This post was first published as a note on Facebook.
This is number 21. The "2 hour 35 minutes concert" review. You ready?
When I hear the roaring bass that announces the intro, my first reaction is always «Nooooo, F*****ck!!» Cause even though the song is amazing, the playing of it means the end of the concert. But then the synthesizer start, and I forget everything. All I can remember is that this song is what started the whole thing. This song is AMAZING live.
When the song ends, and the band makes their walk of absolute triumph on this gigantuan stage, I'm woooing and hooing, clapping and smiling most giddy. This has been a two and a half hours concert without any crowd pressure, drunken bastards or flying beer bottles ruining the joy of it.
Imagine that. Front row in a festival with 20 000 people. Twenty-thousand! I met up with my lovely dutch friend Anke earlier that day, and she had no plans to try to get to front row, due to
her last experience with Europe at Sweden Rock, in 2009, when front row became quite the mosh pit. But this time it was different. I don’t know what made it different. But anyway, I LOVED the front row. Fans from Argentina, Chile, America, Taiwan, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Italy, to name a few, had been standing and sitting in front of the stage from 4 to 10 hours that day. It was nice, though, to go to the biggest stage in the festival inbetween the other bands, to get to know the Europefans better.
On one of the other stages (there was 4 in total) I had the pleasure of watching a couple of songs by Treat (they sounded really good, and I got to hear my favorite; “Skies of Mongolia”). I also caught Hardline (sitting in the hot sunlight barefoot, hearing an incredible live band doing their hit “Hot Cherie” was a dream come true; a dream I didn’t know I had). I also got to hear a couple of songs of the band Asia. Great sound from their stage, and good songs, I have to listen to them a bit more! But when I wasn’t watching other bands on either of the other 3 stages, I kept returning to the Festival Stage to say hi to other fans. Meeting some friends I have known for sooo long, but never met before. I met a girl with the most amazing Europe tattoo. I was about to introduce myself, when she said “You’re Tone-something?”. Apparently I’m not the most invisible Europefan out there. Which is totally okay.
While waiting by the biggest stage, we got to hear Doro Pesch. Doro, whom I have seen before, was looking great, and sounding great! This time I managed to draw my eyes away from her and watch the others in her band too. The bass player was a real eye-pleaser, both due to good looks, and amazing energy. It looked like the entire band had a world of fun!
From where we stood (in front of the main stage) we had good vision to one of the smaller stages, Rock Stage, and the sound carried all the way to where we stood. So we could stand there and gather some of the songs from UFO. I guess most fans, like me, only knew the few UFO-songs Europe has done some covers of, like “Love to love” and “Only you can rock me”. We did hear the intro to Love to love.. But then the techies to the next due artist on the Festival Stage started to tune their instruments and bang their drums, so I couldn’t hear the whole of that song. Pretty irritating. But what I did hear was great!
This was my first real big festival. I’ve seen Europe in other norwegian festivals, and one swedish one, but never this scale. I have been asked to go to SRF previous years, but always thought that it would be too noisy, big and crowdy for my taste. But I am absolutely IMPRESSED. Four stages taking turns to host amazing bands, a festival crew that was like a well greased machinery. Immediately after a crowd left the stage after one band was done playing, you could see plastic beer bottles everywhere, the ground was littered. 10 minutes later, the crew had come over to clean it up, leaving the ground bottlefree once more.
After another couple of hours of waiting and socializing, it was time for Krokus. But my Converse-covered feet was kind of sore at this moment, so I tried to focus on keeping them in motion, so my back wouldn’t go all out on me. I did however get a lot of Krokus’ vibe, even if I wasn’t listening that intently. Their singer was good, and I liked their music.
But... you know what? Call me biased, but there’s something about Europe that sets them apart from all the other bands I saw. The crowd started intensifying 60-90 minutes before Europe came on stage. Fans from every country, all ages, whole families (I stood next to a family of three; a mother and two teenage/just-over-20-kids. Who had come from the Netherlands.
Intensifying was natural, due to them being the headliners, having a 30 year anniversary etc etc.
No, what I meant about Europe having something that sets them apart... It could be the experience. Their 30 years of writing, playing and conveying music. They have a way of drawing the audience in. They’re not actually asking anyone to love them or their music when they’re performing. They concentrate 100% on the music, helped by some breathtaking lights and a well-driven sound. They love their own music, which makes you love them.
