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Pietro 'Roxette In Vienna' (Hungary)  |
Roxette - Room Service Tour - 2 November, 2001 - Vienna, Austria
The Hungarian tour bus started from Budapest at 11:30. After stopping only once,
we arrived in Vienna around 15:30. Since we couldn't find a place where we could
park our coach, we asked the security guys in front of Stadthalle if we could
leave the coach somewhere. Since there was some empty space in the place where
the tour lorries and Roxette's coach were parking, our coach stopped next to one
of the tour trucks.
When we got out of the bus, there were already a couple of fans waiting in front
of the main entrance of the stadium. A few people from the Hungarian group went
to search for a place where... erm, they could pee. When they got back, they
told us that actually there is a "secret" entrance to Stadthalle. We went there,
so we didn't have to wait hours out in the cold - since that entrance was inside
the hall, with heating and stuff. By that time, it was already sort of
unbelievable that we found this entrance. And because we were inside the stadium,
we could hear the soundcheck: Roxette were playing Dangerous, The Centre Of The
Heart, Milk And Toast And Honey and Crush On You to finalise the sound settings.
Those songs already sounded great...
At 18:30 we were allowed to go, so we rushed into Halle D, where the concert was
held. Since our entrance was closer to Halle D (and there were only like 50 fans
at that entrance), we got in first. The stage had a small catwalk, many
Hungarian fans (luckily including me) got to the very first row. My elbows were
on then grids separating the audience and the catwalk.
The supporting act was Alyssa, a girl with some catchy songs - and some better-to-forget
ones. When she finished, a few minutes break followed, which, at that time,
seemed to last forever. Finally, the lights went out and Roxette started to
play...
Crush On You - Simply the perfect song for opening the concert. It
sounded so powerful, with more guitars than on the album. At the background
there was a huge screen (some say it was the biggest screen on the tour so far)
that covered almost the whole wall of the stadium. During Crush On You, flashing
words from the lyrics of the song appeared on the screen. Marie sang the refrain
a little bit different, but a lot better than on the album.
Dressed For Success - Starting with the powerful "yea yea yea", Marie did
a great job performing the song. Although they messed the lyrics up a bit (they
both said "Look Sharp!" at the wrong time... but they were sweet. Marie, at the
end of the song, banged down the black leather coat she was wearing during the
first two songs. Then, Roxette greeted the audience.
Listen To Your Heart - Marie sang a few lines in a different way then on
the album. Again, she was so great.
Waiting For The Rain - Another song, which sounds a lot better performed
live.
Real Sugar - One of the best moments of the show. Earlier Per said that
this song couldn't be performed live 'cause it's a typical album track. The song
hasn't been on the setlist for a long time. Fortunately he changed his mind and
made an excellent performance of Real Sugar. Meanwhile on the screen Ray, the
guitarist puppet from the video appeared and was making stupid faces all through
the song. He was so funny!
It Must Have Been Love - The Hungarian group brought a bunch of flowers,
red roses, to Marie. When she was singing IMHBL ipn the catwalk, the girl next
to me handed the flowers to Marie. Marie was very nice, when she took the
flowers, she realised that I wanted to make a photo. She was waiting for me to
set up my camera! When I made the picture, she said a thank you for the flower.
She seemed to be very happy.
The Centre Of The Heart - THE song that's completely different when
played live. Lot of guitars, very powerful performance. On the screen they were
showing some scenes that didn't make it to the video for this song...
Stars - Uh, maybe this is THE song that's completely different when
played live. Synthesizers, guitars, drums...everything. What a power song!
You Don't Understand Me - The only song when Per wasn't playing the
guitar but on synthesizer. Marie was on the catwalk during the whole song. On
the screen there were the animal puppets from Per Gessle's I Want You To Know
video. Actually they looked very stupid...
Fading Like A Flower - Acoustic performance, the band left the stage,
Marie and Per came out to the end of the catwalk and sang the song together with
only one acoustic guitar. They continued with
Spending My Time - Performed in the same way as FLAF.
Dangerous - They started playing the song in the dark and suddenly the
all the flash lights were turned on. This wasn't a good joke for my eyes since I
couldn't see a thing for a while and then my eyes started tearing. But it got
better by the end of the song.
Sleeping In My Car - It ROCKED! Marie changed a refrain a bit, she sang "staying
in the backseat of my car making love to you" and then, looked at the audience
and started to point at people saying "and to you", "and to you", etc. I almost
fainted when she looked at me and said: "and to you".
Milk And Toast And Honey - Beautiful.
Wish I Could Fly - Was different from the album version, more like a
blues song. I like it very much.
-Band presentation- They introduced the band. When a musician was
introduced, a picture of him was shown on the screen - as he was arrested and
photoed by the police (with a criminal record number). Jonas Isacsson had the
funniest picture.
The Big L - Sounded so great!
Joyride - During the song, 5 HUGE balloons were let into the audience.
People where playing with them like little kids :-) A couple times the balloons
got up to the catwalk - but Marie kicked them back to the audience. She could
make a perfect football player...
Little Girl - The band left the stage, all lights were turned off. Marie
entered, lit a small lamp and sang Little Girl while playing on the piano on one
side of the stage. When she finished, she turned off the light. Per, on the
other end of the stage lit his own small lamp and started playing
Crash! Boom! Bang! - Soon, the band also came in and joined the song,
which they didn't finish the way they do on the album but started playing
Anyone - Beautiful.
Hotblooed - The most powerful moments of the show. It really really
rocked, Marie was like woooaaaa.
The Look - Also sounded great and fresh. During the song, billions of little
pieces of paper were blown to the audience - imitating snow. What a feeling!
Marie was walking around the catwalk and greeted the fans in the first row by
shaking hands with them. She shook hands with me!!! (Her hands are sooo smooth!)
Queen Of Rain - The goodbye song. After the song, Roxette said goodbye
and emphasized that love was the most important thing in life. They left the
stage and they wrote a line on the screen: "Do what you want but harm no one".
They left this sentence on the screen. The audience was very grateful and went
mad when they came back to perform a bonus song,
Church Of Your Heart - Marie and Per, together with the band, were
standing in one line in the front of the stage, singing this song. A fantastic
ending to the show.
That night Marie really stole the show. She was fantastic. In many interviews
she said that eye-to-eye contacts with the fans were very important to her. This
is true, she was looking at the audience all the time - she was looking at me
many times! The Hungarian fans took a flag with the words "Hello you fool,
Hungary loves you" (in Swedish). They both read it (Per read it even twice, he
looked very funny standing at the end of the catwalk, playing the guitars and
trying to read what's written on that Hungarian flag) and smiled.
When the show was over we started going home and we arrived in Budapest at 3:00
AM. It was a fantastic night...
Pietro |
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