Some ramblings about my 18th Europeconcert.
If you're not a Europefan, then some things in this note will seem weird to you, like mentioning of song- and albumtitles, bandmember names etc etc. But it's a way for me to write down my experiences from my various concerts. So please, refrain from teasing.
It was a partly rainy day. The weather was shifting between cloudy, bits of sun, and rain. I had packed two suitcases, in order to go abroad the next day. One with everything I needed for the Europeconcert, and another with a week's worth of clothing for my trip to Germany.
I took my car to Asker, where I picked up Torild who'd come from Oslo. Then we headed to Thomas' place, where I placed my car. We took his roomy, spacious car, the three of us. The rain was pouring down outside at this point.
We picked up our last passenger in Drammen, that's nearly my hometown, and then our road trip could begin. The last passenger, Ina, is a friend of mine from outside the fan fold. This was her very first Europe concert, I was so happy for her.
The first album we listened to in the car was...Bag of Bones. Later we changed to Out of this world. It was a smooth 1.5 hour ride down to Langesund. The nature in Telemark (the county where Langesund is) is very beautiful. Looks a bit wild, lots of trees, hills, and blue-blue fjords/lakes. Langesund was a calm phate concert (edit 2016: I have no idea what I meant by calm phate...).
We were there pretty early in order to catch the soundcheck. Wrightegaarden is a concert/restaurant-establishment, it was a nice, old sort of classy two-storey house with a terrace providing a view to the venue, which was in a sort of open yard. It was enclosed so you couldn't enter without tickets, but it was still very open to the skies. At this terrace I saw another Europefan-friend of mine, Karoline, she'd gotten to know a nice fellow, Michael from Austria, who was also there for the concert. So me and my friends sat down there as well, to wait for a possible soundcheck.
At this point it was partly clouded, partly sunny. I had bought a cool t-shirt for the occasion: I'd found a top who was partly open in the back so my tattooed E was visible, and on the front there was the shape of a skull, made out of lots of skulls; my own Bag of Bones-t-shirt.
We sat chatting, looking down upon the band crew walking across the open yard to the sound-booth, back into the back of the stage, and sometimes up on stage. They played a bit themselves on our bands instruments, so I was for a bit worried that the band itself wouldn't do any soundcheck. But then the band members appeared in the yard (remember: we had perfect view to all of this), talking to the sound crew, going up on stage to play a bit on their instruments and so on.
Then the restaurant people told us that the band wanted a closed soundcheck, so we had to go inside the restaurant... we still had a perfect view (through dirty windows), and the sound was really good as well, when the band got up on stage and played through Riches to Rags and Superstitious. I filmed my friends during both, where we would mime the song and lyrics on both songs. I won't share those videos, mostly because I look really retarded in both of them.
After the soundcheck I decided to check the rest of the house to locate a bathroom. I went throught the restaurant (or actually, it was more like café/bar/catering-place) to look for it. On my way there I found a piano! Karoline was with me, so I just HAD to boast to her about my abilities to play Europesongs on the piano. (I didn't boast, I just asked that she waited while I played a bit for her). So I played Carrie, Tomorrow, bit of Coast to Coast and The final countdown. During one of the songs (I kept missing at some of the keys because I had to stand while playing, and I was unfamiliar with the piano) I saw in a flash that Ian was walking by. I stopped playing, and said the first thing that came to mind "I'm sorry for playing your songs!" (In english)... He said that was fine, he was just looking for some food. So apparently they were eating in that building. Ooops. I'm kinda thrilled, to have played some Europe stuff on the piano in earshot of a band member... not really sure if he was listening at all, or noticing...If I ever get that opportunity again, I'll continue playing, and play BETTER. That means more practise, I guess.
When I got back to the friends around the table, some of them were talking to Ian. So I wanted to say properly hi as well, and then I got to show him my tattoo (open back, you know)... then he showed me his- He had some photos with some norwegian fans I did not yet know, so I asked for one with him as well, was very hard to resist. i know I already have some pics with him... it's just... cooool, you know.