It doesn’t hurt that they’re talented. It doesn’t hurt that they have a bag filled to the brim with old and new goodies. And the fact that they can reinvent themselves and their songs.
Take “Prisoners in Paradise” for instance. They played it on the festival, for the first time ever with John Norum participating on guitar. This is however NOT the first time they have played it live after the break. The first time happened to be in my home country in 2008.I had got my camera out, and was ready to film what I thought was Carrie. But no. Joey on acoustic guitar and Mic on keyboards played a beautiful version of PIP. They kept playing it in a few concerts after that. At SRF is was back in a new form: “It’s been a long time since we did this one, so forgive us if we fuck it up, okay?” Well, they really REALLY didn’t. It was perfect. I loved it. I don’t normally listen to this song too much at home, but Europe can make you love every song they play live.
Another one of my favorite songs from this gig was “In the future to come”, one of the songs from the night they won Rock SM, a record deal, and a future as a band. It was really nice to hear live. Seven Doors Hotel came back, too! I love how Ian has done different drum patterns live on this song, very noticeable in the solo.
Paradize Bay, however, was a REAL big surprise for me. I don’t listen to that one too much at home, but having seen their live DVD’s from the 80s, I recognize the song. I had a moment of panic at the beginning when I thought “darn, I don’t know the words to this song”, but then I found out I did know quite a few! It still rocked live.
I love being front row in a concert with lots of fans. Instead of the standard fistpumping to the beat, we even get the “breaks” in the songs punched in the air. For instance right before the calmer sequence on The Beast. Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Goes bass and guitar, and then the drums take over.. “Way down here, I never wanna come down...there’s no fear”... You see what I mean? The fans not only know the song, they breathe the songs, they think the songs.
Speaking of “The Beast”. Joey doing an acapella balkan-like intro to that song just gave me the biggest goose-bumps of the evening. This was after they were halfway, too. His voice just got better and better and better as the show went on.
But Joey is not alone in this band... I loved how Joey used the aisle on the stage as a sort of catwalk for first Mic, then John Levén, then Ian, and lastly John Norum. It gave the audience a chance to see the pride in these men’s faces, having made a living out of rock music for 30 years! And the admiration for their fans. It’s not just empty words, Europe really LOVES their fans. The heartfelt gratitude shone through, although the words in themselves sounded pretty rehearsed. The band still radiated sincerety :)
They played No stone unturned, too... I LOVE No stone unturned. When the intro began I had a hard time singing along due to the swelling in my throat. Of tears. I don’t know why the song gets me like that, it’s not a sad song. It’s just so brilliantly made and played. Mic’s keyboard solo was somewhat free’er, with hints of ‘Girl from Lebanon’-notes just at the beginning. And his intermezzo was just.... in lack of a better word: epic!
There are so many things I could keep telling you about the music they played, for instance Wings of tomorrow being played, which is a personally favorite of mine, when played live. The guitar solo i simple, yet elegant! It gets me going every time!
But most of all I wanna write about the fans. How we stick together although there’s not a forum anymore. How I met Daantje for the FIRST time, and not only was her face familiar to me like a friend I see everyday, but the way she moved, the way she smiled, it was like I had met her countless times before. The hug we shared was so warm and long! I asked if anyone in the dutch party had some sun lotion I could borrow, and Anke came up with a bottle of SPF 30. So 3 minutes after having met Daantje, she was rubbing sun lotion on my red lobster back. Totally natural, right? :) As natural, maybe, as borrowing a sweater from another dutch fan you didn’t know at all 2 hours previous, but because you’re camping next to each other in front of the stage, you become natural friends.
I have something I like to call the Social Butterfly Syndrome. When surrounded by sooo many people I don’t often see, I bounce from one of them to the other, and then to another, and back to the first, and then ‘Hey, I like your tattoo, do I know you?’, or ‘Ooooh, I really like your OOTW t-shirt, where can I get one?’ , suddenly I have made a couple of new Facebook friends. It’s fun, but it’s kind of tiresome. Never being calm and having a lengthy conversation with ONE, just being all over the place beaming at all the lovely people. I wish I had had lots more days to get to know the people I met. You are all special, and it was great to share this experience with you.
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