My friend Nemi was going to fly to Trondheim, so I was to be found alone in the trainstation early Friday morning, after having slept from 11 pm to 1 am (my day rhythm is just something else these days, as I am working nights. But still I was awake, and looking forward to the trip.
I had been thinking about Europe and Harry Potter non-stop the day before, the very last Harry Potter book was due on the same day as this Europe concert. And you can imagine my surprise, when I found this sign propped up on one of the pillars in the train station:
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/A ... rent=1.jpg
That was no accident, and I thought of the guys of the band "worrying" about a plot against them, and thought that I must remember to mention here that this poster was nothing else than a clear sign that someone was sticking up for Europe, spreading their message secretly (it happens that the exact phrase "Secret Society" is mentioned a couple of times in the book series about Harry Potter, actually) [2013 note: This concert was a part of the "Secret Society" summer tour. The CD "Secret Society" had been released the previous year. About worrying about plots. It was just a funny thing. Nothing serious. However this review fails to let through that I was writing this while giggling]
And then I jumped on the train, getting a seat facing the back of the train, so that I had my back facing the direction of the destination all the way to Mo i Rana. I changed trains in Trondheim, but they had the same stupid seats there....
Taking the train from Oslo in the south to Mo i Rana in the north is something of an experience. Trains are wonderful transportation, it does not contribute to global warming, and you can walk around and stretch your legs, or pull your seat back and sleep. During the fiftheen hours, the landscape changed from main capital city of Oslo, to country sides with towering hills, farms, fjords and waterfalls to towering mountains, trees, forrests, and snow on the very top of the mountains. It's hard to describe, and next time I will take some pictures, but seeing the mountains again (they don't have them where I live with my parents, only in the north where I live rest of the year) made me realize that "wow, this is just BRILLIANT! Europe is coming to northern Norway, closer to the place where two of their members where born than they have ever been before!"
The people that met me on the train station were REALLY lovely. They were, in short, the parents of the girlfriend of a girl I have chatted with on the net for a couple of years. Haha. I hadn't met the girl I'd chatted to, OR her girlfriend, AT ALL in real life before meeting the parents at the railway station. But they drove me to their house, where I had supper, and a bed waited for me. They were really wonderful people. The girls were at the festival, so they couldn't meet me till the next day.
However, they slept for a long time the next day, so I got a ride down to the city with the parents, and went straight to the bookstore to purchase my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was then going to head for Checca's hotel, but I had barely got out of the city shopping center when I ran into her
It was wonderful seeing her again, and being able to talk properly to her for the first time. We went to her room, where she showed me pictures from Samsø (edit 2016: a festival in Denmark, where Europe had played some nights before), before going to a café.
We then met Nemi at the train station, and I left the girls to meet my two very nice hostesses. They were wonderful too, and told me that the festival had been great on the previous night, despite drunk people.
I met up with Franscesca and Nemi again, before heading to the venue.
We met Stein, and Annah and Laurah, plus a couple of local girls, one of which had been a fan since 1986, she was seeing Europe for the first time.
Then front row, then the norwegian band Big Bang (which wasn't bad, I have to admit), then setting the stage, and then came a festival guy with a sussaphone/saxhorn slung around him, to announce the next band up: Europe.
Haha. You all know how it goes, when you hear Europe live. I wan't to point to a few strange things that happened during the concert, though.
Front row was a fight, but I had no real problem holding on to my spot there, even though the row was actually moving left and right. For instance, before the Big Bang gig, I had put my purse down on the ground in front of the fence in front of me. When the gig was over, I had too walk 5 or 6 steps to the left to retrieve my purse again!
And everywhere there was hands. My hair was a big issue this night (which wasn't night as you know it, but merely daylight without any visible sun)
First, it was a bloke that patted my hair. I jerked my head irritably, hoping he would take the hint. But he continued, and I politely asked him to stop.
And in the beginning of the Europe gig I had seen a girl a bit younger than me, right behind me, she had her cell phone at the ready, and I really think she was a fan. She had a hair almost like mine. But during the first part of the gig, I think she tried to move my hair to get pictures taking, which at that point, for me, was a bit annoying.
Also, beer came down to visit a couple of times, as half-empty glasses of beverage was thrown forwards.
And now we go from Hair, to Hands. They were everywhere. Undefinable hands touched my butt, but not in a groping sort of way, so I wasn't sure if it was coincidentally or what. But it didn't seem to go away, and it did feel like a hand was cupped carefully over my backside. I couldn't kick, without being sure not to hit someone hard, so I tried to show displeasure about this by shoving my behind a little further back, as to push the hand away with the backside. It kinda worked, although it can be the fact that Europe started playing and my focus was entirely upon them
There was also a guy on the second row, that had his hands stretched diagonally in front of him, which really annoyed the side vision to my left. I kept taking hold of his hand and putting it backwards. However, the guy just grinned at me smartly and at the end of Europe's gig, he was no longer behind the person to my left, but behind me, and holding both his hands on the fence. This was kind of an advantage, cause then he shielded me from the rest of the beer-throwing and wild crowd, but those kind of things leaves a girl kind of uncertain, so please, all guys on here: if you don't know the girl, haven't spoken to her, and want to have your hands on either side of her: please ask first!
It was an amazing gig, and it seems the guys (in the band) were all smiles and laughter. And what a sense of humour! There was guards standing beneath in front of the stage, and they were muttering into their buggy mics. Joey had the clever idea of lowering his mic stand, mic pointing towards their mouths, when they least expected it. It was so laughable, cause the guards were so suprised. One of them actually talked into his own radio or whaddawas, and it made the crowd laugh
And the fun continued: Joey shouting into the megaphone: "Ooooh, can you feel it. Is anybody there?" in Norum's ear, and Norum's lips forming the words "I don't know!!" with a really puzzled expression.
It might have been wishful thinking, but I think Joey recognized me from Sandnes. I'd been trying to catch his eyes for some time, to let him see that I was mouthing every word he sang, and that they had faithful supporters there that night. Anyway, I managed to catch his eye, and he pointed towards me and made some kind of movement that I kinda took to mean "hey! Keep on walking that road, girl, and stay strong"... Or something...
Might have just been in my direction, but I kinda got the sense that he was showing some sign of recognition
Yesterdays news was wonderful as always, and Franscesca, Nemi and I had planned to make a timed movement towards the stage in the pause in Yesterdays news (we were standing a bit apart from one another), and I suddenly remember this in the second verse of the song, and as I bend forward to look where Franscesca was, she looked over to see where I was. We had remembered at the same time. She was to give the 1-2-3. But when I looked at her in the pause, she was crying!! Later I learned that a guy close to her had broken her rib. I turned my focus on the show again, and hoping that it was something I had imagined. When I looked at her again, she was facing the stage again. So I watched the rest of the show, and LOVING the intro to the Final Countdown, which, for the first time, was heard CLEARLY over the masses (I have always had trouble hearing it, cause the crowd's so loud).
But those people singing dadadaaaa daaaa in time with the intro, oh, I just wanted to strangle them! (In a very harmless way...) I hate it when they do that.
But all in all, the gig was fantastic, the songs were fantastic, Joey was my hero when it came to putting all his energy out there, and I had a very enjoyable evening.
After the gig, we followed Franscesca to the Red Cross, but there was nothing they could really do, other than advice her not to cough or laugh. Then we waited a bit backstage, but my hosts were heading home, so I went with them, getting to know them a little better by talking a lot on the way to their house.
By the way, Ida's (one of the girls) parents hadn't purchased tickets, but had stood outside the fence the ENTIRE Europe gig
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