Heading to Västerås
I come from Finland so I had to take the ferry to Stockholm first, and then find my way to Västerås. So I took a friend of mine with me and we took night ship from Helsinki. We had some drinks at the ship, but since I knew it was before long night I decided to keep low profile and went to sleep pretty early. So in Stockholm we had a record store tour, and then my train actually left to Västerås. Since the weather was very nice I decided to walk to hotel, where I would meet the others. Map could have been good idea, because I took pretty long round around Västerås city ring before I found right street. I took some kebab with me and had nice stroll around the town.
Meeting the Fans
When I arrived at the hotel and stepped in, the first thing I saw was Krappis and two other fans (sorry everyone I'm terrible with names). Next thing I remember is Krapplund hugging me and welcoming me. At least wearing AV-shirt was a good choise, since right people picked me up from wandering around
. Then there were still couple of hours time to have some beers and talk with other people. I think we had some very interesting chat with some of you guys, and I've never felt myself so welcome along people I've never met before. After couple beers (worries about the beer supplys in Västerås were right, the hotel ran out of Heineken) and a group picture we headed up to Bombardier Arena and the show were about to begin.
Warm Up
There were some sort of floorball championships going on Bombardier Arena, so they didn't sell any beer there. A little shame, but I think we managed very well. First it seemed that there wasn't going to be many people at the concert, but when Alphaville started all seats were taken, and lot of people at the floor. West End Girls made great warm up playig relatively old songs from Pet Shop Boys. In my opinion Domino Dancing was especially good. They played maybe about 30 minutes, and then there were short pause before Alphaville jumped to the stage!
Alphaville at The Bombardier Arena Västerås 24.4.2009
Lights out, Mattes Leon sits behind his drums, David Goodes takes his guitar, Martin Lister steps behind keyboards. Short intro and Marian Gold arrives. After intro there were Gallery, and then started real rocking with one of my personal favoruites Dance With Me. DWM was followed by good ol' Monkey in the moon, wich was very good, but didn't have any surprises really. A Victory Of Love was very good version in my opinion. There was great feeling among audience while AVOL playing. Wishful Thinking was little bit improvised and very good version this time. Combo of fast songs was ended by Sounds Like A Melody, which was quite long and hard version, and had some great guitars. It was time to have a little break before ending of the concert, so they played Around The Universe, great version of Jerusalem and maybe the biggest and one of the best surprises of the whole concert Summer In Berlin, which was very nice to hear live. Then came other two very much waited songs, Carry Your Flag and Die For You Today. Carry Your Flag was also very good version, and sounded like Marian had lots of feelings in that one. It was also very good to hear Die For You Today, since it is very good song, especially fits for live performances. At this point it was time to start rock on last time, and Alphaville really did. It was time for Big In Japan. I think it was about this point when I about lost my voice for while. Golden Feeling, which was played after Big In Japan didn't announce anything new, but was as good as it usually is. Personally I liked The Jet Set, which was the next song. Version played this time was also quite good. Then it was moment almost everybody had waited. Time for Forever Young. Version played this time was pretty usual stuff, but Forever Young is never bad. First encore was very interesting, since it included new song that created lots of talk among fans. Question Of Happiness was indeed nice surprise for everyone. Time to end up the show and play Apollo. Personally this was maybe the best moment of the concert, since Marian came to stage wearing a cap with couple horns and text ”Latvija”. When he left the stage he didn't have the cap anymore. Some of you know already where the cap is now, and for those of you who don't I can tell you that it is right here next to me on my table
. The concert wasn't at the end yet. Second encore included as usual Dance With Me unplugged. Version was very improvised and quite long too. Maybe not the best version ever, but it showed very well that Marian was really keen on doing his thing. Indeed very good concert in my opinion. Those of you who have seen more concert may have seen some better ones, I don't know, but for me this one was one of the greatest moments of my life!
Afterparty
After the great gig we went to the bus and drove to city center, where we were going to have afterparty at a club called Pluto. There were supposed to be played music from 60's, 70's and 80's but it didn't really sound like it. I decided to join couple other fans and go have something to eat. We found good ol' McDonalds and walked back to hotel after food. Back at the hotel we had some beer and then it was time to go to sleep, since they closed the bar of the hotel.
Morning Time
Morning came and it was time to head back to Stockholm. It was very nice anyway to say goodbay to all of you who were there in the morning. Everybody were very nice, and were very worried about if my cap was still with me. I really hope we'll meet again in some concert!
Set-List:
Part 1
01 - Intro
02 - Gallery
03 - Dance With Me
04 - Monkey In The Moon
05 - A Victory Of Love
06 - Wishful Thinking
07 - Sounds Like A Melody
08 - Around The Universe
09 - Jerusalem
10 - Summer In Berlin
11 - Carry Your Flag
12 - Die For You Today
13 - Big In Japan
14 - Golden Feeling
15 - The Jet Set
16 - Forever Young
Part 2
17 - Questions Of Happiness
18 - Apollo
Part 3
19 - Dance With Me [Unplugged Version]
Photogallery:
http://www.alphaville.org/gallery/browseimages.php?c=67
Tapio Hansson
19 May 2009, 09:13
