Kent - The Final Tour - Malmö - 11/11/2016

And the winner is ... "Sydney!".

This year I attended a number of large concerts across Europe and I can categorically say the Europeans do not run major events anywhere near as well as Australians. So it doesn't surprise me that when Sydney held the Olympics in 2000 it was announced as the greatest games ever. The anticipation of visiting European cities to attend a major event does not compensate for the fact that the events themselves are often poorly run, held in old stadiums long overdue for upgrades, understaffed and the movement of people inefficient.

Kent - The best lighting I've ever experienced at a concert.

Many times I was drenched in rain getting to and from events, often running around old stadiums unable to find my seat, or anyone who spoke English to help. On top of this there are very few attendants to help you find seats, the stadiums are confusing, areas and zones poorly marked and seating uncomfortable. I'm thinking in English when the stand directions are all abbreviated in the local language. If you do find someone you might be told, "See that big fat guy with glasses, you're over there." Once when leaving a concert I was once forced to go through a hole in a fence to avoid crowds, such was the limited numbers of exits. I then walked 4 kilometers in the rain with thousands of others as there was no PT available. A result of a city decision to halt all traffic around the stadium for an hour after the event meaning no bus could leave or enter the zone - go figure! On other occasions after leaving concerts I was squashed like a sardine on a train I prayed was going in my direction. There were simply no station attendants to direct traffic and questions to. And then there are the queues, everywhere, big and long.

Kent Set List: 2.5 Hours
As I believe Kent are a modern reincarnation of Queen I have transliterated their music into the most similar Queen song so you can get a feel for their grandeur.

	Swedish	English	Queen Equivalent
1.	Gigi	Gigi	Procession/ Now I'm here
2.	999	999	Spread your Wings
3.	Stoppa mig juni (Lilla ego)	Stop me June (Little Ego)	Heaven for Everyone
4.	Romeo återvänder ensam	Romeo returns alone	Hammer to Fall
5.	Var är vi nu?	Where are you now?	The Miracle
6.	Hjärta	Heart	'39
7.	Andromeda	Andromeda	Star fleet (Brian May Solo Single)
8.	Egoist	Egoist	Breakthru
9.	Den döda vinkeln	The Blind Spot	Dead on Time
10.	Vi är för alltid	We are forever	Who wants to live Forever
11.	Innan allting tar slut	Before it all ends	Don't try so Hard
12.	Den vänstra stranden	The left bank	Life is Real (Song for Lennon)
13.	La belle époque	The good times	These are the days of our lives
14.	Ingenting	Nothing	Sheer Heart Attack
15.	Kärleken väntar	Love waits/Love awaits	I was born to love you
16.	Jag ser dig	I see you	You don't fool me
17.	Musik Non Stop	Music non stop	Radio Ga Ga
18.	Utan dina andetag	Without your breath	Love of My Life
19.	Sverige	Sweden	Is this the World We Created ...?
20.	747	747	Brighton Rock
	Encore 1
21.	Förlåtelsen	Forgiveness	Innuendo
22.	Dom andra	The Others	Under Pressure
23.	Mannen i den vita hatten (16 år senare) (*)	The man in the white hat (16 years later)	Bohemian Rhapsody
	Encore 2:
24.	Den sista sången	The Last Song	The Show must go on

Highlights: Musik non Stop, Jag ser dig, Den sista sången, Egoist, Kärleken väntar, Gigi, Innan allting tar slut, Hjärta.
Omissions: Socker, Det Finns Inga Ord, En Timme En Minute, Ismael, Tennsoldater, Vinternoll2, M
* Literal Translation - I would translate this 'We are all going to die' as that is the signature line of the song.

Who are Kent? Well they've been the biggest group in Sweden for over 20 years and earlier this year announced their intentions to retire from music on December 17th, releasing a chilling music video whereby all their album artwork came to life, marching through the streets of Stockholm. Its been the best planned breakup in music history with details of all final releases, singles, album, a best of album, final tour, being released at the same time. I stayed up to 3am one Saturday night in March when tickets were released randomly clicking on Swedish cities I'd never heard of, quickly looking things up in my Swedish dictionary, in the hope of snatching something. In the end I got Malmö, a city I'd actually heard of. 

Musik Non Stop - Song of the night with excellent staging.

Kent loved English music so much they named themselves after a county. Their influences include Joy Division, New Order, the Cure, Depeche Mode and this gives their music a dark chilling edginess when combined with Scandinavian dark and melancholy. Their music is complex, with layered guitar tracks, swirling harmonies and songs that build to a crescendo, in difficult minor keys, they sound very much like Queen. Hailing from working class Sweden, their English was never particularly good, and with half the band originating from Norway they were soon popular in both countries. Their early music is a post grunge, indie/alternative sound with layered guitar tracks and sounds a little like Radiohead. This soon gave way to a more progressive futuristic sound containing elements of Space Rock and resulted in their breakthrough album 'Isola'.  So popular it was in Sweden they were encouraged to make it big in the English speaking world and soon had the album translated into English. They toured extensively, in the US supporting the Cardigans, and also the UK. A follow up album soon came but it was a more traditional rock sound and didn't result in any radio friendly songs for English speakers. It was during this phase that I discovered them, their albums being briefly promoted in JB Hifi. Its still the best $35 I've ever spent on a mystery CD.

