the details.
On concert day, it started raining cats and dogs at 16:00 and it didn’t stop until a bit after we could enter the venue when the gates opened at 18:00.
On the side screens, there was Rox promo before the show started: promo of the autumn leg of the tour, the two Swedish shows in December and Joyride – The Musical in Stockholm in September. These ads looked quite cool on such big screens.
At the merch stands you could buy T-shirts, hoodies, caps and bags, as well as CDs.
The support act, Dagny – Norwegian singer and songwriter – entered the stage with her band at 19:45 and played for one hour. They sounded very good.
Roxette took the stage at 21:15 and the audience was cheering them loudly, while a new intro was playing during the band’s entrance. The setlist started with The Big L., as usual, and after Sleeping In My Car Per greeted the crowd and introduced Lena as the new member of Roxette. The audience cheered her loudly and Lena enjoyed it a lot, being on home ground.
After Fading Like A Flower, Per seemed to have some technical problem with his in-ear system and went to the side to technician Peter Fredriksson. Even Micke N-S walked to them with the guitars in his hands to see what the problem was. Then Per walked back to his mic while Peter was walking behind him trying to sort things out. Later Per still showed the guys that something was not working properly for him, but anyway, how they were playing and soundwise, we couldn’t recognize anything strange.
There was one point, when I thought it might have distracted him and it was when after It Must Have Been Love PG started the band presentation. It is usually How Do You Do! that comes after IMHBL, but now Mr. G was a bit too early with introducing the band. You could see the confusion on Jonas’s and Clarence’s face, then Micke N-S also came on stage to check what was happening. Well, what can you do? Haha. Chris played När vi två blir en which should have been the intro to Joyride, but this time it was followed by How Do You Do! When Per realized he had changed the order, he first talked to Magnus on stage, then he went to Chris before Chris finished the intro, probably telling him that they would continue with HDYD, so that he wouldn’t start playing Joyride. The setlist had a different flow this way, but I doubt anyone other than the hardcore fans (and of course the band and technicians) realized something was not going as planned. All were professionals and they made this change as smooth as possible. Next time everything will be back in the right order, for sure.
I must mention that the crowd’s – at least the front rows – sing-along to Clarence’s Neverending Love insert during the band presentation was fantastic! Even Per let us sing longer than usual. Haha. Maybe one day the complete song gets on the list.
During band presentation, Jonas played a little bit of Black Sabbath (Iron Man) as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. (Thanks for recognizing it, Daniel Rezmann!)
The setlist was 2 songs longer than the festival shows, so the band played 19 hits. It was the first time for me that I had the chance to hear Vulnerable live. I just L.O.V.E. this song! Per was singing it and Lena and Dea joined him in the front and sang their parts. It sounded fab! Then they performed Milk And Toast And Honey. It was lovely to have these two ballads back on the setlist. The last time they played them was in Australia.
Unfortunately, What’s She Like? and Things Will Never Be The Same or Wish I Could Fly were not included, but hopefully, they are back a bit later. Fortunately, Almost Unreal stayed in the set.
The loudest sing along we experienced was during It Must Have Been Love, which of course Lena dedicated to Marie.
Before Queen Of Rain, Per thanked the audience for coming and said he hopes they would have a further nice summer and „see you next time! Maybe on Friday!” Haha.
Setlist
- The Big L.
- Sleeping In My Car
- Dressed For Success
- Crash! Boom! Bang!
- Opportunity Nox
- Fading Like A Flower
- Vulnerable
- Milk And Toast And Honey
- Almost Unreal
- Stars
- She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
- It Must Have Been Love
Band presentation
- How Do You Do!
- Dangerous
- Joyride
Encore
- Spending My Time
- Listen To Your Heart
- The Look
- Queen Of Rain
Now one day off and the band is back in Gothenburg for a second show on 25th July! Check out all the tour dates and links to ticket sales sites HERE!
Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres. More photos HERE!
Per after the show:
Amazing start of the Swedish tour in Gothenburg. Had a blast! Sold out (10000). We = happy! Thx for stopping by, dear you! New balls on Friday. Same place, same time.
Lena after the gig:
What a wonderful evening in Gothenburg!! So much fun!! Thanks to everyone who was there!
