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
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