November 8 / SWEDEN / Stockholm / Cirkus [SOLD OUT]

I had planned to do part 2 of my review today.... But I wasn't finished (not nearly!).... however, I want to share with you what I've got so far:

The Final Countdown anniversary show - the actual review pt.2
Tone Irene Røssum·Sunday, 4 December 2016

As the last notes of “War of Kings” faded out, so did the lights, and the stage turned dark. Up on the screens a film began, showing 8 album covers, starting with “War of kings”, then going backwards in time. Each depicted album cover had the year of the release sticking to it; “Start from the dark”, it appeared, had been released in 2005, oooops. It continued counting down through Prisoners in Paradise and Out of this world, all the way down to 1986, and the album “The final coutndown”.

Once again the screens were black, before an image appeared of an old computer with a thick layer of dust. On the ‘enter’-key it said “The final countdown”. The screen on the computer came to life, showing green programming script on a black background: “Final Countdown - Processing”. The rumble had already began, and soon we could hear - what appeared to be clearer than ever before - the synthesizer intro that had hurled these five young men from the Stockholm suburbs into world fame over night 30 years ago. I don’t know if it was the acoustics of the theatre, or the thrill of the moment, but when the prerecorded intro went into the actual live playing, I could hear no distinction. No offense to the live tracks back in ‘86 and ‘87, but the sound of the keyboard onstage always sounded distinct from the prerecorded one. Not tonight, though... as I said, it could have been the locale, it could have just been wishful thinking, but to me it was perfection.

Another aspect that fueled my thrill of hearing this song this night was the fact that it was just the beginning, not the end! I have had more than a few times of hearing the intro, then choking up, because it signals the end of another great show. But now it would be followed by 9 more songs! I was still in my home-knitted sweater at this point, but even after all those hours of standing on my feet; the song, the occasion, and the happiness kept me off my feet for the biggest part of the song; jumping up and down whenever Joey urged us to.

At one point Joey stooped down to give out a few handshakes, and my disappointment was great when he took first one hand right next to me, then another one, and then he stood back up. It was like a flashback to my second gig (Rockefeller 2004). But just as he did back then, he came back one more time, to take just one more hand in his, and this happened to be mine. Joey has some really big hands on him, my hand felt so small!

I’ve gotten quite used to being recognised from up on stage over the years. Tonight however, I didn’t feel that happening, not even during the handshake. What I noticed instead was a pack of energy-drugged grown men. I am a saxophonist, and I’ve been performing quite a few times. Initially after playing a concert, if anyone asks me how it went, I can’t answer, because my mind is all fuzzy, due to the extreme concentration it takes to perform something as well as rehearsed. In retrospect, I think this was what I saw in Joey that night. He couldn’t have recognised us in the audience if he had tried; all his focus was on performing the concert as perfectly as he could, all the while being hit with the adrenaline only performing for a sold out theatre packed with dedicated fans can produce. I mean, the band must have been halfway to heaven; they had finished half of their set, getting a massive response, and they still had to hold their focus for several songs to go; a few of which they hadn’t performed live in a very long time!

I was however very happy with my hand-holding-moment. When the song started to draw to a close, I remember thinking “which outtro are they gonna use? Are they gonna use the one they did at the beginning of the shows in 1986, or the one they used on the reprise of the song at the end of the song?” As it turned out, they used neither. It was a quick fade, before starting up “Rock the night”.... (To be continued)

Wow, over an over of writing, and I have just covered one song! I’m gonna finish this note some time in the next few weeks... I haven’t been able to write for over a week because of a broken computer... I choose to publish a partial note now, anyway... because I’m in a sharing mood tonight. I will try to be as thorough with the rest of the songs following