Note: This is not the typical blog about how
the music sounded, how the band looked or played. What is worth remembering
equally is the feeling. So as I post here my old tour reviews, I try to change
as little as possible from the original.
At the time I wrote this, I was 19 years old.
Oslo, October 19th 2004
I had just started school (which started the same day Europe was in Drammen, my
home town.. I chose to be at the beginning of school) well, where was I? yes..
I had just started school, and was in front of the computer when an old class
mate of mine says "you know Europe is playing at Rockefeller?" I did a bit
of research, and he was right!! So I made a friend of mine come, not a fan,
(well, NOW she is) but a good friend. She looked forward to it. I started to
chat with a Europe fan on the web at the same time, without knowing where he
lived. And he says
"Hey, I see you're from Hamar, maybe we should drive together?" And risky
though it was, driving with a guy we'd never met, we joined him and his
friends in the 2 hour drive to Oslo October 19th.
We arrived several hours before
the concert, to avoid rush traffic. So we went for a pizza. Then we looked in a
few record shops, with no Europe items at all, before we had a few drinks at a
pub nearby the Rockefeller arena. Of course, it was only coke for me that day
as well, music is my drug! I had problems sitting still with the rest, so
I got outside and joined the line outside the entrance. I could see several 80s inspired
people. And the people I talked to really understood that I wasn't there by
coincidence. I met a girl, whose friend had told me was a real fan, and I could
clearly see. Her
hair was...80s!! I thought she was 25! But she was one year younger than me.
Also at this concert I met Stein Vidar, who had come once again all the
way from Båtsfjord, in the Northernmost county in Norway.
My heart almost stopped when they opened the doors, and the guards denied
Stein-Vidar entrance, cause he had no ID on. That had been my nightmare
thoughts all day, that I wouldn't get in. You had to be 18, cause there
was alcohol sales there. Stein Vidar was 21 years old. (born at
August 19, Joey's birthday!) So I tried to argue with the lady who stood guard
at the door, but she was pretty hard on me. We had to pass to let people in, but later, the lady guard came to the
stage to ask me how old he was, and I said 21, and his birth date. She said she
would let him in, but on the condition that he would not touch alcohol. He,
like me, wouldn't need it, I said.
The arena was a little and cozy one, and me and Ingri found our spot right in
front of the stage, a little to the left. That, it occured, was the spot right
in front of John Levèn. But first came the warm up band. They were called
Hellfueled. Nothing very impressing, just long haired, black clothed, playing
and screaming and really making a fuzz out of having long hair, so that they
nodded and had hair in the face on the riffs :/
But you can't have luck all the time, in finding good warm up bands. But after
tree quarters of their hair touching the floor, it was time for....
Rearranging instruments on stage. You know how it is, the crowd getting even
tighter behind you, and your high heels starting to nag your feet. Some of the
best things with this concert was that there was extraordinary little activity
from the wanna-be-fans-with-too-much-beer-consumed trying to come to stage and
jumping up and down and pushing aside every true fan in their attempts to do
so, and smashing fists and stuff into other crowdmembers. We had them this time
too, but only once. And this concert we didn`t get our tummys, heads and other
parts of the body pressed into the fence by the crowd. We kept our place at the
fence the whole concert! The crowd was actually polite and mature.
Well, after an hour of waiting, our men finally hit the stage, and I really
felt.. HOME.. this was my crowd, an extension of me rocking in my room, but
with more intensity, and of course, LIVE Europe. I don't remember the set list,
I just remember I was totally satisfied with everything they did, and when one
hour had passed, I had not thought ONCE "are they gonna play The Final
Countdown?". I had no worries about that matter whatsoever. 5 months
before I would have died if they had not played their major hit, but if
they didn`t this time, I would have been just as happy, I'm sure of it. But
hey, concert review is not finished yet...