The band gave up on the idea of making it big in the English world in uncompromising fashion and their music evolved naturally without the pressure from big multinational American companies. This gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted as Sweden loved them. They soon crafted a radio friendly Swedish sound, releasing Vapen & ammunition, which is their best selling album to date, giving them numerous Swedish hits, selling a million copies in Scandinavia alone. With the confidence of a loyal fan base they went dark, dressing in black, experimenting with Space Rock and Sci Fi themes. Their songs start slowly, teasing you a bit, bringing you down and often finishing with long and loud instrumental sequences. The release of Jag & du döden (Me and you death), the musical highlight of their career and the best album of the 21st century. The follow up Hjärta & Smärta EP added a Swedish choir into the mix which when combined with Space rock gave their music a new dimension.

Utan Dina Andetag - Without your breath. One of the world's
most beautiful love songs. Fire representing a burning love.

Kent are led by the charismatic Joachim Berg (Jocke), lead singer, sole songwriter & guitarist, he constantly changed the musical direction of the band, their sound morphing into electronic rock, putting done an electronic beat and then adding layers of guitars. Once bored with that they moved onto some beautiful electro-pop which led to synth pop and they finished their career with rock/pop and a dash of disco. A modern day Freddie Mercury without purple nail polish, tidily dressed as Swedes must be, he runs around the stage gesticulating the audience to get involved, starting off hand claps, carefully constructing a set-list and spectacle fitting for their music.

I attended the 1st of a triple header weekend in Malmö  which began the final leg of their 3 month tour. The venue was the Globe arena, scene of the 2013 Euro-vision song contest with a capacity of 15000 - 20000 people. Nestled on the edge of the city, it is the first station on the metro line when coming from Copenhagen but I'm glad I stayed in Malmö as security between the 2 countries results in a 20 minute journey taking an hour. 
The band put an alert on the website that the gig was due to start at 7:30pm and that was when they planned to be on stage. No band in the history of music has ever done this but if I figured if there was a first it would be these guys. I rushed down to the stadium, catching the local metro along with everyone else in town. It was a beautiful barmy night of 2 degrees, still, no wind, and everyone was rugged up for a night on the town. Malmö being packed full of tourists for the weekend from all parts of Scandinavia. Apparently they come here for the barmy weather and Skåne accents. I arrived at the stadium and queued, cleared security, found a bathroom (to avoid future queuing), bought some popcorn (they only had onion chips) and a drink without a lid because it is illegal to sell drinks with lids in Sweden. The cashier telling me this is in case I decide to use my bottle as a projectile for that is why they have to remove the lid. I wouldn't have thought to do so until he put the idea into my head.

I wandered through the stadium alone, up some dark stairwells not passing security or attendants and found my seat on the top tier. Far below were these 3 massive screens and in a large font a countdown appeared showing the time until the band took the stage: 21:09. The concert will start at exactly 7:30pm as promised. Eventually the crowd made its way to their seats and at exactly 7:30 the concert began. A pre-recorded track playing the drums and harmonies blasted through the stadium whilst a holographic projection of an alien walked onto stage getting increasingly bigger. Then the band walked on-stage, one by one, the crowd cheering. The harmonies began, Sami Sivrio blasted his Brian May-esque power chords and we were treated to a couple of versus of Gigi before the electric piano breaks in and we move onto the ultra commercial 999 where we are asked to choose between Coke Cola and Micheal Bolton. The Swedes are not known for being animated and instead the band instruct the crowd to clap their hands to a particular beat for each song, usually its clapping above your heads, sometimes down at your waist, and sometimes at shoulder height. A perfect way to get involved when you don't understand the lyrics. 

The first part of the concert wasn't particularly great. Stadium rock is hard to do, the mix was a bit off, in particular the guitar was off. It wasn't grungy enough but was too funky. Maybe it was my position in the arena. However I admire the band for reworking all their songs live to give them all a funky feel. It didn't work for many of the songs in the first half, the guitar driven Romeo återvänder ensam and Den döda vinkeln seemed hollow which was a shame as I love those songs. They played too many songs from their latest albums, and all weaker tracks, many hits but lacking the guitar edginess from their early career. I was at times bored. The stadium's excellent free wi-fi coming in handy.

Vi är för alltid - An average song enhanced by lighting.

With 3 guitarists on stage they were always swapping instruments, changing guitars, acoustic to electric and vice versa, and the large video screen always changing images, big flashing lights forever changing colour. The early highlights included Hjarta (heart), a beautiful acoustic number with some pacey synth's giving effects and horses running around in the background. Egoist, one of their latest singles, is a poppy song with a repetitive chorus which worked really well live, the crowd clapping their hands and singing along, most un Swede like to be animated. Ingenting (Nothing) one of their best songs with a killer guitar riff just wasn't loud enough, the guitar had no kick and I was disappointed. 

