Europe gig no. 14 - July 28th 2010 - Karlskoga, Sweden,

As usual, I need to write down my memories from my latest gig. Don't think I've done this 14 times, but it's a close thing...

So, yeah. My 14th gig. 3rd gig in Sweden. almost 2 month between this gig and the last one I went to...
Stayed at Karin's parent's place. Nice red and white house (!). A Volvo (!) brought me there. tTomas was behind the steering wheel. Nice going to a gig together with some good old fans again.
We walked into Karlskoga and then there was a bit of a walk up to the biggest stages, but that was indeed a very nice area. Huge alcohol-serving area, very visible Merchandise-stands, a HUGE stage (really tall!), and one a bit smaller. It was in a clearing, could almost call it a Meadow, in what could've been a forrest (too few trees to call it a forrest, but the impression was there still) So, Location Approved :)

We didn't get there until around 8-ish o'clock, About just in time to check out the merchandise (Or, check out Tord starting to put up some merchandise) and have something to eat before The Ark hit the main stage. Their intro was something else! I LOVE the sound of fancy french horns, so that intro was very mesmerizing to me. The band kept pumping out one catching tune after the other (though some reminded me a bit of swedish dance-band-music), and the visuals was ok too.

When it got near the end of their set, I moved from the bar area to go and see if I could get a front row spot. And what do you know... The crowd just dissapeared after The Arks final final number (cause they had a LOT of encore songs). Then they reappered in front of the smaller stage, to watch the band there (ugh). Oh, but not before I'd heard the chorus for "The white stripes" a couple of times first...more about that later

With two hours to wait, I found some fans to talk to (only one I knew was coming, in fact, apart from the people I was there with. I ended up to the right of the stage, can't remember last time that happened.

2 hours later:Last look at Eden - how amazingly clear sound!!! It was a LONG time since the last time I've had THAT clear sound. But that could of course be all because of my own hearing as well, I have no idea. Anyway. The sound was good :) I'd been worried that I wouldn't see the band members due to the 2.5m tall stage, but I could see them all. Even Ian, though he didn't get my undivided attention before this jaunty tune interrupted the nice and rocking feeling

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoHECVnQC7A

Ian was crashing his drums in beat to the music, so after the first fanfare I had a bit of a problem hearing the actual melody.. But it was nice and spectacular :)

Where was I.. Oh, yeah. I saw all band members. The sound was clear. But let me tell you, this was a bit of hard audience in a way I've never seen before. If the band waited to long between the songs, they would start, almost synchronized, to hum this tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j7huh5Egew

The break in Superstitious was a bit of a nightmare for me, if I'm to exaggerate a little bit. with the ongoing oooo-ohohoh-ooooo, it was kind of hard for Joey to skip into the well-known No Woman, No Cry routine. It was the same during Rock the night...

Only time I can remember they managed to shut up was during Mic's Keyboard solo introduction to No Stone Unturned. That is one helluva MAGIC song! Shivers up and down my spine :)

I'm not going about the songs in the right order, just mentioning the songs worth mentioning, with memories attached.
New love in town was a real pleasure as well. All people around me where around the age of 15-25, and I was so pleased to see the young ones singing along to New Love in Town, with passion and sparkling eyes.

Of course, this gig as well as a couple of others I've been too had a couple of as-o-holic crowd members. When I saw the HORDE of teens in the Ark-crowd, and realized they were coming back to watch Europe, I thought to myself "Now I'll finally see who's worse, teens or drunk people"... I guess you know the answer already... drunk teens! Drunk TALL teen boys with waving arms, staggering into people in the row in front of them. And they didn't even understand why my eyes were looking so furiously at them.. anyway, after a while one of them was pushed down by another, the security went in and fetched the worst ones, and the rest of the gig was kind of peaceful.

Hmm.. The songs, the crowd, the fans... what next... oh, THE BAND :) They all looked good. Joey looked relaxed and cool, John was lost in a world on his own, not really interacting too much with the crowd, John Levén came to see us at the right side a couple of times. There wasn't all that much interaction with the crowd, due to the ridiculously tall stage and the front row barriers too close to that stage, But we manage to see them alright (as I might have mentioned :p ) They all played well, and looked happy.