They had amazing surprises for us, like Carrie acoustic version, where you
could hear the crowd singing louder than Joey, and lifting the spirit up
to another level. And Joey did this (usual) call and response-thingy with his
audience during Rock the night (I've seen it on videos), and you could hear his
voice was beyond good, it was... oh, heavenly (and that goes for Carrie
acoustic as well)!! They did Got to have faith, Start from the dark, Flames,
Hero and Spirit of the underdog from the new album, and I don't think there was
much difference between their old songs and their new songs. They had a whole
new touch to their old songs, making them just as melodic, but a bit harder and
more rock-like! But I would have
liked everything they did (except rap...)
I should maybe remember during what song this happened, but I don't, and it's a
real pity.. But during one song, Joey bent his upper body to touch the waving
hands of the fans first in line at the fence, and I was really close to being
touched by him. But then he touched Ingri instead. I was so dissapointed,
I had been THAT close to touch my nr.1 Hero. I forgot it pretty quickly, I was
still having my best time ever by being there. It's just
that a touch of his hand would have made the little extra for me.. And so it
did, when, during another song (Carrie? Rock the night? or even TFC?) He had
his hands in the crowd's reach again, and touched my right hand! I was in the seventh heaven. Oh,
I almost forgot, that Levèn smiled at me. Looked me in the eyes and smiled at
me! :D
Something I forgot? Hmm.. well.. After an hour and tree quarters (or nearly so), they did
play The Final Countdown. And
this time, no one touched my boobies, like happened the last time. And...
woow... Orgasmic sensation. They really make people happy...
I thought, during the entire concert: "why isn't my stomach turning and
twisting with joy?" Well, after the concert, it certainly did. I jumped up
and down, I talked to everybody, I gave some money to a streetwalker, I jumped
some more, and was totally happy. This guy comes to me and shows me his
T-shirt, and it's the same one I'm wearing. That would not have been strange,
if it had been a Europe T-shirt. But it wasn't. It was the T-shirt with the
tiger on (look at the Vallset gig). Of course, his shirt shoulders were
intact... And I met the girl with the 80s hair again, she had gotten Joey's
water bottle. I wasn't all that
jealous, I had been touched by him!
Well, I had a coke (probably my 5th that day) and
my last cigarettes (probably nr 30), and went with Ingri and Per Erik and his
fellows back to Hamar, the next day I stopped smoking and drinking coke,
just like that. And I'm still not smoking (except New Year's Eve)!! (this
last sentence is probably added a little while later)
At the time I wrote this, I was 19 years old.
I had just started school (which started the same day Europe was in Drammen, my home town.. I chose to be at the beginning of school) well, where was I? yes.. I had just started school, and was in front of the computer when an old class mate of mine says "you know Europe is playing at Rockefeller?" I did a bit of research, and he was right!! So I made a friend of mine come, not a fan, (well, NOW she is) but a good friend. She looked forward to it. I started to chat with a Europe fan on the web at the same time, without knowing where he lived. And he says "Hey, I see you're from Hamar, maybe we should drive together?" And risky though it was, driving with a guy we'd never met, we joined him and his friends in the 2 hour drive to Oslo October 19th.
We arrived several hours before the concert, to avoid rush traffic. So we went for a pizza. Then we looked in a few record shops, with no Europe items at all, before we had a few drinks at a pub nearby the Rockefeller arena. Of course, it was only coke for me that day as well, music is my drug! I had problems sitting still with the rest, so I got outside and joined the line outside the entrance. I could see several 80s inspired people. And the people I talked to really understood that I wasn't there by coincidence. I met a girl, whose friend had told me was a real fan, and I could clearly see. Her hair was...80s!! I thought she was 25! But she was one year younger than me. Also at this concert I met Stein Vidar, who had come once again all the way from Båtsfjord, in the Northernmost county in Norway.
My heart almost stopped when they opened the doors, and the guards denied Stein-Vidar entrance, cause he had no ID on. That had been my nightmare thoughts all day, that I wouldn't get in. You had to be 18, cause there was alcohol sales there. Stein Vidar was 21 years old. (born at August 19, Joey's birthday!) So I tried to argue with the lady who stood guard at the door, but she was pretty hard on me. We had to pass to let people in, but later, the lady guard came to the stage to ask me how old he was, and I said 21, and his birth date. She said she would let him in, but on the condition that he would not touch alcohol. He, like me, wouldn't need it, I said.