Then we went outside to stand in queue in order to get to the front row... No problem at all.. but while we stood there (approx. 15 people), I talked to a few people, among others Valeria... She said her name, didn't ring a bell to me, then I said my name, and she says "oh, you're on my facebook!", and at once I remembered her last name Was very nice to meet her, she's so sweet. I also chatted with the other norwegian fans I didn't know before that day, and one of the girls said she recognized me from Skien a couple of years ago (Europe played there... it was only 30 minutes from Langesund), she said we had talked then, which I couldn't remember, and that she recognized my tattoo. She also said that my tattoo had inspired her to get one, then showed me the E on her arm. That was the "new" E, the one with the ring around it. And she'd also written in small letters "no stone unturned" across it. It was soooo nice. There were also some people from Poland. They opened and let people enter, and then I got my first surprise: MERCHANDISE!! Tord the merch-man told me a couple of years ago that it's so hard with customs in Norway, so it's hardly worth bringing merch to Norway from Sweden. But this time they had I bought the over-the-shoulder-bag, and I simply LOVE it. The didn't bring Tord, though. There was a local man there instead. But I got my goods :)
I stationed myself front center, while my friends that I had traveled with took places elsewhere (but of course in the front), according to their preferences. Then we waited. I was beside Valeria, so I chatted more with her. Michael from Austria was so gentle as to hold on to my space while I was away for a little while... Wonderful fans, really. The outdoor venue filled up real slowly. Norwegians are a slow breed But it looked quite filled up when the boys finally hit the stage
Not very long before the concert started, Guesswhoo showed up just behind me. I had been looking for her during the entire day. She was soo sweet. Calm, which matched my energy buzz real nice. I hadn't seen Europe live since Tromsø in September, so I think my excitement was pouring over. But I didn't get any complaints or nasty looks...
I was so blasted away by the concert. I had deliberately tried not to catch any setlist spoilers from the BoB-tour, cause I wanted to be caught by surprise. So when Stein sent me the setlist on an SMS a week before the concert, I just deleted it The Bag of Bones-songs were awesome, and I have no doubt that when they're filling the shows with more BoB-songs in the fall, they will do so with as much success as they did in this concert. They blasted the audience away with Riches to Rags, then Firebox... then came Superstitious, and then Demon Head... I was IN AWE!!
The two front rows filled with fans, I could almost feel their joy, like mine. But there was a few fans also in the front row who didn't sing along to either BoB, LLAE or SS-songs... they had travelled all the way from Poland just for older songs, apparently. I was fascinated... But, at one point really annoyed.. Joey tossed me his plectrum (ok, it could have been aimed at anyone, but I had it in my grasp for some milliseconds before it slipped, and it fell to the ground). That's when the polish chick almost threw herself over the fence in order to pick it up, as Guesswhoo-mentioned... I got a bit irritated, both because that plectrum could have been mine, and because she acted so maniacly...
About the setlist.. It was almost perfect... Save for one thing: SFTD... The story is that... I was at the very first Europeconcert after the reunion. It took place in Norway on June 11th 2004, and Europe played there, for the very first time, Start from the Dark.... Since then, they've played it every single concert I've been to, except for this, my 18th concert... So in hindsight, I'm dissapointed for that... especially since I re-discovered the greatness of this song a couple of months ago.... I suddenly started listening more intently to the guitar-riff of the verse, and then I was really looking forward to digging it live again.
I was so happy with this concert, I managed to catch Mic's eye during the concert, and he waved at me, apparently recognizing me from earlier. John L did that too, I think, but I'm never sure, cause he smiles and looks at everyone in turn, or so it seems.
As always during a Europe concert, I was smiling like a maniac, jumping up and down, throwing my fist in the air at the right moments in beat with the music, and laughing/giggling when something funny occured. I was also screaming quite a bit, hope I wasn't too loud, it's a habit I'm trying to break. It's just hard to be cool and composed during such moments, where everything fits together. I was forming my fingers in the shape of a heart for John N to see, but he never saw it, so I was aiming my heart to JL, then JT... I guess that was me seeking attention, but I didn't get it. I'll try to avoid that in the future as well.. I do wanna appear as a 26 year old, instead of a 17 year old..
I managed to catch a JL plectrum from one of the guards after the show, and Karoline caught a JN-plectrum for me, my very first! I was sooo happy.
And so infuriated with myself a week later, when I had lost my JL-pic, and then the day after, I had decided to put the JN-pic in my wallet for safekeeping.. but now my wallet is stolen... Guess who's mad at herself atm!!
The total experience of the show was just fantastic The trip was great, the place was great, the crowd (where I stood at least) was great (no pushing at all where I stood), the band were on top form, the weather was nice, and the setlist was awesome
And the perfect ending? Seeing Mic in the hotel. Where, as I can recall, he approached me, not the other way around. He came from behind me, saying "Hey Tone-Iren, long time no see!" (But in swedish, so worded a bit different)
I chose this hotel because I'm a member of Choice Club hotels, and they had offered me half price of a room in one of their hotels this summer. The offer came in my e-mail inbox just after the concert was announced in April So it was lucky then, that that's where some band members where staying as well
Now I'm ready for a Norway/Sweden-Tour I'll try to be the best fan advertiser anyone has ever seen
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