The concert picked up after this with Kärleken väntar, one of their most popular songs. A beautiful haunting song, the harmonies worked well live, the guitar not so prominent in the studio version, meaning the shortfalls of the mix were overlooked. There was an App distributed for the concert and the audience was meant to display their phones in the air but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. The crowd singing along, the lights changing for each part of the song made this song work well. This was followed by Jag ser dig, an okay song on the album but a concert favourite and it totally rocked. In English it means I See you and the camera panned the audience displaying random images on the screen behind whilst they sang, I see you, I see you, I see you, with catchy, funky, repetitive guitar progressively getting faster. The crowd got really involved, the song very catchy when played live, the audience clapping their hands and singing, it worked well. 

This led to my highlight of the evening, Music non Stop, funky on the album, they nailed it live, the 3 guitars building up to a crescendo at the end with large faces appearing on the screen behind, it was musical heaven. As there is an English version of this song I felt more connected to the Swedish version. This led to their most famous song in all of Sweden, Utan dina andetag. Every Swede plays this at their wedding, making it the most popular wedding song in the country. I want to marry a Swedish girl just so I can play it. The songs translates as Without your Breath and is a love song about a guy who says all the things he loves about his partner whilst she is sleeping because he can't express his feelings to her when he is awake. So Swedish! He sings the most beautiful things to her, barring that line about transparent grey. However its not your typical love song, it has grungy guitar, is kinda of heavy with layered guitars and was initially a B-Side but the people found it and a concert isn't complete without it. They used to play the song with the sequencing from Det Finns Inga Ord and spent 3 minutes building up a guitar intro but here they went funky, the guitar's not quite working, adding extra harmonies and displaying an image of fire. It was the song I was most looking forward, I spent all afternoon leaning the Swedish lyrics to but didn't quite work for me. The crowd also didn't sing along as much as I expected.

Followed by Sverige (Sweden), the unofficial national anthem of Sweden, a time for the audience to stand and be patriotic. An acoustic number and not being able to sing the effect was lost on me but I've never been a fan of the song. They finished off the set with 747, a song which goes for exactly 7 minutes and 47 seconds. It has a long instrumental on the album and it was a concert closer for 8 years but in this version they added harmonies and instead of outplaying to a long instrumental they sang these over and over and it worked okay, just not what I was expecting. 

The band then left the stage and a thunderstorm scene appeared with thunder and lightning effects. Grandiose and impressive, the beautiful synth from Förlåtelsen played which is arguably their finest 6 minutes of synth-pop. Jocke's voice didn't quite nail the lyrics, the grungy guitars overshadowing the synth's in the mix and the harmonies just not as good as the album. Dom andra is one of their most popular songs, I call it the whistle song because that's what I hear and as such I compare it to Under Pressure with the hand claps and fingers clicking, The crowd loved it but its really just a tease for the best song they have ever done Mannen i den vita hatten. This is where Stairway to Heaven meets Bohemian Rhapsody, at 6.5 minutes it starts slowly with acoustic guitar and builds and builds, steadily getting heavier and louder. The chorus translates as We are all going to die and Swede's play this song at their funerals. The band belted out the tune, the crowd clapping along as fast as they could as the song picks up pace. When they finish the song singing 'We are all going to die', it seems like the end until, they play the last section again, this time even faster, blasting paper rose petals into the audience, the lights going crazy the music is so fast, bordering on heavy metal but Jocke's voice is so smooth it couldn't be. It only went for 10 minutes.

It would be the perfect place to end a concert, and for 10 years it was how they finished until they released a song on their last album called 'The Last Song', which was the last song. The band leaving stage, returning a few minutes later dressed in white to play Den sista sången. Its beautiful on the album and they nailed it live, with the aliens coming down on the big screen behind them, they look on and watch whilst the Swedish choir runs away with the chorus. The crowd standing, swaying from side to side, clapping their hands, knowing this will never happen again. It was the last song they recorded and a perfect way to finish.

Sverige (Sweden) - The unofficial national anthem.

I left feeling satisfied I'd seen them before they split up. Its not the best concert I've seen, maybe if I was Swedish I'd think otherwise. There were many other heavier songs I wish they'd played and the songs I liked best weren't what I was expecting. As I queued at the ticket machine for 30 minutes to make the return journey to my hotel I heard a group of people singing, "La la la la, la la la la, la la la la la" the chorus from Socker, one of my favourites. They were lamenting its exclusion from the set which would have made the concert so much better and was my biggest criticism of the setlist. It was a grandiose affair with the most amazing lights and video screens, on par with Eurovision which probably had a more diverse lighting array. Enjoyable in places but not all the time. The audience similar in age to myself, maybe a little younger for those on the floor.

And so my year of concerts in Europe is complete. It was an experience and I learned a lot about cultural etiquette in other countries. I didn't expect to be hugged and kissed by a strange woman in one concert or to meet my dream girl at another only to lose her on the way out. Rendezvous 101 - always get the girls number. Stadium rock is overrated, its hard to do, sitting outside in the cold and rain is not fun and there is no way to control integrity of the mix throughout the whole venue. It was however thoroughly enjoyable and with so many of my favourite bands nearing the end of their careers and/or past the point of releasing decent material I'm glad I got to say my final farewell.