The arena was a little and cozy one, and me and Ingri found our spot right in front of the stage, a little to the left. That, it occured, was the spot right in front of John Levèn. But first came the warm up band. They were called Hellfueled. Nothing very impressing, just long haired, black clothed, playing and screaming and really making a fuzz out of having long hair, so that they nodded and had hair in the face on the riffs :/
But you can't have luck all the time, in finding good warm up bands. But after tree quarters of their hair touching the floor, it was time for....
Rearranging instruments on stage. You know how it is, the crowd getting even tighter behind you, and your high heels starting to nag your feet. Some of the best things with this concert was that there was extraordinary little activity from the wanna-be-fans-with-too-much-beer-consumed trying to come to stage and jumping up and down and pushing aside every true fan in their attempts to do so, and smashing fists and stuff into other crowdmembers. We had them this time too, but only once. And this concert we didn`t get our tummys, heads and other parts of the body pressed into the fence by the crowd. We kept our place at the fence the whole concert! The crowd was actually polite and mature.
Well, after an hour of waiting, our men finally hit the stage, and I really felt.. HOME.. this was my crowd, an extension of me rocking in my room, but with more intensity, and of course, LIVE Europe. I don't remember the set list, I just remember I was totally satisfied with everything they did, and when one hour had passed, I had not thought ONCE "are they gonna play The Final Countdown?". I had no worries about that matter whatsoever. 5 months before I would have died if they had not played their major hit, but if they didn`t this time, I would have been just as happy, I'm sure of it. But hey, concert review is not finished yet...
They had amazing surprises for us, like Carrie acoustic version, where you could hear the crowd singing louder than Joey, and lifting the spirit up to another level. And Joey did this (usual) call and response-thingy with his audience during Rock the night (I've seen it on videos), and you could hear his voice was beyond good, it was... oh, heavenly (and that goes for Carrie acoustic as well)!! They did Got to have faith, Start from the dark, Flames, Hero and Spirit of the underdog from the new album, and I don't think there was much difference between their old songs and their new songs. They had a whole new touch to their old songs, making them just as melodic, but a bit harder and more rock-like! But I would have liked everything they did (except rap...)
I should maybe remember during what song this happened, but I don't, and it's a real pity.. But during one song, Joey bent his upper body to touch the waving hands of the fans first in line at the fence, and I was really close to being touched by him. But then he touched Ingri instead. I was so dissapointed, I had been THAT close to touch my nr.1 Hero. I forgot it pretty quickly, I was still having my best time ever by being there. It's just that a touch of his hand would have made the little extra for me.. And so it did, when, during another song (Carrie? Rock the night? or even TFC?) He had his hands in the crowd's reach again, and touched my right hand! I was in the seventh heaven. Oh, I almost forgot, that Levèn smiled at me. Looked me in the eyes and smiled at me! :D
Something I forgot? Hmm.. well.. After an hour and tree quarters (or nearly so), they did play The Final Countdown. And this time, no one touched my boobies, like happened the last time. And... woow... Orgasmic sensation. They really make people happy...
I thought, during the entire concert: "why isn't my stomach turning and twisting with joy?" Well, after the concert, it certainly did. I jumped up and down, I talked to everybody, I gave some money to a streetwalker, I jumped some more, and was totally happy. This guy comes to me and shows me his T-shirt, and it's the same one I'm wearing. That would not have been strange, if it had been a Europe T-shirt. But it wasn't. It was the T-shirt with the tiger on (look at the Vallset gig). Of course, his shirt shoulders were intact... And I met the girl with the 80s hair again, she had gotten Joey's water bottle. I wasn't all that jealous, I had been touched by him!
Well, I had a coke (probably my 5th that day) and my last cigarettes (probably nr 30), and went with Ingri and Per Erik and his fellows back to Hamar, the next day I stopped smoking and drinking coke, just like that. And I'm still not smoking (except New Year's Eve)!! (this last sentence is probably added a little while later)
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