I had a moment of pure joy after The final countdown ended. I'd been shouting my lungs of for Ian to throw me one (...of his sticks), and that's probably why I got Norums attention. I think he recognized me OR the girl next to me, and waved down, put on a big hearty smile and blew a kiss towards us/me/her. It sent me straight up to cloud nine :)

That's where I am today, and plan to stay for a while. Now I'm having a 7 months gigbreak. Then I'll see them hopefully a couple of times on the UK tour. This was my 5th concert since December 26th, so I can actually breathe out and enjoy other things now for a while.

Hopefully they'll change the set around for the next UK tour, bring something new and fresh into the set ( :arrow: or old and refreshed)... I'm happy I decided to go to Karlskoga

Europe gig no. 11 - December 28th 2009 - Hovet, Stockholm

4 hours + 6 hours + 7.5 hours with bus... It was soo worth it, going to Göteborg and then Stockholm to see Europe and meeting friends. I wanna share my experience of Hovet 28/12/09

People ask me if I don't get tired of seeing Europe live? It's the same songs, isn't it? And to that last question, I guess they're right. I've heard the songs before, and most of them live as well.. but it hit me last night, with a force stronger than before, that even in a big hall like Hovet, I'm basically with my friends at the disco that plays my favorite music. Even if my friends aren't there in the front line, I get some new ones along the way. Yesterday I even found a soul mate for the night.

If I could have documented my impressions on video rather than writing them here, this is what I'd show you:

5 p.m, outside Hovet: A group of girls, one or two with a blanket, that they take turns with. They've been there since 10. "Yes of course we've eaten, we go in shifts!" In the front of the line is a few boys in their late teens, with their rocking outfits, big hair, girlfriends to match, singing along with one of their cellphones. "I woke up this morning, leaving on my mind", sings a boy. It's almost an involuntary reaction when I respond "And I said to myself, I ain't gonna waste more time, noo" 

"YES!" the boys punches his fist in the air. 

6 pm: There's two queues in front of the two entrances, and people are warming up towards new people, introducing themselves, recognizing each other from forums and facebook. There are maybe 20 people singing along to Flames (whose timing is quite difficult toward the end with the breaks between "Flaaaaames" and the cymbal-crash) 

6.30: The doors open, after guards explaining the rules: "Don't run, or guys in Yellow/Red/Orange T-shirts will pick you up and put you in quarantine" So people hurry as much as they can without running to get to the front line, where our preferances in band members decides who we end up next to (...it's my 11th gig, I know this to be true) And I end up between two girls I don't know. Yet

Support act has some good songs, but dull musicians, and the special guests has good musicians but dull songs. 

Then there's a band called Europe coming onstage. A teenage boy behind me try to pry his way between me and the girl to my left by putting his hand on the fence. He doesn't succeed. We're lioness...es when it comes to defending our right to  keeping comfortable by the front. 

And so the rock disco experience is on. I dance mostly with a guy standing 10 meters from were I am, at the other side of the protrusion of the stage. He sings and headbangs and throws his fist in the air while looking at me, and I sing and headbang and throw myself around while looking at him. It's like two twin souls meet. 

I think my soul might be a quadruplet. I have met a few twin souls in my life. But it never gets boring. So when Joey (that's the singer, the front man of the band ) slowly and tenderly gives his guitar pic to this guy after Carrie, I feel that guy's joy like it's my own. The explanation is simple: I recognize in his face the same frenzied admiration for the band and the songs that I can feel on my own face. It's probably not as strong on my face now as it was when I was this boys age (he's a bit younger than me, it seems), but it's definitely the same spark.

John Levén is to my front left pointing his bass guitar to people and putting his hand behind his ears as to say "I can't hear you, are you enjoying this?".... About that pointing his guitar thing. It's such a cool thing to do. But you know about what they say about guitars just being a extension of a guy's "goods"? well, imagine my giggles when he came out on the protrusion and share his bass guitar for people to touch. I couldn't help myself but giggle a little.

I'm not going to share the less good things about the gig. A girl screaming Joey's name like her life was depending on it, or people not understanding that a fist UP in the air won't do any harm, but a fist FORWARD in a crowd is less smart.

You know how you can loose your friends out of sight in a big crowded venue after a gig? Well, I kept loosing people I knew, but other people I knew kept appearing in my sight. It was like I belonged there. People I had never met, people I'd only just met, and people I hadn't seen in a year or 3.. well, they were totally equal to me, like one big happy family. 


To quote Joey: see you all soon, take care!